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IE     HANDBOOK     SERIES 


RUSSIA 

HISTORY,  DESCRIPTION  AND  POLITICS 


THE  HANDBOOK  SERIES 


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Americanization,  $1.50 
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European  War.    Vol.  H 
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THE     HANDBOOK     SERIES 


SELECTED  ARTICLES  ON 

RUSSIA 

HISTORY,  DESCRIPTION  AND  POLITICS 


Compiled  bg 
C.  E.  FANNING 


THE  H.  W.  WILSON  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  CITY 

1918 


r3 


Published  April,  1918 


EXPLANATORY  NOTE  • 

With  Russian  affairs  daily  furnishing  startling  headlines  in 
our  newspapers,  the  American  public  is  searching  for  the  ex- 
planation back  of  contemporary  events.  Our  magazines  have 
furnished  much  illuminating  material.  Often  these  periodical 
articles  represent  the  best  thought  of  specialists  in  Russian 
subjects,  presented  in  the  popular  style  the  general  reader  is 
supposed  to  demand;  sometimes  they  are  the  hurried  notes 
of  a  journalist  who  opens  a  new  vein  of  information;  again 
they  may  be  the  impressionistic  musings  of  one  who  takes  time 
to  observe  the  by-ways  and  by-products  of  a  national  life.  As 
brought  together  for  consecutive  reading  they  result  in  a  com- 
posite view  of  Russia  which  is  as  true  as  any  one  writer's  view. 

To  understand  the  revolution  of  191 7  the  American  needs 
the  story  of  Russia's  growth  from  the  days  of  Rurik,  a  de- 
scription of  the  empire,  its  political  and  social  institutions,  an 
analysis  of  the  muzhik's  habits  of  thought  and  his  religious 
faith,  as  well  as  a  study  of  the  nation's  part  in  this  tremendous 
conflict.  As  the  articles  now  reprinted  bring  out,  each  of  these 
has  a  bearing  on  the  amazing  upheaval  of  last  March. 

This  volume  was  compiled  in  the  summer  of  1917  but  pub- 
lication date  was  unavoidably  postponed  to  the  spring  of  1918. 
It  has  been  found  impracticable  to  omit  or  to  alter  the  arrange- 
ment of  any  of  the  material  originally  selected  for  reprinting, 
but  to  bring  the  volume  down  to  date  Miss  Edith  M.  Phelps 
has  added  a  few  recent  articles  to  the  reprints  and  has  revised 
the  bibliography.  The  new  articles  are  grouped  at  the  end  of 
the  section  dealing  with  the  Revolution. 

Because  there  have  been  so  many  good  books  and  period- 
ical articles  in  the  past  ten  years,  few  earlier  references  have 
been  included  in  the  Bibliography. 

It  is  hoped  that  the  directions  for  pronouncing  Russian 
names,  the  glossary  of  Russian  words  and  the  chronology  of 
important  events  will  prove  useful  to  all  readers. 

C.  E.  Fanning. 
April  I,  1918. 


^8r?n;4'i 


CONTENTS 

Bibliography    xi 

Introduction 

Wright,   Richardson.     The   Empire  of   Enigmas 

Catholic   World        I 

JIlSTORY 

Ogg,  F.  A.    Russia:    The  Vast  Empire  of  the  Czars 

Munsey       9 

Hart,  A.  B.     The  Romanoffs Outlook      32 

Mavor,  John.     Russia's  Part  in  European  History 41 

Johnston,  Charles.     The  New  Russia.  .Review  of  Reviews      43 

Morgan,  Gerald.     The  New  Russia 

North    American    Review      44 


J 


HE  Russian  Empire 


Welliver,  J.   C.     Poland's   Story Century  47 

m 

Showalter,  W.  J.     Partitioned  Poland 

.^National  Geographic  Magazine  63 

The  Economic  Bases  for  an  Autonomous  Poland 

.' Review  of  Reviews  68 

Staley,  J.  E.    Finland  and  the  Finns ...  Canadian  Magazine  71 

Greely,  A.  W.     The  Land  of  Promise 76 

National  Geographic  Magazine  76 

The  Real  Siberia Literary  Digest  92 

Lethbridge,  Marjorie  and  Alan.    Siberia  in  War  Time 94 

Foster,  P.  P.    New  Ports  and  Railways  in  Russia 

Review  of  Reviews  97 


^i 


0 


viii  CONTENTS 

Reynolds,  E.  K.    Economic  Resources  of  the  Russian  Em- 
pire  Geographic    Review    (9Q>)f 

Political  and  Social  Problems 

Winter,  N.  O.     Autocracy  and  Bureaucracy  in  Russia . . .    ^^       y 
North  American  Review   uoq)    r 

Child,   R.   W.     Inside   Russia Collier's  @>    V 

Russian  Municipal  Enterprises American  City    120 

Lebedeff,  Boris.     Abolition  of  the  Russian  Mir /->. 

Contemporary  Review  (120) 

Wright,    Richardson.    Mostly    Mujik — A    Glimpse    of  the 

Russian  Artel  and  Kustarnui Catholic  World     131 

Wright,  Richardson.    The  Russian  as  a  Business  Man 

Travel     139 

Child,  R.  W.     The  Better  Half  of  Russia Century    148 

New  Freedom  for  the  Russian  Woman 

Reviews  of  Reviews  /'^6;j' 


(.^j^  Elementary  Education  in  Russia Review  of  Reviews  /'^4/ 

Christmas  in  Russia  and  Her  Provinces Travel     166 

Two  Year's  Sobriety  in  Russia Literary  Digest     168 

w 

Religion 

Simpson,  J.  Y.     Religion  in  Russia  To-day 

..Hibbert  Journal     171 

Begbie,  Harold.     Holy  Russia Atlantic  Monthly     184 

Jhe  Jews 

Rosenthal,  Herman.     The  Martyrdom  of  the  Russian  Jew 

Outlook    185 

Sliozberg,  Henry.     Situation  of  the  Jews  in  Russia 

...Current  History  Magazine  of  the  New  York  Times    201 

The  Russian  Revolution  and  Jewish  Immigration ........ 

World's     Work    209 


^ 


CONTENTS  ix 

Russia  in  the  European  War 

Washburn,  Stanley.    Russia's  Contribution  to  the  War 

Review  of  Reviews    211 

Graham,  Stephen.     The  Russians  and  the  War * 

Atlantic  Monthly    21& 

U^Kropotkin,   Sasha.     Russians  of  Today Outlook    228 

Yarmolinsky,  Abraham.     Russia  in  Arms:   Social  Aspects   .     ♦ 
Bookman    233 

Child,  R.  W.    The  Homeless  Hordes  of  Russia. .  .Collier's    241 

Russia  a  Nation  United  by  War Century    244 

The  Revolution  of  191 7 

The  Russian  Revolution Spectator    253    y 

The  Russian  Revolution :    The  History  of  Four  Days 

Outlook    254' 

Kennan,  George.    The  Victory  of  the  Russian  People 

Outlook    259 

Levine,  I.  D.     Russia  in  the  Throes  of  Re-Birth • 

Review    of    Reviews    264 

The  Passing  of  Old  Russia Independent    272 

Harper,  S.  N.    Zemstvo  Russia Independent    273 

Russia  and  the  Need  for  a  Supreme  Authority 

Saturday  Review    276 

Harper,  S.  N.     The  Rise  of  Russian  Democracy 

World's   Work    279 

Sack,  A.  J.     Factors  in  the  Russian  Revolution 

. . .  Current  History  Magazine  of  the  New  York  Times 

Sack,  A.  J.    Russia's  Future:   The  Basis  of  Hope  for  Her 

Permanent  Democratic  Development Outlook    300 

Goldenweiser,  Nicholas.     "Bolshevism"  as  a  World  Prob- 
lem   Review  of  Reviews    304 

Olgin,   Moissaye   J.     Mass   Rule   in   Russia Asia    309 

Birth  of  the  Ukrainian   Republic Literary   Digest    324 


0\/ 


X  CONTENTS 

Ukraine  Throws  Off  the  Shackles  of  Serfdom  After  263 

Years Literary  Digest  328 

Lenine,  Nicholas.     Political  Parties  in  Russia 333 

Literature,  Art  and  Music 

m 

Magnus,  Leonard.     Russian  Lyrical  Poetry Living  Age  343 

Modern  Russian  Fiction Living  Age  352 

Newmarch,  Rosa.    Some  Notes  on  Modern  Russian  Art. . . 

International   Studio  356 

Rienzi,  Alexis.    Music  in  Russia Russian  Review  360 

Appendix  L        Directions  for  Pronouncing  Russian  Names  371 

Appendix  IL      Glossary   ; 373 

Appendix  IIL     Chronology  of  Russian  History 375 

Appendix  IV.    Russian  Calendar Minneapolis  Tribune  381 

Index    383 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

An  asterisk  (*)  preceding  a  reference  indicates  that  the  entire  article 
or  a  part  of  it  has  been  reprinted  in  this  volume.  Many  of  the  maga- 
zine articles  listed  here,  as  well  as  similar  material  that  may  be  pub- 
lished after  this  volume  is  issued,  may  be  secured  at  reasonable  rates 
from  the  Wilson  Package  Library,  operated  by  The  H.  W.  Wilson  Com- 
pany. 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES 

Baedeker,  Karl.     Russia,     p.  Ixii-lxiv.  *$5.40.  Scribner.  1914. 

Encyclopedia  Britannica.     Vol.  23.  p.  911-12. 

Goodrich,  J.  K.     Russia  in  Europe  and  Asia.  p.  285-92.  *$i.50. 

McClurg.  1912. 
Russia  and  the  Russian  people,  p.  126-8.  *50c.  Sully  and  Klein- 

teich.  1914, 
Skrine,  F.  H.     Expansion  of  Russia,  p.  349-58.  *$i.5o  Putnam. 

1915. 
Wiener,  Leo.     Interpretation  of   the  Russian  people,  p.  239-48. 

♦$1.25.   McBride.   1915. 
Winter,  N.  O.     Russian  empire  of  to-day  and  yesterday,  p.  477- 

80.  *$3.  Page.  1913. 

BOOKS  AND  MAGAZINE  ARTICLES 
History 

Alexinsky,  Gregor.     Russia  and  Europe.  *$4.50  Scribner.  191 7. 
Shows   how    Russia   has   been    Europeanized. 

Cambridge  modern  history,  per  vol.  *$4  Macmillan.   1902-1911. 

Curtin,  Jeremiah.    Mongols  in  Russia.  *$3.  Little.  1908. 

Howe,  S.  E.     Some  Russian  heroes,  saints  and  sinners:  legend- 
ary and  historical.  *$2.56.  Lippincott.  191 7. 

Howe,  S.  E.    Thousand  years  of  Russian  history.  *$2.50  Lippin- 
cott. 1916. 
"There    are    few   better   books    for    the    general    reader    who   wishes    to 

become    acquainted    with    the    salient    facts    of    Russian    history." — Russian 

Review. 

Kluchevsky,  V.  O.     History  of  Russia.  3v.  ea.  *$2.5o.  Button. 
1911-1913. 


xii  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Kornilov,   Aleksander.     Modern    Russian   history.   *$5.    Knopf. 

1917. 

From   the   age   of   Catherine   the    Great  to   the   present. 
McCabe,  Joseph.     Romance  of  the  Romanoffs.  *$2.  Dodd.  1917. 
*Mavor,  James.    Economic  history  of  Russia.  *$io.  Button.  1914. 

See  pp.   41-3   of  this  volume. 

Morfill,  W.  R.    History  of  Russia :  from  the  birth  of  Peter  the 

Great  to  Nicholas  II.  o.  p.  Pott.  1902. 
Morfill,  W.  R.     Russia.     *$i.50.  Putnam.  1907. 
Rambaud,   Alfred.     History  of   Russia    [to    1882].     *$6.   Page. 

1916. 
Skrine,  F.  H.    Expansion  of  Russia.    *$i.5o.  Putnam.  1915. 
*Munsey.    54:641-80.  My.  '15.     Russia:  the  vast  empire  of  the 

czars.    F.  A.  Ogg. 

See  pp.  9-31   of  this  volume. 
Munsey.  61  :i5-2i.  Je.  '17.  Rise  and  fall  of  the  house  of   Ro- 
manoff.    R.  H.  Titherington. 
♦Outlook.     108:456-60.  O.  28,  '14.     Historical  roots  of  the  war; 

the  Romanoffs.    A.  B.  Hart. 

See   pp.    32-41   of  this  volume. 

The  Russian  Empire 
Alexinsky,  Gregor.     Modern  Russia.     *$i.50.  Scribner.  1915. 

Attempts    to    distinguish    life    from    the   life    of    Europe    and    "to    be    a 
small   encyclopedia   of    Russian   life   in   all   its   manifestations." 

Baedeker,   Karl.     Russia.  *$5.40.   Scribner.   1914. 

Baring,  Maurice.     Mainsprings  of  Russia.    $1.  Nelson.  1914. 

Baring,  Maurice.     Russian  people.    *$3.50.  Doran.  191 1. 

Tries   to   supply   the  reader   with   a   rough   idea   of   those  things   which, 
it   is   generally   assumed,   the   student   will   have    found   out   for   himself. 

Dobson,  George,  and  others.     Russia.     *$6.  Macmillan.  1913. 
Fanning,  C.  E.    Russia :  history  and  travel :  a  study  outline,  with 

bibliography.     *25c.  Wilson,   H.   W.   191 7. 
Gerrare,  Wirt.     Story  of  Moscow.  *$i.5o.  Macmillan.   1900. 
Graham,  Stephen.     Changing  Russia.  *$2.50.  Lane.  1913. 
Graham,  Stephen.    Through  Russian  central  Asia.  *$2.25.  Mac- 
millan. 1916. 

"Probably  the  best  book  that  Mr.   Graham  has   ever   written   on   Rus- 
sia."— Russian  Review. 

Graham,  Stephen.     Undiscovered  Russia.    *$4.  Lane.  1914. 

"Written  with  an  eye  to  the  ways   and  thoughts  of  the  Intelligentia." 
A  journal  of  a  tramp  in  southern   Russia  and  in  the  Urals. 

Hubback,  John.    Russian  realities.    *$i.50.  Lane.  1915. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  xiii 

JarintzoflF,  Nadine.    Russia,  the  country  of  extremes.    *$4.  Holt. 
1914. 

Leroy-Beaulieu,  Anatole.    Empire  of  the  tsars  and  the  Russians. 
3v.  ea.  $3.  Putnam.  1893-1898. 

Lethbridge,  Alan.    New  Russia.    *$5.  Button.  1915. 
Describes   northern   Russia. 

♦Lethbridge,  Marjorie,  and  Lethbridge,  Alan.     Soul  of  the  Rus- 
sian.   ♦$1.25.  Lane.  1916. 
Comment   on   places,   customs,   or   people   in    Russia   and   Siberia.      See 

PP-    94-7    of   this    volume. 

Mackail,  J.  W.    Russia's  gift  to  the  world,    pa.  25c.  Doran.  191 5. 

Brief   mention    of    Russians   prominent   in    literature,   music,    art,    drama, 
science,   history,    philosophy   and   sociology. 

Meakin,  A.  M.  B.    Russia :  travels  and  studies,    o.  p.  Lippincott. 

1906. 
Noble,  Edmund.     Russia  and  the  Russians.     *$i.50.  Houghton. 

1900. 
Norman,  Henry.    All  the  Russias.    $4.  Scribner.  1902. 

Travels   in   European   Russia,   Finland,   Siberia,   the   Caucasus   and   cen- 
tral   Asia. 

Russia  and  the  Russian  people.    *50c.  Sully  and  Kleinteich.  1914. 

Brief    summaries    on    many    topics. 

Russian  year-book,  1916.  ids.  6d.  Eyre  and  Spottiswoode,  Ltd., 

London. 

Contains   many   statistics   and   convenient   summaries. 
Sarolea,  Charles.     Great  Russia:  her  achievement  and  promise. 

♦$1.25.  Knopf.  1916. 
Singleton,  Esther,  ed.    Russia  as  seen  and  described  by  famous 

writers.  *$i.6o.  Dodd.  1904. 
Stephens,   Winifred,   ed.     Soul   of   Russia.     *$3.50.   Macmillan. 

1916. 

Many   short   articles   by   different   authors. 
Steveni,  W.  B.    Petrograd.    *$3.  Lippincott.  1916. 
Steveni,  W.  B.    Things  seen  in  Russia.    *75c.  Button.  1913. 

Slight   descriptive  sketch. 
U.  S.  Bept.  of  Commerce.  (Spec.  Cons.  Report  No.  61.)     Russia: 

a  handbook  on  commercial  and  industrial  conditions  by  J.  H. 

Snodgrass.  1913. 
Wallace,  B.  M.     Russia.     $5.  Holt.  1905. 

"It  is  regarded  by  many  Russians  as  the  best  work   about   their  coun- 
try   ever    written    by    a    foreigner." — Review    of    Reviews. 

Wiener,  Leo.    Interpretation  of  the  Russian  people.    *$i.25.  Mc' 
Bride.  1915. 


xiv  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Williams,    H.   W.     Russia  of  the   Russians.     *$i.So.    Scribner. 
1914. 

"Of   the   pre-war   books    none    is    more    illuminating   than    this." — Spec- 
tator. 

Winter,  N.  O.     Russian  empire  of  to-day  and  yesterday.     *$3. 
Page.  1913. 

The    most    comprehensive    of    recent    books    on    Russia. 
Wood,  R.  K.     Honeymooning  in  Russia.    *$2.  Dodd,  191 1. 
Wood,  R.  K.     Tourist's  Russia.     *$i.25.  Dodd.  1912, 

It  touches  only  on  the  more  important  things  which  the  tourist  would 
wish    to    see. 

Wright,  Richardson.     The  Russians:  an  interpretation.     *$i.50. 

Stokes.  191 7. 

Very  readable  chapters  reprinted  in  part  from  magazines. 
Bay  View  Magazine.     12:1-368.  O.  '04-Mr.  '05.     Russia. 
^Catholic  World.    loi  :200-7.  My.  '15.    Empire  of  enigmas.   Rich- 
ardson Wright. 

See   pp.    1-8   of   this   volume. 
Fortnightly  Review.     loi  :793-8o3.  My.  '14.    Moscow  art  theatre. 

Jean  d'Auvergne. 
Geographical  Review.     1:128-32.  F.  '16.    War-time  outlets  to  the 

sea. 
*Geographical  Review,     i  :249-65.  Ap.  '16.     Economic  resources 

of  the  Russian  empire.     E.  K.  Reynolds.    (Same.    Scientific 

American  Supplement.     84:2-3.  Jl.  7,  '17.) 

See   pp.    99-107   of  this   volume. 
Harper.     125 :902-i3.  N.  '12.    Odessa.     Sydney  Adamson. 
Library   Journal.     42:599-605.   Ag.    '17.      For    Russia.      R.     R. 

Bowker. 
Moody's  Magazine.    19:473-6.  S.  '16.  Economic  future  of  Russia. 
Moody's  Magazine.     19 :645-50.  D.  '16.     Resources,  finances  and 

government  of  Russia.     Arthur  Selwyn-Brown. 
National  Geographic  Magazine.    23:1043-78.  N.  '12.    Ghmpses  of 

the  Russian  empire.    W.  W.  Chapin. 
National  Geographic  Magazine.    26:423-520.  N.  '14.    Young  Rus- 
sia. G.  H.  Grosvenor. 
Review  of  Reviews.     52:746-8.  D.  '15.     Great  seaport  near  the 

Arctic  circle. 
*Review  of  Reviews.  53:709-11.  Je.  '16.    New  ports  and  railways 

in  Russia.  P.  P.  Foster. 

See   pp.    97-8    of    this    volume. 

Review  of  Reviews.    55 :430-i.  Ap.  '17.  Arctic  seaports  of.  Eu- 
ropean Russia. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  xv 

Russia.     I  :i2-23.  Je.  'i6.    Great  fairs  of  Russia. 
World's  Work.    34:223-8.  Je.  '17.     Russia's  undeveloped  riches. 
A.  J.  Sack. 

Poland 

'Gardner,  M.  M.    Poland:  a  study  in  national  idealism.     *$i.25. 
Scribner.  1916. 

An  attempt  to  illustrate  the  soul  of  the  nation  by  a  study  of  its  liter- 
ature. 

Orvis,  J.  S.    Brief  history  of  Poland.    *$i.50.  Houghton.  1916. 

Poland's  case  for  independence.    *$3.  Dodd.  1916. 

Winter,   N.   O.     Poland  of  to-day  and  yesterday.     *$3.   Page. 

1913. 

A   review  of  its  history   and   a  survey  of  its   social,   political   and   eco- 
nomic  conditions. 

♦Century.    90:57-66.  My.  '15.    Poland's  story.    J.  C.  Welliver. 

See   pp.   47-63   of  this  volume. 

Century.    93:182-92.  D.  '16.    Future  of  Poland.    H.  A.  Gibbons. 
Contemporary    Review.     110:715-23.    D.  '16.     Polish    problem: 

past  and  present.  J.  H.  Rose. 
Fortnightly  Review.  104:502-12.  S.  '15.    Poland  and  her  role  in 

Europe.  G.  de  Swietochowski. 
Fortnightly  Review.    107:373-88.  Mr.  '17.  Polish  problem.    E.  J. 

Dillon. 
Munsey.  54:241-71.  Mr.  '15.     New  kingdom  of  Poland.     F.  A. 

Ogg. 
♦National  Geographic  Magazine.   27:88-106.   Ja.  '15.   Partitioned 

Poland.    W.  J.  Showalter. 

See    pp.    63-8    of   this   volume. 

♦Review  of  Reviews.     54:100-1.  Jl.  '16.    Economic  bases  for  an 

autonomous  Poland. 

See  pp.  68-70  of  this  volume. 
Travel.    25:22-5.  O.  '15.    Conquered  Warsaw.    N.  O.  Winter. 

Finland 

Reade,  Arthur.    Finland  and  the  Finns,    ♦$3.  Dodd.  1915. 
Young,  Ernest.    Finland:  the  land  of  a  thousand  lakes.     ♦$2.50. 

Pott.  1913. 
♦Canadian  Magazine,    40:65-72.  N.  '12.     Finland  and  the  Finns. 

J.  E.  Staley. 

See  pp.   71-6  of  this  volume. 


xvi  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Siberia 
Beveridge,  A.  J.     Russian  advance.     *$2.5o.  Harper.  1904. 

Observations   of  a   trip   made   in    190 1.     First  half   on   Asiatic   Russia. 

Goodrich,  J.  K.    Russia  in  Europe  and  Asia.     *$i.5o.  McClurg. 

1912. 

Especially  good   on  Asiatic   Russia. 
Wright,  Richardson,  and  Digby,  Basset.    Through  Siberia.    *$2. 

McBride.  1913. 
Catholic  World.    98:740-8.  Mr.  '14.     Siberian  education.     Rich- 
ardson Wright. 
♦Literary  Digest.     53:1401.  N.  25,  *l6.     Real  Siberia. 

See    pp.    92-3    of    this    volume. 
Literary  Digest.    54:466-7.  F.  24,  '17.    To  open  up  Russian  Asia. 
♦National  Geographic  Magazine.     23:1078-90.   N.  '12.     Land,  of 

promise.    A.  W.  Greely. 

See   pp.    76-91    of  this   volume. 

Political  and  Social  Problems 

Baring,  Maurice.     Year  in  Russia.     *$3.5o.  Dutton.  1907. 

Berard,  Victor.  Russian  empire  and  czarism.  los.  6d.  David 
Nutt,  London.  1905. 

Bubnoff,  I.  B.  Co-operative  movement  in  Russia;  its  history, 
significance  and  character.  $1.25.  M.  Fainberg,  309  Broad- 
way, N.  Y.  1917. 

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♦World's  Work.    34:52-62.  My.  '17.    Rise  of  Russian  democracy. 
S.  N.  Harper. 
See  pp.   279-91    of  this  volume. 

World's  Work.  34:255-63.  Jl.  '17.  In  Petrograd  during  the  seven 
days.    Arno  Dosch-Fleurot. 

Yale  Review.  6:838-55.  Jl.  '17.  Russian  revolution.  Alexander 
Petrunkevitch. 

Russian  Information  Bureau.  A.  J.  Sack,  Director.  Wool- 
worth  Building,  New  York  City. 

The    purpose    of    this    recently    organized    bureau    is    to    give    informa- 
tion   to    institutions    and    individuals    in    the    United    States    interested    in 

Russian   cultural,   economic   and   financial   life. 

Russian  Literature 

Baring,  Maurice.  Landmarks  in  Russian  literature.  *$i.75.  Mac- 
millan.  1910. 

Baring,  Maurice.    Outline  of  Russian  literature.    *50c.  Holt.  1915. 

Bechhofer,  C.  E.  Russian  anthology  in  English.  *$i.50.  But- 
ton.  1917. 

Bruckner,  A.  Literary  history  of  Russia.  *$3.50.  Scribner. 
1908. 

Guthrie,  A.  L.  Russian  literature:  a  study  outline  with  bibliog- 
raphy.   *35c.  Wilson,  H.  W.  191 7. 

Hapgood,  Isabel  F.  Survey  of  Russian  literature,  with  selections, 
o.  p.  Chautauqua  Press.  1902. 

Jarintzov,  Nadine.  Russian  poets  and  poems:  preface  by  Jane 
Harrison.  2v.  *$3.5o.   Longmans.    1917. 

Kropotkin,  Peter.  Ideals  and  realities  in  Russian  literature. 
♦$1.50.  Knopf.  1915. 

Persky,  Serge.     Contemporary  Russian  novelists.     *$i.50.  Luce. 

1913. 

Phelps,  W.  L.  Essays  on  Russian  novelists.  *$i.50.  Macmillart. 
1911. 

Vogiie,  E.-M.  de.    Russian  novel.    $3.  Knopf.  1916. 

Waliszewski,  K.  History  of  Russian  literature.  *$i.50.  Ap- 
pleton.  1900. 

Wiener,  Leo.  Anthology  of  Russian  literature.  2v.  ea.  *$3.  Put- 
nam.  1902- 1903. 


xxvi  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Bookman  43 :424-3i.  Je.  '16.    Russian  literature  of  to-day.    Abra- 
ham Yarmolinsky. 

Bookman.     45:55-60.  Mr.  '17.     Russia  in  arms;  war  literature. 
Abraham  Yarmolinsky. 

Critic.     41 :50-8,   148-57.  Jl.-Ag.  '02.     Sketch  of  Russian  litera- 
ture.   Leo  Wiener. 

Forum.    53 :37-53.  Ja.  '15.    Some  Slavonic  ideals.    C.  G.  Shaw. 

Living  Age.    266:700-3.  S.  10,  '10.    Tendency  of  modern  Russian 
literature. 

♦Living    Age.     275 1606-13.    D.   7,  '12.     Russian    lyrical    poetry. 
Leonard  Magnus. 
See  pp.  343-51  of  this  volume. 

*Living  Age.     281 : 749-53.   Je.   20  '14.   Modern   Russian   fiction. 

See    pp.    352-5    of    this    volume. 

Living  Age.     295:606-14.    D.   8,   '17.     Some   Russian   noveHsts. 

George   Sampson. 
Nation.    98:749-50.  Je.  25,  '14.    Russian  fiction:  recent  tendencies 

of  the  younger  writers.    D.  A.  Modell. 
Sewanee  Review.    16:129-47.  Ap.  '08.    Aspects  of  recent  Russian 

literature.   A.  J.  Wolfe. 

Russian  Art 

Benois,  Alexandre.     Russian  school  of  painting.     *$4.   Knopf. 

1916. 
Holme,  Charles,  ed.    Peasant  art  in  Russia.  (International  Studio 

special  autumn  number,  1912.)   *$3.  Lane.  1912. 
Newmarch,  Rosa.     Russian  arts.     *$2.  Button.  1916. 
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through  Russian  painting.     Christian  Brinton. 
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Russia.    C.  A.  Rich. 
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Russian  art.    J.  Finger. 
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Russian  art.     Rosa  Newmarch. 

See   pp.    356-60   of   this   volume. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  xxvii 

International  Studio.  22:216-21.  My.  '04.  Modern  Russian  art: 
some  leading  painters  of  Moscow. 

International  Studio.  52:  sup.  121-5.  Je.  '14.  Russian  art  and 
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International  Studio.  51:107-116.  D.  '13.  Three  Russian  paint- 
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C.  H.  Wright. 
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Rienzi. 


RUSSIA: 
HISTORY,  DESCRIPTION  AND  POLITICS 


INTRODUCTION 


THE  EMPIRE  OF  ENIGMAS* 

Of  the  nations  at  war  in  Europe  to-day,  the  youngest  is 
Russia.  True,  almost  a  thousand  years  have  passed  since  the 
henchmen  of  the  Veriagians — Swedes,  Norwegians,  Goths,  and 
Angles — came  down  from  beyond  the  Baltic  and  established 
themselves  as  princes  of  the  old  Slav  trading  cities,  thereby 
laying  the  foundation  of  the  Muscovite  State,  yet  Russia  stands 
among  the  nations  the  adolescent.  She  is  at  the  point  of  un- 
wieldiness.  Her  physical  limits  have  been  extended  in  obverse 
ratio  to  th6  development  of  her  natural  resources.  The  wis- 
dom of  intensive  growth  has  only  begun  to  dawn  upon  her. 
Her  education  is  sporadic,  her  defence  on  land  but  recently 
attained  a  scientific  basis,  her  navy  is  still  a  nonentity,  her  min- 
ers have  only  scratched  the  surface,  her  farmers  only  begun  to 
make  the  earth  give  its  increase,  and  representative  government 
has  scarcely  passed  the  stage  of  being  a  misnomer.  Like  many 
an  adolescent,  she  is  misunderstood  often,  and  underestimated 
always,  because  her  failures  have  been  lamentable  and  her  de- 
feats many.  Time  and  again  has  she  been  deliberately  misrepre- 
sented, misinterpreted  and  maligned.  Her  weaknesses  have 
proven  fat  carrion  for  ghoulish  pens  to  batten  on.  Some,  un- 
fortunately, believe  all  the  evil  told  of  her;  some  question.  For 
most  of  us  she  remains  an  empire  of  engimas. 

One  day  we  read  lurid  tales  of  revolution,  anarchy,  and 
exile;  the  next,  the  rollicking  pages  of  Gogol  and  the  peaceful 
scenes   of   Turgenief.    Our   souls   are   agonized   to-day  at   the 

*  By  Richardson  Wright.    Catholic  World.  101:200-7.  May,  1915. 


2  sillected  articles 

appeal  or  three  mill?on  people  famine-stricken;  to-morrow, 
raised  to  supreme  heights  by  the  art  of  Pavlowa  and  Nijinsky,  of 
Tchaikovsky,  Moussorgsky  and  Rimiski-Korsakov.  We  read 
of  a  hundred  million  being  added  yearly  to  the  nation's  coffers 
from  a  state  vodka  monopoly,  then  hear  that  the  sale  of  vodka 
has  been  prohibited  through  the  entire  eight  million,  six 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  square  miles  of  the  empire — a  nation 
gone  dry  by  the  stroke  of  a  pen!  Exiles  who  once  fought 
against  the  government  are  hastening  home  to  fight  for  the 
government.  Men  who  six  months  back  were  preaching  dissen- 
sion, are  dying  to-day  on  the  banks  of  the  Warthe. 

No  less  paradoxical  than  are  the  Russian  people  themselves, 
is  the  fact  that  while  Russia  is  the  youngest  nation  according  to 
her  per  capita  exercise  of  what  we  reckon  civilization,  she  is  at 
once  among  the  oldest.  She  has  a  past.  Some  of  it  were  wiser 
to  forget,  some  well  to  remember.  Fiendish  bloodshed,  unbe- 
lievable cruelty,  insane  hatred,  lust  for  life  and  lust  for  land — 
all  have  stained  her  past.  One  fact  cannot  be  gainsaid,  however : 
that  Europe  may  thank  Russia  she  has  outgrown  these  things — 
if  outgrown  them  she  has.  Russia  it  was  who  gave  the  rest  of 
Europe  the  chance  to  grasp  and  make  the  most  of  her  oppor- 
tunities for  civilization.  While  the  other  peoples  were  toiling 
along  painfully  in  "the  slow  pageant  of  the  race,"  feeling  their 
way  through  the  economic,  philosophic  and  religious  mazes  of 
medisevalism  up  to  modernity,  Russia  stood  as  the  watcher  at 
the  gate,  repelling  the  invasion  of  Asiatic  hordes,  often  suffer- 
ing her  own  land  to  be  laid  waste  and  her  cities  leveled. 

For  that  reason  she  is,  in  many  respects,  backward  to-day, 
given  over  to  what  seem  half-primitive  ideals,  an  unskilled  diplo- 
macy, and  an  unenlightened  faith.  That  these  things  are  not 
wholly  such,  is  the  stumbling  block.  On  the  other  hand,  that  they 
are  not  witolly  Eastern,  is  to  many  a  moot  point.  Russia  is  neither 
the  most  eastern  of  Western  nations,  as  some  would  believe, 
nor  the  most  western  of  Eastern  nations.  She  is  neither  en- 
tirely Eastern  nor  entirely  Western.  She  is  a  mingling  of  the 
two.    She  is  a  gigantic  maelstrom. 

The  Slavs  that  formed  the  bulk  of  the  original  Russ  popu- 
lation came  from  the  Carpathians,  from  the  very  snow-locked 
mountain  fastnesses  where  the  soldiers  of  Nicholas  and  Franz 
Joseph  are  battling  for  supremacy.  By  the  seventh  century, 
rumors  of  the  richness  of  the  Dnieper  Valley  had  lured  east- 


% 


RUSSIA  3 

ward  a  plausible  majority,  and  the  Eastern  Slavs,  who  formed 
the  original  strain  of  the  present-day  Russia,  became  a  distinct 
people.  The  earliest  record  finds  them  trader* — dealers  in  fur, 
honey,  and  wax — although  the  bulk  of  their  articles  of  com- 
merce, was,  as  elsewhere  in  the  ancient  world,  the  slave.*  Hence 
the  word  "slave" — not  that  the  Slavs  were  slaves,  but  because 
they  dealt  in  them.  Upon  the  ownership  of  slaves  rested  the 
foundation  of  Russian  society  in  the  tenth  and  eleventh  cen- 
turies. By  the  eleventh  century  had  begun  the  cultivation  of 
the  soil.  Side  by  side  with  commerce  grew  up  this  agriculture, 
and  developed  those  political  changes  that  an  agricultural  popu- 
lace demands. 

Then  came  the  Tartars.  From  1229-1240,  the  Asi^Hcs  swept 
over  southern  Russia,  driving  the  Slavs  to  the  north,  to  the 
upper  Volga.  For  five  centuries  they  held  that  territory.  Kiev 
was  a  wilderness  until  three  hundred  years  after  the  occupation. 
Tribute  was  paid  the  Crimean  Tartars  as  late  as  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Driven  north,  their  political  and  economic 
life  destroyed,  the  Slavs  centred  about  the  trading  cities  that 
had  sprung  up  in  the  north — Novgorod  and  Moscow,  which  were 
later  united  into  the  federation  of  trading  towns.  It  was  to 
them  that  the  Veriagians  had  been  called.  These  "efficiency 
experts" — the  modern  term  applies,  for  they  were  summoned  to 
help  govern  the  cities — became  lords,  and  for  a  time  they  and 
theirs  held  that  position.  Eventually,  in  the  rise  of  a  trading 
and  agricultural  class,  their  identity  was  swallowed  up  in  that 
of  the  Slav. 

This  glimpse  of  history  is  given  not  so  much  to  recount  the 
facts  as  to  point  out  a  Slav  characteristic  manifested  thus  early 
and  still  manifest  to-day — the  power  of  assimilating  others 
unto  themselves  and  still  retaining  some  traits  of  the  original 
people.  This  absorption  was  evident  after  the  Tartar  invasion 
— Tartar  elements  were  assimilated.  Then  came  to  the  Slav 
an  influx  of  Eastern  ideals  and  Eastern  temperament.  Russian 
expansion  having  been  mainly  in  an  eastward  direction,  the  pre- 
dominating characteristics  are  of  that  source,  which  accounts 
for  the  fact  that  one  can  scratch  a  Russian  and  find  a  Tartar. 
But  besides  the  Tartar  he  also  finds  more  than  forty  other  nation- 
alities, making  of  the  Russian  soul,  even  as  is  the  nation  itself, 
a  maelstrom.     The  complexity  of  the  Russian  soul,  the  tangled 

*  Vide,  An  Economic  History  of  Russia,  Mavor,  vol.   i.,  p.  44. 


# 


4  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

mass  of  race  roots  that  embed  the  Slav  in  the  soil  of  humankind, 
necessitates  patient  unraveling. 

The  first  and  perhaps  most  important  distinctions  that  have 
to  be  made  are  between  Russia  and  the  Russian  Government; 
between  the  class  that  governs  and  the  classes  that  are  governed ; 
between  the  faith  that  is  taught  and  the  faith  that  is  believed: 
corresponding  to  the  three  great  components  of  any  nation  that 
has  an  oligarchical  form  of  government  and  a  state  religion. 

Many  of  us,  when  we  think  of  Russia,  think  of  it  in  the 
light  of  the  repute  its  government  bears.  Because  its  people 
have  suflfered  lamentably,  we  have  a  subconscious  feeling  that 
the  land  also  must  be  shrouded  in  darkness.  Quite  the  reverse 
is  the  case.  No  nation,  save  that  of  the  United  States,  is  so  self- 
contained  or  possesses  such  wealth  of  diversified  scenery  and  un- 
told natural  resources.  From  arctic  Archangel  to  the  sunny 
Crimea,  from  Teutonic  Poland  to  the  orientalized  Pacific  mari- 
time provinces,  endless  Ipeauty  and  evidence  of  incalculable 
natural  wealth  greet  the  eye.  You  may  go  among  men  who  have 
been  exiled  and  fled  to  this  country,  you  may  talk  with  the  humble 
folk  who  have  come  to  seek  wealth  in  our  cities,  and  with  one 
accord  they  will  tell  you  that  though  they  hold  bitter  grievance 
against  the  Russian  Government,  they  still  love  the  Russland,  and 
hope  some  day  to  go  back.  Nor  have  I  ever  found  the  traveler 
who  has  visited  Russia,  and  has  not  promised  himself  to  return. 
There  is  a  haunting  quality  about  its  scenery,  there  is  an  enliven- 
ing stimulus  to  be  caught  from  the  singular  life  of  the  people, 
from  the  admixture  of  nationalities  and  tongues,  from  the  varied 
customs  and  faiths  that  the  frontiers  of  empire  hold. 

In  European  Russia  the  difference  between  social  grades  is 
strikingly  marked.  While  the  average  man  might  think  of  them 
as  being  only  two  classes,  the  nobility  and  the  peasantry,  such 
classification  is  indeed  crude.  At  the  head  of  the  official  ladder, 
below  the  royalty  who  govern,  stand  the  nobility.  Since  the 
latter  number  some  six  hundred  thousand,  they  form  quite  a 
little  nucleus,  albeit  many  of  them  are  of  the  common  stock, 
merely  possessors  of  inherited  titles  that,  in  many  instances, 
mean  little  or  nothing  to-day.  You  will  find  noblemen  doing  the 
most  menial  tasks — men  and  women  who  have  scarcely  enough 
to  keep  body  and  soul  together,  many  of  them,  for  all  their 
poverty,  cherishing  their  honors  and  accepting  with  fine  eclat  the 
petty  respect  shown  by  their  fellows. 


RUSSIA  5 

Below  the  nobility  come  the  higher  intelligentia,  the  truly  noble 
body  of  Russians.  They  are  not  always  people  of  material 
wealth,  yet  they  are  usually  possessed  of  a  wealth  of  learning 
and  appreciation.  Often  they  are  traveled  folk,  well-read, 
cultured,  firm  believers  in  the  orthodox  faith,  and  generally 
staunch  supporters  of  the  existing  order.  Among  them,  of 
course,  are  vigorous  recalcitrants,  but  the  majority  of  the  higher 
intelligentia  view  the  present  sociological  and  governmental  evils 
in  a  more  calm  and  philosophic  frame  of  mind,  hopeful  of  im- 
provement, and  strong  in  the  belief  that  when  the  time  is  ripe 
they  will  be  remedied.  Without  question  they  are  the  finest  type 
of  Russian  people,  patriotic,  faithful,  believing,  living  in  the 
light  of  modern  thought — not  in  the  darkness,  as  does  the  peas- 
ant—and still  sincere  upholders  of  Russian  ideals.  There  is, 
in  addition,  a  bourgeoisie  intelligentia,  and  they  are  as  bour- 
geoisie the  world  over — people  of  many  words,  of  rococo  cul- 
ture and  wavering  or  blind  faith. 

The  revolutionist  might  also  fall  into  a  class  by  himself,  were 
it  not  that  the  recalcitrant  is  confined  to  no  one  class;  in  what- 
ever walk  of  life  you  meet  him,  the  Slav  is  at  heart  a  revolu- 
tionist. His  is  that  singular  nature  which  is  never  content  un- 
less it  is  against  something,  although  he  may  know  not  why  or 
what  he  is  against.  "An  unconscious  socialist,"  one  authority  has 
termed  him;  he  is  also  an  unconscious  revolutionist.  Even  here 
in  America  we  meet  the  type,  for  a  plausible  number  of  our  most 
ardent  |ocialistic  and  revolutionary  propagandists  are  either  Slav 
by  birth  or  of  Slavic  descent. 

The  grievances  of  the  Russian  people  are  often  exaggerated 
by  the  American  journalist.  The  sensational  stories  we  fre- 
quently read  in  our  daily  and  monthly  press  are  known  to  fewer 
people  in  Russia  than  here.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  has  not 
yet  been  raised  up  a  man  or  a  woman  of  sufficient  calibre  to  lead 
the  Russian  people  out  of  their  wilderness.  When  that  man  is 
created  of  God — as  all  leaders  are — then  will  they  be  led,  but  not 
until  then.  Moreover,  there  is  ffltrch  more  talk  about  dissension 
in  Russia  than  actual  dissension,  a  fact  that  the  American  reader 
does  not  comprehend.  For  it  must  be  understood  that  not  alone 
has  the  lack  of  a  leader  robbed  Russia's  revolutions  of  victory, 
but  the  fact  that  the  Slav's  hatred  is  of  short  duration.  If  you 
understand  the  singular  convolutions  of  the  wrath  of  the  pro- 
verbial patient  man,  you  can  comprehend  the  wrath  of  the  Russian 


6  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

people.  It  is  long  in  accumulating  and  short  of  endurance.  No 
sooner  is  the  blow  struck  than  the  wrath  has  fled.  The  life  of 
many  a  Russian  revolutionist  is  a  silent  witness  to  this  fact.  There 
is  always  the  gradual  gathering  of  the  storm,  the  feeling  that 
something  violent  must  be  done,  the  sharp  quick  blow;  then  a 
complete  finality  of  anger.  The  rest  of  life  is  spent  in  self-pity, 
or  theatrical  pose  or  sincere  repentance.  More  than  one  dead 
soul  has  found  its  resurrection  in  a  Siberian  etape. 

But  those  classes  that  have  been  discussed  above  form  only 
the  fringe  of  the  Russian  people.  The  peasant  is  by  far  the  most 
interesting  object  of  study.  Composing  eighty  per  cent  of  the 
population,  his  problems,  peculiarities  and  potentialities  are  the 
real  facts  of  Russian  life.  Having  lived  and  traveled  with  him 
from  one  end  of  his  empire  to  another,  I  have  the  advantage  of 
a  first-hand  view,  and  my  conclusions,  albeit  they  differ  from  that 
of  the  average  journalist,  may  be  of  interest. 

I  sincerely  believe  that  there  has  been  too  much  sympathy 
wasted  on  the  woes  of  the  moujik.  Compared  with  the  lot  of 
peasants  in  other  lands,  his  has  much  that  is  to  be  regretted — and 
also  much  to  be  admired.  His  home  is  generally  clean,  and  he 
himself,  that  is,  his  body,  is  dutifully  washed ;  the  bath  has  always 
been  part  of  the  peasant  religion.  Moreover,  his  women  are 
healthy  folk,  and  it  is  a  fact  for  which  the  peasant  need  not  blush 
that  the  mothers  in  Russia  add  yearly  to  the  population  some 
three  million  souls.  In  general,  the  peasant  is  a  rugged, ^ughter- 
loving  fellow,  hospitable,  kindly — save  in  his  cups — cijible  of 
much  endurance  and  great  faith.  Ecclesiastically  speaking,  he  is 
the  most  pious  peasant  in  the  world.  Travelers  have  not  yet 
turned  his  picturesque  religious  fervor  into  a  Cook's  attraction, 
as  they  have  in  Brittany.  Nor  can  it  be  said  of  him  that  he  ever 
lacks  in  patriotism,  for  the  average  peasant,  although  he  may 
detest  the  Tsar's  agents,  speaks  of  the  Tsar  in  the  same  breath 
with  God.  "Our  souls  are  God's,  our  bodies  the  Tsar's,"  runs 
one  native  proverb;  another  observes,  "The  Tsar  is  generous — 
but  his  generosity  passes  through  the  ministerial  sieve." 

Four  hundred  years  of  serfdom  made  the  peasant  a  race  apart, 
and  much  of  that  same  isolation  exists  to-day.  Read  down  the 
list  of  Duma  members  where  each  man's  rank  is  given,  and  name 
on  name  you  find  it  written  that  this  representative  and  that  is  a 
peasant.  He  may  be  a  possessor  of  much  land  and  a  power  in 
his  province,  but  still  he  remains  in  the  eyes  of  the  state^a  peas- 


RUSSIA  7 

ant.  Such  social  isolation  has  bred  in  the  moujik  a  sterling 
capacity  for  cooperation.  There  is  no  peasantry  under  the  sun 
whose  power  of  cooperation  is  greater.  And  that  accounts,  if  the 
fact  would  be  known,  for  the  characterization  given  above :  that 
the  average  Russian  is  an  unconscious  socialist.  The  mir,  which 
although  abolished  by  law  still  obtains  in  many  parts  of  the  Em- 
pire, is  sheer  socialism  in  the  working.  This  in  the  heart  of  an 
autocratic  government!  The  artel — that  communistic  leaguing 
of  workmen  who  share  equally  their  expenses  and  profits — is 
another  example  of  effective  cooperation.  The  kustarnui,  the 
cottage  industries  for  which  Russia  has  become  famous,  are 
based  wholly  on  the  law  of  cooperation,  each  artel  of  workers 
contributing  to  the  manufacture  of  a  spoon,  a  piece  of  jewelry  or 
a  cart  wheel,  for  even  so  diversified  are  the  products  of  the 
kustarnui.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  peasant,  in  a  certain 
sense,  has  been  working  "on  his  own,"  apart  from  the  develop- 
ment of  the  factory  which  is  an  innovation  of  as  recent  date  as 
the  regime  of  Count  Witte.  Indeed,  the  Russian  peasant  is  a 
singularly  independent  fellow.  He  is  quite  a  different  person 
from  what  the  statues  would  make  him,  and  his  faith  differs 
radically  from  #iat  which  the  Church  teaches. 

The  infusion  of  Oriental  blood  in  his  veins,  and  his  having 
always  lived  close  to  nature,  make  him  in  essence  a  pagan.  In 
numberle^^kmes  where  the  icon  corner  is  kept  bright  and  spot- 
less, tl^MJHy  pays  due  reverence  to  the  domovi,  the  house 
fairic^^^Bwmany  sections  the  fishermen  make  sacrifices  to  the 
river  ^|H^d  goddesses.  Farmers  sow  and  reap  not  so  much 
according  ^m  season  as  according  to  lucky  dates.  The  icon  is 
rarely  held  a  symbol,  but  rather  a  living  thing,  and  to  offend  the 
icon  is  to  offend  the  God  that  the  moujik  believes  resides  in  that 
slab  of  painted  tin  and  wood.  These  and  numberless  other  super- 
stitions still  hold  a  spell  over  the  peasant  mind  despite  the  vigor- 
ous teaching  of  the  Church,  and  the  fact  that  the  government 
has  forbidden  folk  tales  being  printed  in  popular  form  lest  they 
corrupt  the  moujik  mind. 

In  these  days  when  the  faithful  peasants  are  falling  by  the 
tens  of  thousands  on  the  field  of  battle,  one  often  wonders  if 
there  is  not  some  little  strain  of  Oriental  fatalism  in  their  beliefs. 
Doggedly  they  go  to  their  deaths ;  wave  on  wave  of  men  rolls  up 
against  the  foes,  crashes,  breaks,  recedes,  then  back  again  to  the 
flood.     The  Tsar  has  said  that  he  will  fight  this  war  until  his 


8  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

last  moujik  is  down.  Meantime  what  does  the  moujik  think  of  it 
and  of  his  chances  for  escaping  fearful  death? 

The  answer  is  found  in  a  peculiar  element  of  the  moujik's 
faith,  a  point  wherein  he  differs  from  every  other  peasant.  Death 
has  an  attraction  for  him,  and  dying  prepared  is  his  ultimate  de- 
sire.   To  quote  a  previous  article  on  The  Faith  of  the  Moujik  :^ 

"This  peculiar  attraction  of  death  is  the  foundation  and  super- 
structure and  capstone  of  his  faith.  Speak  to  him  of  the  pre- 
Crucifixion  life  of  the  Lord,  and  he  is  not  interested.  The  teach- 
ings, the  parables,  the  miracles,  the  daily  life  of  the  Master,  as 
He  moved  among  men,  as  He  journeyed  from  place  to  place  with 
His  disciples — these  things  the  peasant  cares  little  for.  But  once 
you  begin  to  talk  of  those  few  days  following  the  Resurrection, 
those  appearances  and  disappearances,  those  words  whispered 
here  and  there  upon  the  road  by  the  Stranger — then  the  Russian 
peasant  begins  to  take  interest.  He  cannot  understand  the  radi- 
ant human  face  of  Christ,  but  he  can  understand  the  pale  face  of 
the  dead  Christ  in  Mary's  lap.  .  .  .  Should  you  judge  the  faith 
of  the  moujik  in  terms  of  the  West,  you  find  yourself  utterly  at 
sea.  We  view  life  through  the  eyes  of  life,  the  Russian  peasant 
views  life  through  the  eyes  of  death.  To  him,  'I^fe  is  the  night, 
death  the  rising  of  the  sun.'  " 


The  Ecclesiastical  Review,  March,  19 14. 


9k 


HISTORY 

RUSSIA:  THE  VAST  EMPIRE  OF  THE  CZARS* 

Geographically,  Russia  is  continuous  with  the  broad  plains  of 
northern  Asia,  stretching  eastward  to  the  Pacific.  The  Urals, 
low  and  abounding  in  passes,  could  never  have  interposed  a  se- 
rious barrier  to  the  incursion  or  migration  of  Asiatic  races ;  and 
the  presumption  still  is  that  it  was  across  the  Urals,  in  successive 
waves  of  migration,  that  the  great  peoples  of  the  West — the 
Celts,  the  Teutons,  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  and  the  Slavs — came 
into  their  European  habitations. 

Concerning  these  prehistoric  movements  we  have  not  a  shred 
of  direct  information.  The  earliest  occupants  of  the  Russian 
territories  of  whom  we  have  record  were  the  Finns,  an  Asiatic 
people  whose  hardy  descendants  live  in  the  Russian  dependency 
of  Finland  to  this  day.  The  Finns  were  not  Slavs,  but  were  akin 
to  the  Huns,  Bulgars,  Avars,  Khazars,  Petchenegs,  and  other 
Turkish  or  semi-Turkish  peoples  whose  incursions  constituted 
a  disturbing  element  in  the  history  of  eastern  Europe  from  the 
third  to  the  thirteenth  century. 

The  predominating  element  in  the  modern  Russian  is,  how- 
ever, not  Finnish,  but  Slavic.  That  the  Slavs  came  originally 
from  Asia  there .  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt,  although  of  the 
time  and  manner  of  their  westward  migration  we  know  no- 
thing at  all. 

About  A.  D.  100  the  Roman  historian  Tacitus  made  mention 
of  Slavs,  who  then  dwelt  on  the  southeastern  shore  of  the 
Baltic  and  classed  them  as  Europeans  because  they  built  houses, 
used  shields,  and  fought  on  foot.  In  the  sixth  century  Slavic 
tribes  occupied  portions  of  the  Carpathian  Mountains,  whence 
they  raided  the  outlying  territories  of  the  Eastern  Empire.  The 
scene  upon  which  the  Slavs  as  a  people  really  began  to  play  their 
role  in  history  is  the  irregular  patch  of  territory  extending  from 
the  lands  adjacent  to  the  Baltic  southward  to  the  crest  of  the 
Carpathians,  and  fronv  the  borders  of  the  modern  kingdom  of 

*  B7  F.  A.  Ogg.    Munsey.  54:641-80.  May,  1915. 


10  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Prussia  eastward  to  the  site  of  Voronesh  on  the  middle  Don. 
From  their  earliest  appearance  the  Slavs  are  described  as  a 
kind-hearted,  hospitable,  liberty-loving,  deeply  religious  people. 
They  lived  by  agriculture,  and  they  had  a  social  organization 
which  in  its  essentials  has  been  preserved  to  this  day.  The 
family  was  controlled  absolutely  by  the  father.  The  mir,  or 
commune,  consisting  of  a  number  of  families,  was  governed  by 
a  council  composed  of  the  family  elders.  Several  communes 
combined  to  form  a  volost,  or  canton  whose  affairs  also  were 
administered  by  a  council. 

The  people  lived  in  huts  at  some  distance  from  one  another. 
While  each  family  owned  a  bit  of  ground  surrounding  its  dwell- 
ing, the  cultivated  land  and  pasturage  were  the  common  posses- 
sion of  the  mir.  As  newcomers  in  Europe  the  Slavs  seem  to 
have  had  the  robust  physique,  the  eyes  ranging  from  blue  to 
gray,  and  the  auburn  or  chestnut  hair  of  the  Russian  peasant 
of  to-day;  they  wore  the  same  short  blouse  and  the  same  closely 
fitting  trousers,  tucked  into  the  same  high  boots. 

The  lot  of  the  Slavs  in  their  new  home  was  at  first  unpromis- 
ing. They  were  not  numerous,  and  on  every  side  they  were 
beset  by  powerful  and  hostile  neighbors.  From  the  sixth  to  the 
ninth  centuries  they  lived  through  various  periods  of  subjection 
to  the  semibarbaric  peoples  who  occupied  their  part  of  the  world. 

First  they  suffered  from  the  Goths;  then  the  Avars  became 
their  masters;  finally,  they  came  under  the  domination  of  the 
Khazars.  It  was  only  in  the  ninth  century,  when  the  Khazars 
were  forced  to  turn  their  attention  to  the  newly  arrived  and 
hostile  Petchenegs,  that  the  Slavs  regained  their  independence. 
And  here  it  is  that  the  history  of  modern  Russia  really  begins. 

The  principal  source  of  weakness  in  the  earlier  days  had 
been  the  lack  of  national  unity  and  of  political  centralization; 
and  the  prevalence  of  internal  dissension  seemed  to  preclude 
the  possibility  that  such  unity  and  centralization  should  ever  be 
developed.  But  what  not  even  the  pressure  of  barbarian  sub- 
jugation could  accomplish  was  readily  achieved  by  the  con- 
structive leadership  of  a  foreign  element  deliberately  imported, 
so  we  are  told,  for  the  purpose. 

According  to  the  chronicle  attributed  to  Nestor,  a  monk  of 
Kiev,  who  lived  in  the  eleventh  century,  the  Slavs  dwelling  about 
Novgorod,  together  with  the  friendly  Finns  of  the  region,  at 
length  grew  weary  of  turbulence  and  disunion.    In  the  yeiir  862 


RUSSIA  II 

they  sent  a  deputation  overseas  to  the  Varyags,  or  Verangers, 
a  Scandinavian  people  reputed  for  their  organizing  talent  and 
their  military  prowess,  and  invited  them  to  come  in  and  rule. 
The  legend  goes  on  to  say  that  three  brothers,  Rurik,  Sineus, 
and  Truvor,  with  their  followers,  responded  to  the  call,  and 
that  the  early  death  of  Sineus  and  Truvor  left  Rurik  sole  ruler 
of  the  Slavic  country. 

The  story  may  or  may  not  be  true.  What  happened,  very 
likely,  was  something  more  nearly  resembling  a  Scandinavian 
invasion,  not  unlike  the  incursions  which  the  so-called  North- 
men and  the  Danes  were  making  in  the  same  period  upon  the 
coasts  of  France  and  England.  Lake  Ilmen  and  the  river  Volk- 
hov, on  which  stands  Novgorod,  Rurik's  capital,  formed  links 
in  the  primitive  waterway  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea, 
and  we  know  that  by  this  route  there  traveled  the  tall,  fair- 
haired  Northmen  who  composed  the  famous  Verangian  body- 
guard of  the  Byzantine  emperors. 

The  invitation  from  Novgorod  may  well  be  a  fiction  de- 
vised subsequently  for  patriotic  reasons,  as  was  probably  the 
invitation  supposed  to  have  been  extended  by  the  Britons  to  the 
Jutish  chieftains  Hengist  and  Horsa  four  hundred  years  ear- 
lier. But  the  important  thing  is  that  the  Verangers  came,  that 
they  assumed  unrestricted  control,  and  that  under  their  leader- 
ship the  Slavs  made  their  first  successful  efforts  in  state- 
building. 

It  was  now  that  the  country,  known  hitherto  as  Slavonia, 
acquired  among  foreigners  the  name  Rus,  from  which  in  the 
seventeenth  century  the  modern  name  Russia  was  formed  on 
the  analogy  of  Graecia  and  other  classical  names.  The  name 
Russi,  first  applied  by  the  Finns  to  the  Veranger  newcomers, 
ended  by  being  applied  indiscriminately  to  all  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  Veranger  dominions. 

The  capital  of  the  new  state  was  at  first  Novgorod;  but 
Rurik's  brother  and  successor,  Oleg,  after  finally  breaking  the 
power  of  the  Khazars  over  the  southern  Slavs,  took  up  his 
residence  at  Kiev,  on  the  Dnieper,  a  town  which  was  destined 
to  remain  the  chief  seat  of  Russian  political  authority  until  the 
rise  of  Moscow. 

The  Verangian  princes  were  men  of  much  vigor. 
They  conquered  broad  stretches  of  territory,  and  under 
their     protection     the     Russian     population     began     to     spread 


12  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

far  to  the  east,  northeast,  and  south.  They  invaded 
the  Byzantine  lands,  threatened  Constantinople,  and  ob- 
tained as  a  consort  for  one  of  their  number  a  sister  of  a  By- 
zantine emperor.  They  learned  to  hold  in  check  the  nomadic 
tribes  of  the  steppe,  and  formed  marriage  alliances  with  the 
ruling  families  of  Poland,  Hungary,  Norway,  and  France. 
For  a  time  the  principality  gave  promise  of  becoming  the  dom- 
inant power  of  central  and  eastern  Europe. 

The  promise,  however,  was  only  partially  fulfilled.  Con- 
solidation within  failed  entirely  to  keep  pace  with  expansion 
without.  In  effect  the  Russian  country  was  a  gigantic  family 
estate  belonging  to  the  Rurik  dynasty,  and  each  member  of  the 
family  expected  to  have  his  share.  The  land  had  to  be  divided 
and  subdivided  into  an  ever  increasing  number  of  petty  prin- 
cipalities, ruled  by  princelings  whose  aim  it  was  to  obtain  the 
largest  possible  measure  of  practical  independence. 

In  this  state  of  affairs  dissensions  became  frequent,  and  the 
strength  of  the  nation  was  wasted  in  civil  strife.  Yaroslav  the 
Great  was  the  last  Grand  Prince  of  Kiev  who  tried  with  any 
degree  of  success  to  hold  things  together.  After  his  death,  in 
1054,  family  feuds  became  rampant,  and  the  tendencies  to  dis- 
integration were  left  to  work  out  their  natural  results. 

It  is  said  that  during  the  ensuing  one  hundred  and  seventy 
years  there  were  in  the  country  eighty- three  civil  wars.  In  the 
course  of  them  Kiev  was  repeatedly  taken  by  storm  and  pil- 
laged, and  eventually  the  entire  valley  of  the  Dnieper  fell  prey 
to  marauding  tribes  of  the  steppe. 

Russian  political  leadership  now  passed  northward  again, 
and  for  a  time  the  hegemony  of  such  principalities  as  survived 
was  held  by  Novgorod,  which  in  the  meantime  had  become  a 
great  commercial  city  and  a  member  of  the  Hanseatic  League. 
Novgorod  had  a  prince,  but  his  functions  were  merely  nom- 
inal, and  the  real  governing  power  was  the  vetche  or  assembly 
of  citizens,  which  was  called  together  whenever  there  was  need 
by  the  tolling  of  the  great  bell  in  the  market-place. 

In  this  municipal  republic,  reminding  one  not  a  little  of 
contemporary  Venice,  lay  the  germ  of  a  possible  republican 
Russian  nation;  but  the  germ  was  destined  not  to  grow. 
When  Russia  eventually  achieved  substantial  political  unity 
and  national  organization,  it  was  rather  under  the  leadership 
of  the  autocratic  princes  of  the  rival  city  of  Moscow. 


RUSSIA  13 

Meanwhile  the  Slavic  elements  of  the  population  were 
proving  that,  although  not  advanced  politically,  they  were 
made  of  stern  stuff  and  deserved  to  survive.  They  assimilated 
both  their  Finnish  neighbors  and  their  Scandinavian  liberators 
without  surrendering  any  essential  part  of  their  racial  char- 
acter. The  small  eyes,  the  large  nose,  the  thick  lips,  and 
the  high  cheek-bones  which  are  not  uncommon  among  the 
Russian  peasantry  to-day  are  evidences  of  Finnish  influence 
but  that  influence  seems  not  to  have  extended  beyond  matters 
of  physiognomy.  The  addition  of  ten  words,  according  to  a 
renowned  philologist,  represents  the  total  impress  made  by  the 
Scandinavians  upon  the  Russian  speech;  and  upon  the  Rus- 
sian character  the  Scandinavian  intermixture  had  no  effect 
which  can  be  traced. 

At  one  point  only  did  the  Slavs  in  this  period  yield  to 
foreign  influence,  and  this  was  in  the  matter  of  religion. 
Shortly  after  the  founding  of  Kiev,  Greek  missionaries  began 
to  make  an  assault  upon  the  primitive  paganism  of  the  people, 
and  in  the  later  tenth  century  their  efforts  were  crowned  with 
success. 

The  chronicler  tells  us  that  Prince  Vladimir  I  (980-1015), 
whose  grandmother  had  been  baptized  at  Constantinople,  de- 
cided to  adopt  for  himself  and  his  people  some  religion  that 
would  be  superior  to  his  pagan  creed,  and  that,  after  he  had 
sent  ambassadors  to  investigate  the  claims  of  the  Hebrew, 
Mohammedan,  Catholic,  and  Greek  doctrines,  he  made  choice 
of  the  Greek.  After  traveling  to  Constantinople  to  be  bap- 
tized in  988,  in  true  autocratic  fashion  he  caused  his  subjects 
to  undergo  the  same  rite  en  masse.  Before  the  eyes  of  the  as- 
sembled people  the  ancient  idols  were  destroyed,  some  by 
being  hewn  in  pieces,  some  by  being  burned,  and  the  greatest  of 
them  all,  the  enormous  image  of  Perun,  by  being  hurled  from 
a  lofty  cliff  into  a  raging  stream. 

The  story  of  Vladimir's  choice  may  be  only  a  legend.  The 
circumstances  that  at  the  time  of  his  baptism  the  Kiev  ruler 
married  a  Byzantine  princess  suggests  strongly  that  there  may 
have  been  in  the  transaction  an  element  of  political  expedi- 
ency. But  in  any  event  the  acceptance  by  the  Russians  of 
Christianity  in  its  Greek  form  is  a  fact  of  first-rate  impor- 
tance. 


14  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Not  only  did  Russia  early  acquire  the  headship  of  the  great 
Greek  Orthodox  Church;  the  responsibility  which  the  nation 
in  time  assumed  for  the  protection  of  Greek  Christians  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  from  persecution  at  the  hands  of  Moham- 
medan powers  became  an  actuating  motive,  as  well  as  a  con- 
venient pretext,  for  aggressive  policy  in  Asiatic  lands  and  in 
the  direction  of  Constantinople.  Furthermore,  contact  with 
the  advanced  civilization  of  the  Greek  world  wonderfully  stim- 
ulated Russian  learning,  literature,  art,  music,  and  wealth; 
although,  of  course,  at  the  same  time  the  country  was  effect- 
ually cut  off  from  the  great  intellectual  community  of  which 
Rome  was  the  center. 

Passing  over  a  prolonged  period — roughly,  from  the  mid- 
dle of  the  eleventh  to  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century — 
which  was  filled  with  civil  dissensions  of  minor  interest,  one 
comes  upon  an  epoch  in  which  the  history  of  Russia  assumes 
again  a  stirring  and  even  a  dramatic  character. 

This  is  the  era  of  the  Mongol  domination,  beginning  shortly 
before  1250  and  continuing  in  some  degree  as  late  as  1480. 
Outwardly  the  period  was  one  of  conquest,  degradation,  and 
even  eclipse;  but  actually  it  proved  the  birth  era  of  the  great 
united  Russian  nationality  of  modern  times. 

The  Mongols  were  an  Asiatic  people,  kindred  to  the  Turks, 
who  under  the  leadership  of  an  ambitious  chieftain,  Genghis 
Khan  (Ruler  of  Rulers),  became  especially  active  in  the  early 
years  of  the  thirteenth  century.  They  invaded  China,  captured 
Peking,  and  in  the  course  of  their  gigantic  marauding  expedi- 
tions fell  unexpectedly  and  irresistibly  upon  the  populations  of 
eastern  Europe. 

"For  our  sins,"  writes  a  pious  Russian  chronicler  of  the 
time,  "unknown  nations  arrived.  No  one  knew  their 
origin,  or  whence  they  came,  or  what  religion  they  practised. 
That  is  known  only  to  God,  and  perhaps  to  wise  men  learned  in 
books." 

In  the  year  1224  some  of  the  Russian  princes  were 
persuaded  to  join  forces  with  their  nomadic  neighbors  on  the 
east  in  an  effort  to  repel  the  invaders.  In  a  great  battle  on 
the  banks  of  the  Kelka,  in  southern  Russia,  the  allies  were 
totally  defeated,  and  the  country  found  itself  left  practically 
defenseless.  It  was  spared  a  little  while,  for  instead  of  ad- 
vancing, the  barbarians  fell  back  upon  their  Asiatic  dominions. 


RUSSIA  15 

Thirteen  years  later,  however,  they  returned,  and  this  time 
they  chose  to  remain.  They  burned  Moscow,  which  as  yet  was 
a  town  of  small  importance,  took  Tver  and  Kiev,  ravaged 
Galicia  and  Volhynia,  and  built  for  themselves  a  capital,  called 
Sarai,  the  ruins  of  which  are  still  to  be  seen  on  the  lower 
Volga.  Here  the  commander  of  the  Golden  Horde,  as  the 
western  branch  of  the  Mongol  host  was  designated, 
established  his  headquarters  and  governed  in  the  name  of  his 
master,  the  Grand  Khan,  who  dwelt  with  the  Great  Horde  in 
the  valley  of  the  Amur.  All  Russia  save  Novgorod  was 
brought  under  his  control. 

The  Mongol  conquest  fixed  the  low-water  mark  of  Rus- 
sian history.  For  more  than  two  hundred  years  the  country, 
with  a  swarm  of  nomads  encamped  upon  its  frontiers,  was 
momentarily  liable  to  the  shock  of  invasion.  There  were  re- 
peated inroads,  when  towns  were  burned,  property  was  de- 
stroyed, and  wretched  prisoners  by  the  thousands,  roped  in  long 
trains  with  sheep  and  cattle,  were  driven  over  the  steppes, 
destined  for  the  slave-markets.  Between  irruptions  the  people 
were  compelled  to  pay  tribute,  in  money  or  in  furs.  All  sense 
of  patriotism,  racial  pride,  and  public  obligation  disappeared; 
while  the  instincts  of  self-preservation  and  self-aggrandize- 
ment ran  riot. 

But  the  situation  might  have  been  worse.  In  the  first  place, 
the  conquerors  retained  their  pastoral  manner  of  life  anS  con- 
fined their  habitation  to  the  steppes  of  the  south,  so  that  they 
did  not  greatly  disturb  the  every-day  existence  of  the  mass  of 
the  subject  peoples.  Normally,  the  khans  were  content  with 
the  tribute  and  homage  of  the  Russian  provinces,  and  had 
no  desire  to  interfere  with  their  internal  affairs.  In  the  second 
place,  the  general  policy  of  the  conquerors  was  lenient.  They 
made  no  attempt  to  Mongolize  their  subjects;  and  even  after 
they  embraced  Mohammedanism,  in  1272,  they  were  entirely 
tolerant  of  the  Russian  faith. 

The  extent  to  which,  during  the  prolonged  period  of  con- 
tact, the  Russian  stock  and  character  were  altered  by  Mongol 
influences  is  a  matter  of  speculation.  It  is  an  established  fact 
that  the  Russians  were  gradually  taking  on  a  good  many  habits 
that  were  Oriental.  Dress  was  becoming  Eastern,  as  is  illus- 
trated by  the  increased  use  of  the  caftan,  or  flowing  robe, 
which  Peter  the   Great  subsequently  sought  to  abolish.     Cere- 


i6  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

monialism  was  growing;  likewise  the  seclusion  of  women; 
and   punishment  with   the   knout  was   being  introduced. 

But  the  best  opinion  is  that  Russia's  semiorientalization 
came  as  a  result  of  contact  with  Constantinople,  and  not 
from  Mongol  influence.  Very  few  Mongol  words  crept  into 
the  Russian  vocabulary;  very  little  Mongol  blood  entered 
Russian  veins.  The  old  French  saying,  "Scratch  a  Russian  and 
find  a  Tatar,"  was  hardly  in  accordance  with  fact. 

Kipling  has  declared  in  one  of  his  stories  that  the  mistake 
Englishmen  have  made  in  dealing  with  Russia  is  that  they  have 
treated  her  as  the  most  eastern  of  European  nations,  rather 
than  as  the  most  western  of  Oriental  nations.  Whether  this  is 
true  or  not,  it  is  distinctly  untrue  that,  as  many  people  sup- 
pose, Russia  lost  her  European  character  in  consequence  of 
the  Mongol  subjugation. 

On  the  contrary,  that  subjugation  had  the  general  eflfect  of 
checking  the  deadly  internecine  strife  of  the  Russian  princes. 
It  strengthened  the  national  religion,  and  gave  it  its  present 
inextricable  connection  with  the  national  feeling.  It  contrib- 
uted vitally  to  the  eventual  consolidation  of  the  country  by 
lessening  the  strength  of  the  towns  and  of  the  aristocratic 
boyar  class,  by  maintaining  the  authority  of  the  more  powerful 
princes  against  the  lesser  ones,  by  reducing  the  princes  in 
number,  and  by  stimulating,  quite  inadvertently,  the  growth  of 
the  most  important  princely  power  of  all,  that  of  Moscow. 

The  rise  of  the  principality  of  Moscow  to  a  position  of 
dominance  in  Russia  was  synchronous  with  the  liberation  of 
the  country  from  the  rule  of  the  Mongols.  It  was  in  1263 
that  Moscow  became  a  capital  with  a  permanent  princely  house, 
although  the  real  founder  of  the  principality  was  Daniel  Alex- 
androvitch,  who  lived  forty  years  later. 

For  a  number  of  reasons  the  principality  flourished  from 
the  outset.  The  city  of  Moscow  was  situated  strategically  in 
relation  to  both  land  and  water  routes  of  trade.  The  population 
of  the  region  was  comparatively  dense  and  prosperous,  and  the 
princes  early  adopted  a  course  of  policy  toward  both  their  Rus- 
sian neighbors  and  the  Mongol  overlords  which  brought  them 
large  accessions  of  strength. 

By  war  and  by  Machiavellian  diplomacy  they  annexed  ter- 
ritory until  by  1462  they  had  made  theirs  the  largest  princi- 
pality in  the  country.    Encouraged  by  the  national  churchy  they 


RUSSIA  17 

broke  up  free  republics,  suppressed  popular  assemblies,  and 
gathered  into  their  hands  all  the  essentials  of  autocratic  power. 

Instead  of  engaging  in  rebellion  against  the  Mongol  rule,  as 
their  brother  princes  were  prone  to  do,  they  craftily  got  them- 
selves commissioned  as  agents  of  the  khan,  both  for  the  col- 
lection of  tribute  and  for  the  raising  of  troops;  and  in  1353 
they  were  rewarded  by  receiving  from  the  Mongol  potentate 
the  title  of  grand  duke  and  a  grant  of  jurisdiction  over  all 
other  princes  of  the  country.  No  expedient  of  violence  or  cun- 
ning was  left  unused  to  strengthen  their  hold. 

Eventually  the  Muscovite  princes  felt  strong  enough  to 
turn  against  the  now  decrepit  power  that  had  befriended  them 
— the  Mongol  khanate.  In  1380  Prince  Dimitri  Ivanovitch, 
sovereign  of  practically  the  whole  of  northern  Russia,  inflicted 
upon  the  Mongols,  on  the  banks  of  the  Don,  the  first  defeat 
which  they  had  suffered  at  Russian  hands;  and  although  the 
Mongol  power  was  by  no  means  broken,  never  thereafter  did 
it  threaten  to  engulf  the  Russian  world.  The  hold  which  it 
retained  upon  the  southern  portions  of  the  country  was  grad- 
ually relaxed  as  the  Golden  Horde,  in  the  next  hundred  years, 
dissolved  into  petty  and  powerless  khanates. 

Meanwhile,  the  princes  of  Moscow  had  acquired  the  ad- 
vantage of  leadership  in  a  great  national  cause.  Moscow  be- 
came the  recognized  center  of  the  country;  its  prince,  the 
strongest  ruler,  the  ablest  administrator,  the  people's  defender, 
and — since  the  seat  of  the  metropolitan  had  been  transferred 
thither — the  eldest  son  of  the  church. 

During  the  century  and  a  quarter  covered  by  the  reigns  of 
three  powerful  princes,  Ivan  III,  his  son  Basil  III,  and  his 
grandson  Ivan  IV  (1462-1584),  the  policies  which  had  been 
inaugurated  were  carried  to  their  logical  conclusion.  The  few 
principalities  that  had  remained  independent  were  absorbed, 
and  the  long  and  desperate  struggle  with  the  neighboring 
Slavic  kingdoms,  Poland,  Lithuania,  and  the  rest,  was  begun. 
The  last  traces  of  Mongol  authority  were  obliterated,  and  un- 
limited monarchical  power  was  established. 

Ivan  III  married  a  niece  of  the  Emperor  Constantine  Pale- 
ologus,  who  had  perished  at  the  capture  of  his  capital  by  the 
Turks  in  1453.  The  autocratic  tendencies  of  his  rule,  already 
encouraged  by  the  church,  were  powerfully  reenforced  by  By- 
zantine influences.    The  prince  ceased  to  be  primus  inter  pares 


i8  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

among  people  of  princely  rank;  he  became  "the  Lord's  anointed," 
who  shut  himself  off  from  even  the  nobility,  surrounded 
himself  with  pomp  and  luxury,  and  took  on  the  char- 
acter of  an  Oriental  Sultan.  The  people  murmured  and  the 
nobles  protested,  but  in  vain. 

Finally,  in  1547,  when  the  seventeen-year-old  Ivan  IV — Ivan 
(John)  the  Terrible — was  being  crowned,  he  compelled  the 
metropolitan  to  crown  him,  not  as  Grand  Prince  of  Muscovy, 
but  as  Czar  of  Russia.  From  time  immemorial  the  term  czar 
— a  contraction  of  Caesar — had  been  applied  in  Russia  to  the 
Biblical  kings  and  to  the  Byzantine  emperors ;  but  never  before 
had  it  been  applied  officially  to  a  prince  of  Russia,  although 
Ivan  III,  in  his  treaties,  had  used  an  equivalent  of  it.  Its 
adoption  marks  the  final  triumph  of  the  autocratic  principle. 

Ivan  the  Terrible  is  a  sinister  figure.  He  is  one  of  several 
monarchs  of  Russia  who  began  with  good  intentions  and  ended 
by  becoming  a  monster  of  cruelty.  Perhaps  it  would  be  fairer 
to  style  him,  as  a  recent  writer  on  Russian  history  has  done, 
Ivan  the  Terrified.  For  it  was  his  inborn  timidity,  increased 
to  nervous  terror,  and  assuming  almost  the  proportions  of  a 
disease,  that  explains  the  explosive  excitability,  the  mysticism, 
and  the  unrelieved  barbarity  so  characteristic  of  his  later  life. 
■  Notwithstanding  his  glaring  faults,  he  really  had  the  wel- 
fare of  his  people  at  heart,  and  was  not  unpopular.  He  con- 
ceived and  partially  realized  the  plan  of  a  "democratic  autoc- 
racy," aiming  at  the  promotion  of  the  public  interest.  No 
less  enlightened  a  successor  than  Peter  the  Great  testified  that 
he  took  Ivan  for  an  example  in  civil  and  military  administra- 
tion. 

Among  Ivan's  more  notable  measures  were  the  partial  de- 
struction of  the  hitherto  powerful  aristocratic  class  of  boyars, 
the  completion  of  the  subjugation  of  Novgorod,  and  the  an- 
nexation of  the  Mongol  khanates  of  Kazan  and  Astrakhan. 
He  also  waged  a  series  of  unsuccessful  wars,  following  up  the 
efforts  of  his  grandfather  to  acquire  territory  on  the  west  at 
the  expense  of  Lithuania,  Poland,  and  the  Swedes,  and  with  it 
the  advantage  for  which  Peter  the  Great  labored  in  subsequent 
years — an  outlet  to  the  Baltic. 

This  advantage  was  destined  not  to  be  realized  until  another 
century  should  have  elapsed;  but  during  Ivan's  reign  commer- 
cial  relations   were   established    with   England.    Following   the 


RUSSIA  19 

visit  of  an  English  sea-captain,  Richard  Chancellor,  to  Mos- 
cow, an  envoy  from  Queen  Mary  concluded  with  the  Czar  a 
convention  stipulating  mutual  freedom  of  trade  between  the 
two  countries. 

The  death  of  Ivan  (1584)  was  followed  by  a  period  des- 
ignated in  Russian  histories  as  the  Time  of  Trouble — a  period, 
as  one  writer  has  characterized  it,  "which  is  like  a  series  of 
Elizabethan  chronicle  plays,  and  which  contains  trenchant 
characters,  scenes  and  episodes  of  tragic  intensity,  glowing 
with  color,  dabbled  with  blood,  loud  with  turmoil  and  fighting, 
like  those  of  a  tragedy  by  Marlowe." 

The  Time  of  Trouble  began,  strictly,  in  1598,  upon  the  death 
of  Ivan's  weak  son  and  successor  Feodor,  with  whom  ended 
forever  the  dynasty  of  the  Ruriks,  and  it  lasted  fifteen  years. 
After  Feodor,  a  brother-in-law,  Boris  Godunov,  who  for  years 
had  been  the  power  behind  the  throne,  was  elected  Czar  by  a 
national  assembly.  But  a  rival  claimant  appeared,  insurrection 
became  wide-spread,  and  in  1605  Boris  died,  probably  poisoned. 

The  rival  claimant,  reputed  to  be  Feodor's  brother  Dimitri, 
but  unquestionably  an  impostor,  became  Czar;  and  within  a 
year  he  was  assassinated.  Matters  went  from  bad  to  worse. 
Pretenders  arose  on  every  side,  centralized  authority  disap- 
peared, and  at  one  time  the  country  narrowly  escaped  becom- 
ing a  dependency  of  Poland. 

But  since  the  rise  of  the  Moscow  principate  Russia  had 
gained  enormously  in  national  consciousness,  and  at  the  very 
moment  when  utter  dissolution  seemed  inevitable  there  swept 
over  the  country  a  wave  of  patriotism  and  of  revulsion  against 
Polish,  Lithuanian,  or  other  foreign  domination.  First  the  land 
was  cleared  of  its  invaders,  and  then,  toward  the  ^lose  of 
1612,  the  boyars  and  clergy  came  to  the  wise  decision  to  ar- 
range for  the  election  of  a  Czar  by  a  zemsky  sobor  or  national 
assembly. 

In  January,  1613,  some  five  hundred  deputies,  chosen  by  the 
people  in  fifty  towns,  and  forming  by  far  the  most  widely  rep- 
presentative  body  ever  brought  together  in  Russia  prior  to  the 
eighteenth  century,  arrived  in  Moscow.  In  the  great  Cathedral 
of  the  Assumption  these  men — nobles,  boyars'  sons,  officials, 
soldiers,  merchants,  and  even  peasants — took  in  hand  with  much 
earnestness  the  problem  which  had  been  committed  to  them. 

"For  many  days,"  writes  an  annalist  of  the  time,  "there  w^r^ 


20  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

meetings  of  the  men,  but  they  could  not  settle  affairs,  and  vainly 
swayed  this  way  and  that." 

At  length,  on  Sunday,  February  21,  following  three  days  of 
fasting  and  prayer,  the  assembly  elected  as  sovereign  a  serious- 
minded  lad  fifteen  years  of  age,  Michael  Feodorovitch  Romanoff. 
The  boy  was  a  son  of  the  chief  dignitary  of  the  Russian  Church, 
the  patriarch  Philaret  Romanoff,  who  belonged  to  a  popular 
boyar  family.  He  was  also  a  nephew  of  the  first  wife  of  Ivan 
the  Terrible.  It  was  understood  that  for  a  time  the  father 
should  govern  jointly  with  the  son,  and  in  fact  the  two  ruled  to- 
gether until  the  patriarch's  death  in  1633. 
■^  The  new  dynasty  was  destined  to  become  one  of  the  most 
powerful  and  enduring  in  Europe.  The  three  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  its  accession  was  celebrated  with  much  acclaim  two 
years  ago,  and  every  sovereign  of  Russia  during  the  centuries 
since  its  establishment  has  been  a  member  of  it  by  birth,  save 
only  Catherine  II,  who  was  a  German. 

Under  the  Romanoffs  the  distracted  and  relatively  small  do- 
minion of  Michael  has  been  expanded  westward  and  southward 
and  eastward  to  the  widely  separated  bounds  of  the  present 
Russian  Empire.  Under  them  the  country  has  multiplied  in 
population  many  fold,  has  achieved  strong  nationality  and  cen- 
tralized government,  and  has  pushed  its  way  into  the  broad  cur- 
rent of  modern,  western  civilization. 

The  rule  of  the  Romanoffs  was  accepted  by  all  classes  of  the 
people,  and  the  country  gradually  recovered  from  the  effects  of 
the  turmoil  through  which  it  had  passed.  Theoretically,  the 
election  of  Michael  involved  a  fresh  assertion  of  the  essentially 
popular  basis  of  the  state — the  elective  character  of  the  sover- 
eign power,  the  limitation  of  this  power  by  participation  of 
the  people  in  legislation  and  administration,  and  its  responsi- 
bility to  the  people. 

These  ideas,  familiar  enough  in  the  Kiev  period  of  Rus- 
sian history,  had  been  suppressed  or  stifled  by  the  practise  of 
Moscow.  They  were  now  reasserted,  and  from  the  days  of 
Michael  and  Philaret  to  those  of  Nicholas  II  they  could  always 
be  appealed  to  in  combating  autocracy. 

Their  role  in  the  history  of  Russia  became  not  unlike  that 
played  in  England  by  those  conceptions  of  individual  right  and 
liberty  which  found  expression  in  the  Magna  Charta,  save  in 
one  most  important  respect,  namely,  that  whereas  in  England 


RUSSIA  21 

the  concessions  wrung  from  the  king  became  from  an  early 
period  real  and  permanent,  in  Russia  the  liberal  ideas  attending 
the  early  rule  of  the  Romanoffs  were  gradually  obscured,  until 
eventually  the  dynasty  became  the  most  autocratic  in  all  Eu- 
rope. It  is  only  in  our  own  day  that  Russia  is  in  some  measure 
getting  back  to  the  principles  of  1613. 

The  great  era  in  the  making  of  the  European  Russia  of 
to-day  was  the  eighteenth  century,  just  as  the  era  of  the  making 
of  Asiatic  Russia  was  the  nineteenth.  And  in  the  eighteenth 
century  there  are  two  figures  which  tower  above  all  their  con- 
temporaries, Peter  the  Great  (1689-1725)  and  Catherine  II 
(1762-1796).  The  one  was  the  ablest  of  all  the  Romanoffs;  the 
other,  Romanoff  only  by  marriage,  takes  rank  also  as  one  of 
the  most  notable  monarchs  of  modern  times,  and  perhaps  the 
most  astute,  although  far  from  the  most  admirable,  female  ruler 
in  the  history  of  continental  Europe. 

The  accession  of  Peter  fell  in  a  period  of  palace  revolutions 
following  the  death  of  his  father,  Alexis,  in  1676 ;  but  the  trouble 
was  confined  to  the  different  branches  of  the  Romanoff  family, 
and  it  did  not  affect  the  hold  upon  the  throne  which  the  family 
in  the  past  three-quarters  of  a  century  had  acquired. 

Peter  the  Great  is  one  of  the  best-known  men  of  history ; 
although  one  must  add  that  he  is  perhaps  the  only  Russian  sov- 
ereign whose  personality  is  really  known  at  all  adequately  to 
people  of^ie  western  world.  His  predominating  mental  char- 
acteristio^^^e  alertness,  inquisitiveness,  restless  energy,  and 
%nwillin^H^to  admit  that  anything  worth  doing  was  im- 
possible. His  physical  endowment  included  a  powerful  frame 
and  capacity  to  undergo  great  exertion,  although  offset  by  a 
nervous  disorder  which  in  time  assumed  the  character  of  in- 
curable disease. 

His  interests  were  as  wide  as  the  earth,  but  centered  upon 
war  and  military  exercises,  ship-building,  and  the  study  of  the 
arts  and  ways  of  foreign  peoples.  His  was  a  personality  of  the 
most  violent  contradictions — simple,  straightforward,  pious,  yet 
passionate,  revengeful,  cruel,  and  sensual.  All  his  qualities  were 
on  a  colossal  scale.  His  rage  was  cyclonic,  his  hatred  meant 
extermination. 

A  contemporary  well  said  of  him  that  he  was  a  very 
good  and  a  very  bad  man,  and  it  may  be  doubted  whether  any 
prince  equally  great  has  ever  descended  to  such  depths  of  treach- 


22  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

ery  and  cruelty.  But  it  is  quite  possible  that  his  very  contradic- 
tions fitted  him  for  his  times  and  his  tasks.  Russia  needed  a 
ruler  of  constructive  power  and  of  far-reaching  views,  while  his 
restless  vigor,  his  disregard  of  scruples,  and  his  tyrannous  ways 
suited  a  backward  and  uncivilized  people,  accustomed  to  despotic 
rule,  and  demanding  a  master  who  would  drive  them  along  the 
path  of  progress. 

In  the  development  of  modern  Russia,  Peter's  reign  acquires 
prime  importance  from  two  aspects  of  his  policy.  One  was  the 
acquisition  of  territory,  the  consolidation  of  dominion,  and  the 
providing  of  his  country  with  an  outlet  to  the  open  sea;  the 
other  was  the  reconstruction  of  the  government,  the  military 
system,  and  the  social  usages  of  the  land,  partly  upon  western 
models,  partly  in  sharp  reaction  against  them. 

From  first  to  last  the  foreign  policy  of  the  reign  had  as  its 
principal  impetus  the  Czar's  consuming  love  of  the  sea.  In  1689 
Russia  had  not  a  single  port,  save  Archangel,  on  the  White  Sea ; 
and  this,  on  account  of  its  far  northern  location,  was  of  use  dur- 
ing only  a  few  months  of  each  year.  It  was  the  dream  of  Peter 
to  obtain  for  his  country  a  footing  on  the  shores  of  the  Caspian, 
the  Black,  and  the  Baltic,  and  to  link  up  the  waters  of  the  Volgaj^ 
the  Don,  the  Dnieper,  and  the  Neva,  which  flow  into  these  seas, 
with  a  network~bf  canals.  Thus  Russia  would  become  a  great 
highway  of  trade  and  travel  between  the  northwest  and  the 
southeast,  and  would  hold  a  position  that  would  a^^t  give  her 
an  influential  standing  among  the  nations  of  the  -J^^^ 

That  the  dream  was  realized  only  in  part  was  ^jP&lt  of  thl^ 
dreamer.    Attention    was    directed   first    toward   the    southeast, 
and  in  1696,  when  Peter  was  as  yet  but  twenty-three  years  of  age, 
the  important  territory  of  Azov,  bordering  the  Black  Sea,  was 
wrested  from  the  Turks. 

This  initial  success  inspired  the  laying  of  broader  and  bolder 
plans,  which  required  years  for  their  consummation,  and  in- 
volved not  only  travel  and  observation  in  western  countries,  but 
the  remodeling  of  the  army,  the  building  of  a  fleet,  and  the 
amassing  of  money  and  supplies.  When  the  time  for  the  re- 
newal of  action  came,  the  purpose  of  further  conquest  in  the 
East  had  given  place  to  an  overmastering  desire  to  acquire  land 
upon  the  Baltic,  and  thereby  to  "open  a  window"  toward  western 
civilization. 

As  early  as  1699  Peter  joined  the  kings  of  Denmark  and  Po- 


RUSSIA  23 

land  in  a  coalition  whose  thinly  disguised  object  was  the  con- 
quest of  the  Swedish  possessions  south  and  east  of  the  Baltic. 
The  eccentric  young  King  of  Sweden,  Charles  XII,  performed 
with  unexpected  brilliance,  and  at  first  defeated  the  allies 
roundly  one  by  one ;  but  after  a  prolonged  and  desultory  contest 
there  was  concluded,  in  1721,  the  important  Peace  of  Nystad, 
by  whose  terms  Peter  obtained  for  Russia  not  only  the  districts 
of  Ingria  and  Karelia,  as  had  been  the  original  intention,  but 
also  the  important  provinces  of  Livonia  and  Esthonia  and  a  part 
of  Finland. 

In  the  course  of  the  war  Azov  was  recovered  by  the  Turks, 
and  the  planting  of  Russian  sovereignty  on  the  coast  of  the 
Black  Sea  remained  to  be  accomplished  by  Catherine  II ;  but 
Peter  had  given  his  country  a  foothold  upon  the  Baltic,  and  an 
outlet  to  the  western  ocean,  which  was  never  lost.  He  had  made 
it  understood  that  Russia,  not  Sweden  or  Poland,  was  the  great 
northeastern  power  with  which  Europe  must  reckon. 

In  the  course  of  the  celebration  of  the  Peace  of  Nystad,  in 
1 721,  Peter  made  a  further  bold  bid  for  aggrandizement  for 
himself  and  his  country  by  laying  aside  the  title  of  Czar  and  pro- 
claiming himself  Imperator  (Emperor)  of  all  the  Russias.  The 
foreign  chancelleries  were  taken  by  surprise,  and  were  inclined 
to  resent  the  presumption  involved  in  the  act;  but  their  protests 
were  futile,  and  the  title  at  length  won  general  recognition.  It 
remains  the  official  designation  of  the  Russian  monarch  to-day, 
although  he  is  almost  universally  spoken  of  by  foreigners  as 
"the  Czar." 

Meanwhile  the  program  of  internal  reform,  entered  upon  al- 
most at  the  beginning  of  Peter's  reign,  was  being  carried  into  ef- 
fect as  rapidly  as  circumstances  permitted.  The  obstacles  to  be 
overcome  were  stupendous.  Chief  among  them  was  the  in- 
tensely conservative  disposition  of  the  masses  of  the  people ;  and 
it  was  in  the  main  to  escape  the  superstitious  and  fanatical  ob- 
structionism which  centered  in  Moscow  that  the  Czar  projected 
and  founded  the  new  capital  at  the  mouth  of  the  Neva— the  city 
of  "weariness,  cold,  and  granite,"  as  Pushkin  called  it— to  which 
his  name  was  given. 

The  construction  of  the  new  city,  in  a  region  recently  taken 
from  Sweden,  was  begun  in  1703.  The  site  was  marshy,  and  the 
buildings  had  to  be  erected  on  filled  earth  and  supported  on 
piles,  so  that  the  amount  and  difficulty  of  the  labor  required  was 


24  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

stupendous.  Thousands  of  men  from  all  parts  of  Russia  were 
employed  in  the  building  of  the  city  and  of  its  fortifications,  and 
great  numbers  died  of  exposure  and  harsh  treatment.  Emigra- 
tion thither  was  forced,  and  shortly  after  Peter's  death  the 
population  had  risen  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand — a  figure 
which  by  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  almost 
doubled. 

The  embellishments  which  make  the  city  one  of  the  hand- 
somest in  Europe  to-day  were  added  principally  during  the 
reigns  of  Alexander  I  and  Nicholas  I,  in  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Antedating  them,  however,  is  the  remark- 
able bronze  statue  of  the  capital's  founder  which  stands  in  the 
broad  square  surrounding  the  Admiralty.  Completed  by  the 
French  sculptor  Falconet  in  1782,  it  represents  its  subject  on 
horseback,  at  full  gallop,  ascending  a  rocky  slope  and  pointing 
to  the  Neva. 

The  new  city  was  designed,  as  Peter  declared,  to  serve  as 
a  window  through  which  the  Russian  people  might  look  into 
Europe,  and  there  can  be  no  question  that  throughout  its  exist- 
ence it  has  led  both  in  the  development  of  Russian  thought  and 
in  the  naturalizing  of  western  science  and  philosophy  in  the 
country.  It  has  fitly  been  said  that  Petrograd  is  the  head  of 
Russia,  while  Moscow  remains  the  country's  heart. 

The  model  which  Peter  followed  in  his  reconstruction  of 
Russian  society  was  mainly  German,  and  in  a  portion  of  his 
work  he  had  the  assistance  of  the  German  philosopher  Leib- 
nitz. Like  the  Japanese  in  more  recent  times,  however,  he  did 
not  hesitate  to  borrow  from  any  source  ideas  or  usages  which 
seemed  to  him  desirable. 

The  governmental  system  was  overhauled,  although  with  no 
concession  to  western  principles  of  liberalism.  The  army  was 
reorganized  and  much  enlarged.  The  office  of  patriarch  was 
abolished,  and  in  its  place  was  set  up  a  Holy  Synod  presided 
over  by  a  procurator-general,  often  a  soldier,  who  was  the  im- 
mediate representative  of  the  head  of  the  state.  Taxation  was 
readjusted.  Monasticism  was  restricted.  Elementary  and  tech- 
nical schools  were  established,  and  teachers  were  brought  in 
from  foreign  countries.  The  seclusion  of  women  was  discour- 
aged. Western  styles  of  dress  were  introduced.  The  wearing 
of  a  beard  was  made  a  privilege  entailing  the  payment  of  a 
special  taa?, 


RUSSIA  25 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  penetration  of  Russia  by 
western  ideas  and  habits  began  only  with  the  measures  of  Peter. 
From  the  court  of  Poland,  dominated  alternately  by  Frenchmen 
and  Italians,  some  Occidental  innovations  had  already  been  in- 
troduced. Peter's  father,  the  Czar  Alexis,  had  shocked  the 
orthodox  of  Moscow  by  appearing  occasionally  in  western  dress, 
just  as  his  wife  had  caused  no  end  of  scandal  by  failing  to  con- 
ceal her  face  from  the  public  gaze  when  she  was  being  borne 
through  the  streets  of  the  old  capital. 

But  Peter's  acts  and  measures  went  vastly  beyond  anything 
hitherto  dreamed  of;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  used 
little  tact  in  conciliating  public  opinion.  Not  infrequently  he 
wantonly  provoked  opposition,  as  when  he  shaved  off  his  beard 
and  compelled  his  chief  officials  to  do  likewise,  although  he  well 
enough  knew  that  the  performance  was  regarded  by  the  igno- 
rant masses  as  a  sinful  defacing  of  the  image  of  God. 

By  some  he  was  declared  to  be  a  foreigner  in  disguise,  by 
others  Antichrist;  but  he  persisted  to  the  end,  and,  although  his 
reforms  proved  less  effective  than  he  hoped,  for  the  reason  that 
human  nature  and  long  established  habits  cannot  be  changed 
as  quickly  as  can  laws  or  armies,  in  the  aggregate  Russia  was 
carried  forward  an  immeasurable  distance  on  the  road  toward 
modernization.  His  whole  task,  it  has  been  observed,  consisted 
in  scratching  away  the  Tatar  and  setting  the  inner  Russian  free. 

Following  the  death  of  Peter,  at  the  early  age  of  fifty-three, 
the  country  passed  for  almost  three-quarters  of  a  century,  with 
the  exception  of  two  brief  intervals,  under  the  control  of  wo- 
men. First  came  Peter's  wife,  Catherine;  then  the  daughter  of 
his  brother  Ivan,  Anne,  Duchess  of  Courland,  noted  for  her 
strong  German  predilections;  then  Peter's  daughter  Elizabeth, 
proudly  Russian,  and  one  of  the  most  engaging  of  the  em- 
presses; and  finally  the  ablest  of  the  group,  Catherine  II,  some- 
times called  Catherine  the  Great. 

As  has  been  stated,  the  last  Catherine  was  a  native  of 
Germany.  As  Sophia  Augusta  Frederica  of  Anhalt-Zerbst,  she 
was  married,  in  1745,  to  a  grandson  of  Peter  the  Great,  Charles 
Peter  Ulrich,  Duke  of  Holstein-Gottorp,  who,  as  his  name  and 
title  indicate,  was  hardly  less  German  than  herself.  The  Ro- 
manoff dynasty  had  reached  the  point,  indeed,  where  for  the 
time  being  there  was  no  possible  heir,  even  in  the  female  line, 
who  could  be  called  a  genuine  Russian. 


26  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Upon  the  death  of  Elizabeth,  in  1761,  the  duke  became  em- 
peror under  the  name  Peter  IIL  From  the  outset  he  was  in- 
tensely unpopular.  He  was  devoid  of  character  and  capacity, 
and  he  took  no  pains  to  conceal  his  dislike  of  all  things  Russian. 
His  wife,  on  the  other  hand,  deftly  turned  to  advantage  her 
naturally  winsome  disposition  until  she  fully  ingratiated  herself 
with  her  adopted  people.  She  mastered  their  language,  became 
a  member  of  their  national  church,  and  made  herself  one  of 
them. 

The  outcome  was  inevitable.  Within  a  few  months  of  his 
accession,  in  December,  1761,  Peter  was  deposed,  and  a  little 
later  he  met  his  death — accidentally,  it  was  given  out,  in  a 
brawl.    Without  delay  Catherine  was  proclaimed  sovereign. 

Under  the  energetic  administration  of  this  most  statesman- 
like of  European  female  rulers  since  Elizabeth  of  England, 
Russia  entered  upon  a  fresh  era  of  advancement  comparable 
with  the  period  of  Peter  the  Great.  The  policies  and  achieve- 
ments of  the  empress  attract  less  attention  than  do  those  of  her 
illustrious  predecessor,  for  the  reason  that  there  was  less  about 
them  that  was  novel  or  startling;  but  they  were  equally  am- 
bitious and  fruitful. 

On  the  side  of  foreign  affairs,  the  principal  object  of  the 
reign  was  the  completion  of  the  work  which  Peter  had  begun — 
the  extension  of  the  western  and  the  southeastern  frontiers  to 
the  sea,  and  the  raising  of  Russia  to  a  position  of  greater  in- 
fluence in  the  councils  of  Europe.  In  both  the  west  and  the 
southeast  there  were  large  additions  of  important  territory. 

In  the  west,  the  unhappy  kingdom  of  Poland  was  dis- 
membered by  the  three  successive  partitions  of  1772,  1793,  and 
1795,  and  the  spoils  were  divided  among  Russia,  Prussia,  and 
Austria,  Russia  obtaining  the  lion's  share.  And  in  the  year  of 
the  last  Polish  partition  the  Duchy  of  Courland,  cutting  off 
Russia  from  the  Baltic  between  the  mouths  of  the  Niemen  and 
Duna  rivers,  after  being  held  for  decades  in  tutelage,  was  form- 
ally annexed.  By  these  steps  the  Russian  boundary  was  pushed 
westward  a  distance  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles. 

In  the  southeast,  a  war  with  the  Turks,  instigated  in  1768 
by  France,  was  terminated  in  1774  by  a  treaty  which  gave  Rus- 
sia a  firm  hold  on  the  Black  Sea.  Ten  years  later  the  independ- 
ence of  the  Mongol  khans  of  the  Crimea,  recognized  in  1774, 
was  extinguished,  and  the  peninsula — destined  to  become  the 


RUSSIA  27 

scene  of  some   famous   events  in   Russian  history — was  incor- 
porated in  the  empire. 

Catherine  conceived  a  plan  to  bring  about  a  partition  of  Tur- 
key similar  to  that  of  Poland ;  but  the  obstacles  were  too  formi- 
dable to  be  overcome.  A  second  war  with  the  Turks,  however, 
begun  in  1787,  led  to  the  acquisition  of  the  coastal  region  be- 
tween the  Bug  and  the  Dniester,  containing  the  great  port  of 
Odessa. 

At  home,  Catherine's  policies  were  essentially  those  of  Peter 
— the  opening  of  the  country  to  western  ideas  and  influences, 
the  reforming  of  the  administrative  system,  and  the  rigid  main- 
tenance of  autocracy.  Less  stress  was  placed,  however,  upon 
the  purely  material  and  utilitarian  aspects  of  national  progress. 
Rather,  the  effort  was  to  impart  to  the  country  some  measure 
of  the  refinements  and  ornamental  attributes  of  western,  mainly 
French  and  German,  civilization. 

The  empress  was  a  professed  disciple  of  Montesquieu,  and 
friend  of  Grimm  and  Voltaire.  Early  in  her  reign,  when  she 
heard  that  the  publication  of  the  great  French  "Encyclopedic" 
was  in  danger  of  being  stopped  by  the  government  of  Louis  XV, 
on  account  of  the  irreligious  spirit  of  the  work,  she  proposed  to 
Diderot  that  he  should  carry  his  task  to  completion  in  Russia 
under  her  protection.  Her  liberalism,  however,  was  purely 
philosophic  and  theoretical,  and  there  are  reasons  for  thinking 
that  she  always  entertained  a  quiet  contempt  for  the  French 
writers  whom,  in  return  for  the  advertising  they  gave  her  in  the 
West,  she  flattered  and  pensioned. 

At  one  time  she  went  so  far  as  to  convene  a  national  rep- 
resentative assembly;  but  the  powers  which  the  body  was  per- 
mitted to  exercise  were  limited,  and  in  a  short  while  it  passed 
out  of  existence.  And  when  the  Revolution  came  on  in  France 
no  one  was  more  assiduous  than  Catherine  in  whetting  the 
hostility  of  the  European  sovereigns  to  the  democratic  move- 
ment. 

The  nineteenth  century  opened  with  Russia  awaiting  an  op- 
portunity to  take  advantage  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  to  solve 
the  Eastern  question  in  a  fashion  agreeable  to  herself.  The 
opportunity  did  not  come  in  Napoleon's  time,  nor  has  it  ever 
fully  come.  Instead,  the  Czar  Alexander  I,  who  in  1801,  suc- 
ceeded Catherine's  capricious  son  Paul,  found  himself  at  first, 
in  1807,  drawn  into  a  hollow  alliance  with  the  western  conqueror, 


28  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

and  later,  in  1811,  forced  by  circumstances  to  make  war  upon 
him. 
''  The  principal  result  of  the  Napoleonic  alliance  was  the  con- 
quest from  Sweden  of  the  extensive  territories  of  Finland  and 
Bothnia,  This  acquisition,  organized  as  a  constitutional  grand 
duchy  in  1809,  gave  the  empire  substantially  the  western  bound- 
aries which  it  has  since  possessed.  The  outcome  of  the  Czar's 
turning  against  Napoleon  was  the  memorable  expedition  to  Mos- 
cow in  1812,  and  the  assumption  by  Russia  of  leadership  in  the 
campaigns  of  1813-1814,  from  which  the  Napoleonic  ascendency 
received  its  finishing  blows.  The  empire  emerged  from  the  long 
struggle  enlarged  in  area  and  population,  increased  in  prestige, 
and  more  nearly  the  dictator  of  Europe  than  any  other  power. 

Since  1815  the  main  interests  of  Russian  history  have  been 
/three.     One  is  the  increase  of  territory;  a  second  is  the  revo- 
/lutionizing  of  the  country's  industrial  condition;  a  third  is  the 
'  development  of  political  liberalism. 

Russia  has  not  pushed  her  frontiers  westward  during  the  last 
hundred  years,  except  that  in  1878  she  recovered  a  strip  of  Bes- 
sarabia lost  after  the  Crimean  War.  She  has  extended  her 
Caucasian  province  southward  at  the  expense  of  Turkey  and 
Persia;  but  her  great  expansion  has  been  to  the  east,  and  in 
her  Asiatic  dominions  she  has  accomplished  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  conquering  and  colonizing  achievements  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world.  Meanwhile,  she  has  abandoned  her  outlying 
possessions  in  North  America,  transferring  Alaska  to  the 
United  States  in  1867  for  seven  million  dollars  in  gold — a  price 
which  seems'  paltry  in  comparison  with  the  present  importance 
of  that  rich 'territory. 

From  the  days  of  the  Verangers  the  Russian  Slav  has  had 
a  bent  for  pioneering,  and  in  the  vast  stretches  of  Siberia  he 
finally  found  an  opportunity  to  indulge  his  colonizing  proclivi- 
ties to  the  utmost.  Russian  penetration  eastward  from  the  Urals 
began  systematically  as  early  as  1581,  when  the  indefatigable 
Cossack  chieftain  Yermak  headed  an  unauthorized  expedition 
to  Sibir,  capital  of  one  of  the  Asiatic  khanates,  and  captured 
the  place. 

In  Russian  hands  Sibir — whence  is  derived  the  name  Si- 
beria— declined,  and  eventually  disappeared.  But  the  Russian 
settlement  was  maintained,  and  the  neighboring  city  of  Tobolsk, 
founded  in  1587,  became  the  permanent  outpost  of  a  colonizing 


RUSSIA  29 

movement  which  has  since  had  for  its  field  the  whole  vast  plain 
of  northern  Asia. 

Step  by  step  the  hardy  Cossacks  worked  their  way  east- 
ward, building  forts  and  planting  settlements,  until  in  1636  they 
came  upon  the  only  limit  to  their  enterprise  which  they  deigned 
to  recognize — the  shore  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  By  the  begin- 
ning of  the  eighteenth  century  the  flag  of  Russia  waved  over 
all  the  territories  of  northern  and  eastern  Siberia.  It  remained  '^ 
to  acquire  the  lands  farther  south,  and  especially  the  fertile  and  n^,^ 
populous  valley  of  the  Amur.  This  was  accomplished  shortly 
after  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century;  and  between  1891 
and  1902  there  was  constructed  the  great  Trans-Siberian  rail-  )' 

way,  nearly  five  thousand  miles  in  length,  which  cut  the  time         >  *• 
and  cost  of  transportation  from  Europe  to  the  Pacific  to  about 
one-half. 

The  Russian  losses  in  the  Far  East  in  consequence  of  the 
war  with  Japan  in  1904- 1905  were  considerable,  but  in  no  way 
vital.  They  have  had  the  not  undesirable  effect  of  centering  the 
government's  attention  upon  the  colonization  of  the  Siberian 
lands — the  Canada  of  Russia — and  during  the  past  decade  the 
number  of  Russians  migrating  thither  has  varied  from  two  - 
hundred  thousand  to  more  than  six  hundred  thousand  annually. 
The  bad  name  which  Siberia  acquired  from  the  exile  system  was 
never  wholly  deserved,  and  is  fast  passing. 

The  economic  transformation  which  Russia  has  undergone  in 
the  past  fifty  or  seventy-five  years  involves  as  its  principal 
factors  the  emancipation  of  the  serfs  under  Alexander  II,  the 
introduction  of  machinery  and  ot  the  factory  systernpfhe''grbWtfl  "" 
of  capitalism,  the  building  of  railways,  the  rise  of  cities,  and,  in 
general,  the  development  of  those  aspects  of  modern  civilization 
which  are  associated  with  the  idea  of  "industrialism."  Only  in 
the  present  generation  has  Russia  really  entered  that  stage  of 
industrial  transition  through  which  England  passed  in  the  sec- 
ond half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  France  in  the  second  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth,  and  Germany  in  the  third  quarter  of  the  nine- 
teenth. 

As  in  economic  matters,  so  in  poHtical  affairs,  Russia  is  still 
a  country  in  the  making.  Despite  an  earlier  tradition  of  limited 
monarchy,  the  nation's  present  political  inheritance  is  autocracy; 
and  it  is  too  much  to  expect  the  weight  of  that  inheritance  to  be 
thrown  off  suddenly,  or  even  rapidly. 


30  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

During  the  past  hundred  years  the  country  has  oscillated  be- 
tween absolutism  and  constitutionaHsm.  Alexander  I  (1801- 
1825)  began  as  a  liberal,  but  ended  as  an  absolutist.  Nicholas  I 
(1825- 1855)  was  never  anything  but  a  thoroughgoing  absolutist. 
Alexander  II  (1855-1881)  was  a  liberal  whose  apprehensions 
narrowly  checked  him  from  reform  measures  transcending  even 
the  emancipation  of  the  serfs.  Alexander  III  (1881-1894)  was 
another  Nicholas  I;  and  the  present  Czar  was  committed  un- 
reservedly to  the  maintenance  of  autocracy  until  the  exigencies 
of  war  and  threatened  revolution,  in  1904-1905,  compelled  him  to 
make  some  concession  to  liberalizing  principles. 

How,  step  by  step,  within  the  past  decade,  Russia  has 
achieved  a  style  of  government  at  least  nominally  constitutional, 
is  a  matter  of  familiar  history.  There  is  a  written  constitution, 
the  first  the  country  ever  had,  which  consists  of  a  series  of  "or- 
ganic laws"  promulgated  in  1906.  There  is  the  Council  of  the 
Empire,  an  aristocratic  body  which  serves  as  an  upper  chamber 
of  the  national  legislature;  and  there  is  the  Imperial  Duma, 
whose  members  are  elected,  usually  indirectly,  by  the  people. 

The  history  of  the  nation  under  the  new  regime  has,  however, 
been  stormy.  Factional  strife  and  the  spirit  of  reaction  have 
many  times  imperiled  the  constitution's  very  existence.  The 
first  two  Dumas  were  short-lived.  The  third  lasted  from  1907 
to  1912,  and  the  fourth  is  still  in  existence. 

The  new  system  has  hardly  fulfilled  its  earlier  promise,  and 
the  government  of  the  empire  is  to-day  very  far  from  being 
democratic,  or  even  wholly  constitutional.  Yet,  measured  by  the 
conditions  of  a  century,  a  generation,  or  even  fifteen  years  ago, 
the  advance  in  governmental  responsiveness  to  the  will  of  the  na- 
tion looms  large.  The  winning  of  the  form  of  constitutionalism  is 
something,  for  in  time  it  may  lead  to  the  attainment  of  the  reality. 

As  a  factor  in  shaping  the  conduct  of  the  affairs  of  the  world 
at  large,  Russia  declined  perceptibly  in  consequence  of  her  de- 
feat by  Japan  and  her  internal  disorders  of  ten  years  ago.  Her 
army  was  decimated  and  her  military  system  discredited;  her 
navy  was  practically  destroyed;  and  her  finances  were  strained 
to  the  last  degree.  There  has  been,  however,  remarkable  re- 
covery, which  has  demonstrated  convincingly  the  empire's  re- 
serve strength;  and  her  position  among  the  powers  at  the  out- 
break of  the  present  war  was  one  of  commanding  importance. 

Her  army  had  been  rehabilitated  and  enlarged,  her  flee't  had 


RUSSIA  31 

been  in  a  measure  rebuilt,  her  finances  had  been  reduced  to 
order,  her  diplomacy  had  lately  achieved  some  of  its  most  no- 
table successes.  The  alliance  with  France,  which  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century  has  been  a  capital  fact  in  her  international  position, 
was  firmly  buttressed  by  both  political  and  financial  interests.  In 
1907  she  had  signed  a  convention  with  Japan  guaranteeing  the 
integrity  of  China  and  mutual  respect  for  treaty  and  territorial 
rights,  and  in  succeeding  years  the  two  formerly  hostile  powers 
had  arrived  at  a  status  of  genujne  friendship. 

In  1907,  also,  the  prolonged  period  of  mutual  suspicion  be- 
tween Russia  and  Great  Britain  was  brought  to  a  close  by  a 
convention  for  the  amicable  adjustment  of  all  questions  likely  to 
disturb  the  relations  of  the  two  powers  in  Asia,  including  the 
division  of  the  decrepit  state  of  Persia  into  "spheres  of  influ- 
ence." The  ambition  to  acquire  the  political  and  economic  domi- 
nance of  the  entire  Black  Sea  basin  remained  to  be  gratified, 
but  important  steps  had  been  taken  to  that  end. 

The  effect  of  the  present  war  upon  the  Russian  position  in 
the  world  cannot  be  foreseen  in  detail ;  but  it  is  a  safe  guess  that, 
whatever  happens,  the  Muscovite  empire  will  be  saved  by  her 
immensity,  her  immobility,  and  her  reserve  strength  from  suffer- 
ing a  setback  more  serious  than  that  from  which  she  so  speedily 
recovered  after  the  war  with  Japan.  Defeat  can  mean  no  serious 
loss  of  territory  or  impairment  of  resources;  victory  would 
probably  mean  accessions,  and  perhaps  very  important  acces- 
sions, to  both. 

Politically,  Russia  is  one  of  the  great  enduring  facts  of  the 
modern  world.  Culturally,  her  role  has  been,  and  is,  likewise  of 
fundamental  importance. 

As  Dante  among  the  great  men  of  history,  so  Russia  among 
the  great  nations  has  been  the  Janus-faced.  Her  outlook  has 
ever  been  in  two  quite  opposite  directions.  All  the  troubles  and 
sufferings  and  miserable  discords  which  run  through  the  life  of 
her  people,  no  less  than  their  achievements  and  their  victories, 
are  the  consequences  of  the  intermediate  position  between  East 
and  West  which  fate  has  decreed  that  the  nation  shall  occupy. 

Europe  and  Asia  still  carry  on  their  age-long  quarrel  within 
the  empire's  confines ;  the  imperial  emblem,  the  two-headed 
eagle,  remains  a  fitting  symbol  of  the  nation's  dual  character. 
First  it  was  Asia  that  overflowed  Europe;  latterly  it  is  Europe 
which  has  overflowed  Asia. 


32  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Russia's  role  in  civilization  has  been  to  preserve  an  equili- 
brium between  those  forces  which  are  distinctively  eastern  and 
those  which  are  distinctively  western,  and  her  greatest  geniuses 
have  ever  reconciled  in  themselves  eastern  and  western  tenden- 
cies. As  it  was  with  Peter  the  Great  in  the  sphere  of  state- 
craft, so  it  was  with  Pushkin  in  that  of  poetry,  with  Solovieff 
in  that  of  philosophy,  and  with  Tolstoy  in  that  of  religion  and 
morals. 

But  it  is  important  to  observe  that,  at  least  since  the  period 
of  Peter  the  Great,  the  whole  aspiration  of  Russia  in  matters  of 
culture  has  been  toward  Europe,  not  Asia.  Russia  is  a  Christian 
nation.  Her  administrative  and  economic  reforms  are  planned 
and  executed  on  Western  lines.  Her  science  is  the  science  of 
France  and  Germany,  and  her  art,  whether  sculpture,  painting, 
poetry,  or  music,  is  being  assimilated  ever  more  completely  to 
European  forms  and  standards  of  esthetics.  No  important 
political,  social,  or  intellectual  movement  in  the  West  is  without 
its  reflection  in  Russia. 

And,  even  if  Russia  were  several  times  more  Oriental  than 
she  is,  it  would  hardly  be  gracious  of  peoples  situated  farther 
west  to  taunt  her  with  her  un-European  character,  seeing  that 
through  all  the  centuries  she  has  served  them  ^s  a  protecting 
buffer  against  Asiatic  invasion  and  domination. 

X  '^ 

THE  ROMANOFFS* 

The  Great  White  Czar.  Among  the  royal  families 
which  are  actually  at  the  head  of  the  various  warring  na- 
tions the  most  powerful  is  commonly  supposed  to  be  the 
Romanoffs,  who  for  three  centuries  have  furnished  the  Czars  to 
all  the  Russias.  At  this  moment  the  King  of  Great  Britain  and 
Emperor  of  India  rules  over  more  millions  than  any  other  poten- 
tate; but  the  Emperor  of  Russia  counts  within  his  dominions 
about  twice  as  many  European  subjects  as  Germany,  three  and  a 
half  times  as  many  as  France,  and  three  times  as  many  as  Great 
Britain.  Russia  has  a  greater  area  than  all  the  rest  of  Europe 
together,  and  can  enlist,  and  perhaps  put  in  the  field,  about  two- 
thirds  as  many  soldiers  as  all  the  rest  of  Europe.  The  absolute 
rulers  of  that  mighty  Empire  are  therefore — at  least  on  paper — 

1  By  A.  B.  Hart.    Outlook.  108:456-60.  October  28,  19 14. 


RUSSIA  33 

the  most  powerful  sovereigns  since  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire. 

The  Imperial  family  of  Romanoff  stands  alongside  the  houses 
of  Hohenzollern  and  Hapsburg  as  a  line  of  monarchs.  In  prac- 
tical affairs  neither  the  line  nor  its  members  are  so  great  as 
statistics  and  theories  of  sovereignty  seem  to  indicate.  On  the 
average,  Russia  is  the  poorest  country  in  Europe,  except  some  of 
the  Balkan  States;  it  has  the  smallest  average  personal  income; 
the  least  number  of  schools,  colleges,  and  technical  institutes  in 
proportion  to  population ;  the  smallest  relative  internal  and  for- 
eign commerce.  Russia  is  great  because  it  is  an  enormous  mass, 
the  aggregation  of  tens  of  thousands  of  villages  and  scores  of 
millions  of  people.  Russia  is  mighty,  not  as  a  power,  but  as  a 
potentiality;  the  Bear  has  never  realized  his  own  strength  and 
possibilities.  Whether  conquered  or  victorious  in  the  present 
war,  Russia  will  therefore  arise  with  a  new  sense  of  her  weight 
in  the  world,  and  her  rulers  will  realize  their  future  importance 
as  the  directors  of  the  destiny  of  the  broadest  world  power. 

House  of  Romanoff.  While  the  German  and  Austrian  sover- 
eign lines  go  back  about  six  centuries,  the  Romanoffs  are  com- 
paratively newcomers.  Michael,  the  first  Romanoff  Czar,  was 
chosen  out  of  the  ranks  of  the  great  nobles  in  1613  by  a  Grand 
National  Assembly.  This  was  Michael  Romanoff,  son  of  the 
Patriarch  of  the  Russian  Church,  and  connected  by  marriage 
with  the  earlier  dynasty  of  Rurik,  the  Scandinavian.  He  was 
Russian  by  ancestry,  but  his  descendants  have  repeatedly  mar- 
ried Germans,  and  the  present  family  is  almost  as  German  in 
origin  as  the  Guelphs  of  Great  Britain.     Here  is  the  succession : 

I.  Michael  (first  Romanoff;  elected  Czar)    1613-1645 

II.  Alexius   (son)    1645-1676 

III.  Theodore  III    (son)    1676-1682 

IV.  Ivan  V  (brother)    1682-1689 

Regency  of    Sophia    Alexeyerna     (sister   of 

Ivan)     1682-1689 

V.  Peter  I,  "the  Great"  (brother)  1689-1725 

VI.  Catherine  I    (wife)    1725-1727 

VII.  Peter  II  (grandson  oi  Peter  I)   1727-1730 

VIII.  Anna  (daughter  of  Ivan  V)    1730-1740 

IX.  Ivan  VI   (grand-nephew,  infant)    1740-1741 

X.  Elizabeth   (daughter  of  Peter  I  and  Cather- 

ine)       1741-1761 


34  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

XL  Peter  III  (nephew  of  Elizabeth,  grandson  of 

Peter  I)    1761-1762 

XII.  Catherine  II,  "the  Great"  (wife)   .'. 1762-1796 

XIII.  Paul  (son  of  Peter  III  and  Catherine  II)   ...  1796-1801 

XIV.  Alexander  I   (son)    1801-1825 

XV.  Nicholas  I   (brother)    1825-1855 

XVI.  Alexander  II   (son)    1855-1881 

XVII.  Alexander  III   (son)    1881-1894 

XVIII.  Nicholas  II  (son)    1894- 

Slavs  and  Mongols.    The  place  of  the  Romanoff  house  can 

be  understood  only  against  the  background  of  the  experience 
and  traditions  of  the  Russian  nation.  It  is  a, composite  people: 
more  than  thirty  races  can  still  be  found  in  the  population  of  the 
present  European  Russia,  and  thirty  more  in  Asiatic  Russia. 
Moreover,  it  is  the  only  European  country,  except  Turkey,  in 
which  there  are  still  large  elements  of  pure  Asiatics,  besides  a 
considerable  strain  of  Asiatic  blood  in  the  European  peoples. 
The  main  race  element  is  that  Slavic  folk  which  when  recorded 
history  begins — about  twenty-five  hundred  years  ago — was 
seated  in  what  is  now  the  interior  of  Russia.  Despite  the  pres- 
ent habit  of  calling  them  "Asiatic  semi-barbarians,"  they  are  a 
European  race,  first  cousins  to  the  Teutons  and  Celts,  second 
cousins  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  no  nearer  relations  to 
the  Mongols  and  Turks  of  Asia  than  are  the  present  French- 
men. Yet  their  geographical  situation  drew  them  under  the  suc- 
cessive waves  of  Asiatic  invasion. 

Thus  an  Oriental  influence  has  molded  the  Russian  Slavs. 
During  the  Roman  Empire  the  Slav  tribes  and  Germanic  tribes 
were  interspersed.  The  Goths  and  Vandals  who  overthrew  the 
Roman  Empire  started  from  the  great  plains  of  Russia  and  the 
coast  of  the  Black  Sea.  After  that  time  flourishing  Slav  states 
sprang  up  in  southern  Russia,  with  cities,  laws,  and  commerce. 
The  Slavs  in  what  is  now  Russia  were  in  the  tenth  century  con- 
verted to  Christianity  by  the  Byzantine  missionaries. 

Their  civilization  was  almost  annihilated  by  the  terrible  in- 
roads of  hordes  of  Mongols  from  northern  and  central  Asia — 
the  most  awful  scourge  ever  experienced  by  Europe.  Although 
the  Russians  were  allowed  to  keep  their  faith  and  even  their  or- 
ganization into  principalities,  they  were  subjected  to  the  crush- 
ing and  barbarous  rule  of  absolute  masters  far  inferior  to  them 
in  civilization.    The  Mongol  rule,  which  lasted  from  about  1237 


RUSSIA  35 

to  about  1380,  was  an  abject  tyranny  which  made  tyrants  of  the 
native  Russian  princes. 

One  effect  of  this  century  of  Mongol  rule  was  to  teach  the 
Russians  that  the  only  way  to  break  loose  from  the  curse  was  to 
stand  by  some  Russian  leader  who  could  concentrate  all  their 
authority.  Thus  the  Slavs,  whose  race  instinct  was  to  live  in 
villages  and  cities,  each  governing  itself  by  the  unanimous  vote 
of  those  entitled  to  take  part,  were  forced  into  the  mold  of  Asi- 
atic despotism.  When  in  1380  Russia  was  at  last  set  free,  the 
native  princes  followed  the  Tartar  example  of  calling  themselves 
czars,  and  exacted  from  their  own  blood  brethren  the  instant 
and  unquestioning  obedience  which  the  Tartar  rule  had  taught 
them.  Absolute  government  was  an  acquired  habit,  like  the  long 
beards  and  flowing  robes  which  the  boyars,  or  great  nobles,  still 
affected.  Serfdom,  which  was  neither  a  Tartar  nor  a  Slav  prac- 
tice, sprang  up  in  Russia  two  centuries  later,  just  as  it  was  dying 
out  in  England. 

For  seventy-five  years  after  Michael  became  Czar  the  Ro- 
manoffs slowly  gathered  power  and  settled  the  question  that  a 
Czar  was  superior  to  the  ecclesiastical  chief,  the  Patriarch,  and 
was  practically  himself  the  head  of  the  Russian  Church.  They 
were  hedged  off  by  a  circle  of  enemies  from  the  great  outside 
world:  on  the  north,  Finns,  Swedes,  Lithuanians,  and  Poles  shut 
them  from  the  Baltic  Sea;  on  the  west,  the  Poles  interposed  be- 
tween them  and  Austria;  on  the  south,  the  Tartars  and  the 
Turks  cut  them  off  from  the  Black  Sea.  Only  toward  the  east 
could  they  slowly  expand  across  the  Ural  Mountains  into  Asia. 

The  Great  Peter.  Unexpectedly  arose  out  of  this  confusion 
and  helplessness  a  Romanoff  monarch  upon  whom  mankind  has 
bestowed  the  title  of  "Peter  the  Great."  For  once  the  theory  of 
absolute  government  was  justified:  inherited  monarchy  brought 
to  the  front  the  one  man  in  the  Russian  Empire  who  was  best 
fitted  to  lead  and  animate  his  country.  At  seventeen  years  of 
age  he  took  the  authority  from  out  the  hand  of  a  regency;  and 
from  1689  to  1725  he  was  the  greatest  man  in  the  East. 

Peter  soon  discovered  that  Russia  must  have  a  sea-front,  and 
must  be  able  to  use  it  by  means  of  ships.  Hence  the  amazing 
episode  of  the  Czar  of  All  the  Russias  going  incognito  to  Ger- 
many, Holland,  and  even  to  England,  and  learning  the  trade  of 
a  ship  carpenter  at  Zaandam.  He  began  at  once  to  push  the 
Russian  boundaries  southward  to  the  Sea  of  Azof,  and  then  to 


36  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

the  Black  Sea,  and  northward  to  the  Baltic.  Twenty-one  years 
a  northern  war  raged,  and  in  the  end  his  sole  spoils  were  four 
little  provinces  on  the  Baltic ;  but  they  brought  him  seaports  and 
river  connections  to  the  interior.  In  1703  he  founded  the  city 
which  he  was  willing  to  call  St.  Petersburg,  but  which  a  suc- 
cessor has  renamed  in  our  time  Petrograd.  When  he  became 
Czar,  Russia  was  neither  European  nor  Asiastic,  but  a  midland 
shut  off  from  direct  connection  with  the  great  stream  of 
Western  progress.  Peter  broke  through  the  barriers,  and  during 
the  last  two  centuries  Russia  has  been  a  member  of  the  Western 
group  of  nations.  Peter  throughout  his  life  followed  the  princi- 
ple set  down  in  an  early  letter  to  his  mother : 

"Your  little  boy,  Petruska,  still  at  work.  I  ask  for  your 
blessing  and  wish  to  hear  how  you  are.  Thanks  to  your  pray- 
ers, we  are  quite  well;  and  the  lake  thawed  out  on  the  20th  of 
this  month,  and  all  the  vessels  except  the  big  ships  are  ready." 

German  Influence. — Poland  was  already  falling  to  pieces 
through  pushing  to  its  extremity  the  Slav  doctrine  that  nothing 
but  unanimous  consent  could  give  validity  to  the  action  of  a 
commonwealth.  Germany  was  the  next  nearest  western  neigh- 
bor, and  from  Germany  came  many  influences  upon  Russia.  The 
situation  of  the  country  was  very  much  like  that  of  Japan  in  our 
time:  recognizing  the  power  and  success  of  the  West,  the  peo- 
ple were  eager  to  take  anything  that  was  Western.  Many  Ger- 
mans settled  in  central  Russia  from  Germany  and  from  the 
German-speaking  Baltic  provinces  of  Russia;  and,  as  they  had 
a  capacity  for  public  business  much  above  that  of  the  ordi- 
nary Russian,  they  were  used  as  ministers,  diplomats,  and  ad- 
ministrators. In  the  peace  negotiations  at  Portsmouth  in  1905 
the  two  Russian  representatives  were  Rosen  and  Witte — both 
of  them  evidently  of  German  origin. 

Following  Peter  came  the  first  reigning  Czarina  in  Russian 
history,  Catherine,  his  wife,  who  was  sovereign  because  Peter  so 
willed  it.  From  1725  to  1798  the  Imperial  authority  (except  for 
three  intervals,  making  five  years  altogether)  was  exercised  by 
four  women — Catherine  I,  Anna,  Elizabeth,  and  Catherine  II. 
Anna  was  the  wife  of  a  German  Duke  of  Holstein-Gottorp. 
Czar  Peter  III  also  married  a  German  Protestant  princess, 
Sophia  of  Anhalt-Zerbst,  whose  memoirs  contain  a  picture  of 
the  coarse,  ungovernable,  and  riotous  life  of  that  Emperor  and 
his  Court.    He  is  best  known  to  fame  because  he  came  to  the 


RUSSIA  37 

throne  when  the  armies  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth,  after  captur- 
ing the  city  of  Berlin,  were  about  to  finish  the  Hohenzollern 
Frederick  II — commonly  called  Frederick  the  Great.  In  1762 
Peter,  who  greatly  admired  this  world-famous  soldier,  hastened 
to  make  peace,  and  thus  saved  Prussia. 

The  Great  Catherine.  At  Peter  Ill's  death  his  wife,  though 
a  German,  took  the  new  name  of  Catherine,  was  received  into 
the  Greek  Church,  and  for  thirty-four  years  was  one  of  the 
most  famous  and  infamous  figures  in  Europe.  Poland,  which 
stretched  across  Europe  in  a  narrow  band  most  of  the  way 
from  the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea,  was  finally  disrupted.  The 
last  King,  Poniatowsky,  was  forced  on  the  country  by  Cather- 
ine, because  (she  says)  "among  all  the  pretenders  to  the  throne 
he  has  the  least  right,  and  consequently  was  bound  to  be  the 
most  grateful  to  Russia."  Austria  shared  in  the  spoil,  France 
opposed  in  vain,  and  England  was  indifferent. 

In  1772,  therefore,  came  the  first  partition  of  Poland,  which 
lost  about  one-third  of  its  population  and  territory.  Catherine 
fought  the  Turks  and  pushed  the  boundaries  south  to  the  Black 
Sea.  In  the  second  partition,  in  1793,  Prussia  shared,  and  to 
that  transaction  owes  her  present  province  of  Posen.  In  1795, 
by  a  third  partition,  Poland  was  extirpated.  This  was  Slav  con- 
suming Slav,  and  the  effect  was  to  tear  down  the  buffer  state 
which  had  for  ages  stretched  between  Russia  and  the  Western 
nations. 

The  private  character  and  life  of  Catherine  are,  like  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt's  opinion  years  ago  of  a  victory  of  Tammany 
Hall  in  a  New  York  City  election,  "not  fit  for  publication." 
Nevertheless,  she  was  the  first  intellectual  and  literary  leader  of 
her  country,  set  up  an  academy,  encouraged  poetry,  science,  and 
intellectual  society;  she  even  made  some  attempt  to  set  the  serfs 
free.  Catherine  had  all  sorts  of  ideas  for  reforming  other  peo- 
ple than  herself;  and  the  tale  is  that  whenever  she  made  a 
progress  through  her  realm  she  always  passed  by  tidy  villages, 
occupied  by  well-dressed  and  happy  peasants,  who  came  out  and 
asked  her  blessing.  The  great  Empress  never  suspected  that 
those  people  were  all  deported  from  elsewhere  and  new  houses 
were  built,  solely  for  the  sake  of  impressing  their  Queen  with 
the  happiness  of  the  Empire.  Or  did  she  suspect  and  realize, 
like  many  of  her  successors,  that  sovereigns  are  more  comfor- 
table if  they  master  their  curiosity  about  their  own  realm? 


38  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Alexander  I  and  Napoleon.  After  the  brief  reign  of  Paul, 
Catherine's  son,  Alexander  I  came  to  the  throne ;  and  he  was  in 
many  ways  the  first  modern  Czar.  He  had  a  plan  for  giving 
Russia  a  constitution,  and  consulted  no  less  a  person  than 
Thomas  Jefferson,  President  of  the  United  States.  Under  Alex- 
ander Russia  accepted  a  place  as  one  of  the  Great  Powers  of 
Europe,  and  therefore  was  bound  to  take  notice  of  the  rise  of 
Napoleon.  In  1805  a  Russian  army,  in  alliance  with  Austria, 
met  the  world  conqueror  in  the  Battle  of  Austerlitz,  and  was 
overwhelmingly  defeated.  In  1806  Russia  came  to  the  defense 
of  Prussia,  and  again  Russia  and  her  ally  were  defeated. 

The  result  was  the  famous  meeting  between  the  sovereigns 
of  Russia,  Prussia,  and  France  on  a  raft  in  the  river  Niemen  in 
1807.  Alexander  seemed  to  be  hypnotized  by  Napoleon,  and 
they  struck  up  a  friendship  and  a  sort  of  alliance,  which  lasted 
for  five  years.  John  Quincy  Adams,  then  American  Minister  to 
Russia,  later  noted  that  the  Russian  Government  was  no  longer 
friendly  with  the  French;  and  while  he  was  at  St.  Petersburg, 
in  the  fall  of  1812,  the  Russians  proved  that  Napoleon  was 
made  of  human  clay  by  grinding  his  Grand  Army  to  pieces. 
Thus  Russia  was  the  only  country  in  the  world  which  unaided 
by  allies  defeated  the  greatest  soldier  in  history  in  a  land  cam- 
paign. 

Then  the  tide  of  conquest  turned  westward,  and  Russian 
armies  joined  in  campaigns  which  brought  about  the  abdication 
of  Napoleon  in  1814.  In  the  Congress  of  Vienna  which  fol- 
lowed, Russia  was  the  leading  spirit  and  Alexander  the  most 
brilliant  leader.  In  this  period  of  exaltation,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Madame  Kriidener,  he  evolved  the  famous  "Holy  Al- 
liance," the  principle  of  which  was  that  the  sovereigns  of 
Europe  were  designated  by  the  will  of  God  to  act  as  "elder 
brethren"  (with  appropriate  disciplinary  powers)  towards  their 
subjects.  Thenceforward  governments  were  to  be  conducted 
entirely  on  a  basis  of  Christian  brotherhood. 

Just  at  this  time  ties  were  forming  between  Russia  and  the 
United  States,  and  it  was  a  rude  interruption  of  concord  to 
have  this  doctrine  interpreted  to  mean  that  Europe  ought  to 
practice  muscular  Christianity  upon  the  new  Latin-American 
states.  John  Quincy  Adams,  almost  the  only  man  in  America 
who  knew  the  Russians,  expressed  his  opinion  of  that  doctrine 
in   the  preparation   of   the  announcement  commonly  called  the 


RUSSIA  39 

Monroe  doctrine  of  1823.  Alexander  was  an  enlarger  of  his 
Empire.  He  secured  Finland  from  Sweden  in  1809,  annexed  a 
large  part  of  the  Caucasus,  and  pushed  the  Russian  boundary  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Danube. 

Nicholas  I.  His  brother,  Nicholas  I,  who  became  Czar  in 
1825,  was  a  soldier  rather  than  a  diplomat ;  put  down  revolutions 
in  his  own  country,  and  sent  his  army  to  force  the  Hungarians 
back  to  their  relations  with  Austria  in  1849.  He  pushed  into 
Persia,  took  the  side  of  the  Greeks  in  their  revolt  from  the 
Turks,  and  his  fleet  aided  in  smashing  the  Turkish  power  at 
the  battle  of  Navarino  in  1827,  which  made  modern  Greece 
possible. 

Nicholas  inherited  the  result  of  four  centuries  of  conflict  with 
the  Turk.  The  "Sick  Man  of  Europe,"  as  Nicholas  dubbed  that 
Power,  was  on  the  point  of  decently  dying,  and  thus  conferring 
a  favor  on  all  his  neighbors,  when  England  and  France  made 
the  political  and  social  mistake  of  carrying  on  the  Crimean  War 
to  prevent  Russia  from  accelerating  that  demise.  Nicholas  died 
apparently  of  disappointment  and  grief. 

Alexander  II  to  Nicholas  II.  Nicholas  I's  son,  Alexander  H, 
reigned  twenty-six  years,  from  1855  to  1881.  He  was  a  man  of 
high  character,  and  had  a  genuine  desire  to  modernize  and  re- 
form his  Empire.  He  succeeded  in  at  last  breaking  down  the 
formal  side  of  the  system  of  serfdom  under  which  twenty  mil- 
lions of  his  fellow-Russians  had  been  bound  to  the  soil  on  which 
they  lived.  The  decree  was  solemnly  made  public,  as  it  chanced, 
March  5,  1861,  the  day  after  President  Lincoln  became  President. 
It  was  a  period  of  agitation  for  popular  rights  in  many  parts  of 
Europe,  and  Alexander  in  1881  drew  up  a  constitution  for  his 
people,  when  he  was  murdered  by  the  bomb  of  Nihilist  assassins. 
The  creation  of  even  the  semblance  of  popular  government  was 
delayed  for  thirty  years.  Under  him,  and  his  son,  Alexander 
III,  Russian  power,  which  had  for  two  centuries  been  advanc- 
ing into  Siberia,  was  pushed  all  the  way  to  the  Pacific,  into  the 
heart  of  Asia,  and  to  the  gates  of  India. 

The  present  Czar,  Nicholas  II,  has  now  had  twenty  years' 
reign.  He  seems  to  be  an  amiable  and  likable  man  for  whom 
the  surroundine:  forces  arc  too  strong.  He  passed  through  the 
ordeal  of  the  Japanese  War,  ending  in  a  military  defeat  and  a 
diplomatic  triumph,  for  somehow  Russia  came  out  of  that  strug- 
gle a  stronger  influence  both  in  Asia  and  in  Europe  than  before. 


40  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Absolutism.  Both  in  historical  influences  and  in  her  present 
form  of  government  Russia  is  notably  different  from  other 
European  Powers,  and  the  easy,  off-hand  explanation  is  that  it  is 
a  Slav  country.  This  disposal  of  the  question  seems  less  obvious 
w^hen  you  reflect  that  it  is  as  unlike  other  Slav  countries  in 
Europe  as  it  is  unlike  Germany  or  France.  Servia  is  a  land  of 
peasant  proprietors,  Russia  of  communities  of  landholders. 
Servia  takes  its  sovereign  as  a  bad  joke;  in  Russia  the  "Little 
Father"  nominally  makes  all  the  important  decisions.  Russia  in 
the  twentieth  century  is  simply  where  Germany  and 
France  were  in  the  seventeenth  century,  when  Charles 
V  and  Louis  XIV  claimed  absolute  power  by  divine 
right.  Socially  and  economically  Russia  is  better  organized 
and  better  off  than  Italy  was  three  centuries  ago,  or  even  a 
century  ago.  Politically  Russia  has  a  national  legislature,  which 
Prussia  did  not  possess  until  1850.  Russia  is  a  slow-developing, 
backward  country,  which,  however,  so  far  as  we  can  judge  by 
the  history  of  its  neighbors,  may  be  on  the  road  to  full  modern 
civilization. 

The  Romanoffs  and  their  Empire  have  a  bad  reputation  for 
cruelty  to  prisoners,  persons  charged  with  crime,  convicts,  and 
the  common  people.  The  knout,  the  dungeon,  administrative 
deportation,  the  mines,  are  a  fearful  evil;  but  in  that  respect 
Russia  is  only  a  century  behind  France,  which  habitually  broke 
criminals  on  the  wheel  till  1789,  and  Prussia,  which  used  judicial 
torture  till  about  1810.  The  Russian,  like  other  Slavs,  is  by 
temperament  good-natured,  but  when  roused  can  be  as  savage 
as  an  Albanian  or  a  Mexican.  National  education,  which  cannot 
be  much  longer  delayed,  will  go  far  to  teach  the  Russians  that 
cruelty  does  not  accompHsh  its  object  of  compelling  obedience, 
and  that  it  gives  a  nation  a  black  character  among  civilized  men. 

Just  now  the  country  is  going  through  the  same  kind  of  con- 
stitutional struggle  as  that  between  the  Stuarts  and  the  English 
Parliament.  The  Russians  have  long  been  accustomed  to  local  as- 
semblies of  very  limited  powers,  and  in  1905  the  first  Duma  was 
summoned  by  the  Emperor.  When  it  began  to  show  its  authority 
it  was  dissolved,  and  so  another  and  another ;  but  if  the  experi- 
ence of  England,  Hungary,  Germany,  and  France  is  worth  any- 
thing, the  Duma  will  acquire  more  and  more  power;  and  in  the 
end  is  likely  to  be  at  least  as  strong  in  Russia  as  is  the  Reichstag 
in  Germany,  which  is  saying  less  than  is  generally  supp9sed. 


RUSSIA  41 

No  sovereign  house  in  Europe  has  gone  through  such  a 
history  of  conquest  and  territorial  annexations  as  the  Romanoffs. 
They  found  Russia  a  large,  confused,  and  turbulent  nation,  shut 
up  within  itself;  they  have  seen  it  grow  to  the  broadest  world 
empire  of  modern  times.  Yet  to  this  day  Russia  is  shut  out  from 
any  ice-free  approach  to  the  open  ocean.  Hence  the  policy  of 
that  country  is,  and  will  be  till  their  want  is  satisfied,  to  acquire 
the  Bosphorus  and  Dardanelles,  and  there  will  be  no  permanent 
peace  in  Europe  till  that  is  accomplished.  Toward  the  west, 
since  the  partition  of  Poland,  Russia  has  never  shown  a  con- 
quering spirit.  Nobody  yet  knows  how  far  such  a  spirit  may 
now  be  driving  the  nation  forward.  In  any  case,  the  Imperial 
house  seems  firmly  seated. 


RUSSIA'S  PART  IN  EUROPEAN  HISTORY^ 

Russia  stood  between  Asia  and  Europe,  and  in  order  that  her 
people  might  exist,  the  Asiatic  hordes  had  to  be  repelled  or 
subjugated.  The  geographical  position  of  Russia  has  thus  de- 
termined at  once  the  unity  of  the  empire  and  the  role  of  her 
people.  If  they  have  acquired  some  Asiatic  blood,  and  if  they 
exhibit  some  Asiatic  traits,  they  have  at  least  kept  the  frontier 
of  Europe  since  the  middle  ages  from  Asiatic  conquest.  The 
Mongols  defeated  her  but  broke  themselves  upon  her.  Even 
when  the  Kiev  Russ  were  ground  to  powder  and  dispersed,  the 
exhausted  Tartars  penetrated  Europe  no  farther  than  Moravia, 
while  in  later  centuries  they  were  crushed  by  the  Russians  who 
held  them  constantly  on  her  own  frontier.  If  Russia  has  ab- 
sorbed some  Mongolian  elements,  she  has  at  least  saved  Europe 
from  Mongol  invasion.  This  great  service,  in  the  view  of  some 
Russian  writers,  has  enabled  Western  Europe  to  pursue  the  arts 
of  peace,  saving  during  internecine  quarrels,  and  to  accomplish 
rapid  progress  in  civilization.  The  rise  of  numerous  nationalities 
and  the  democratization  of  their  political  systems  was,  according 
to  this  view,  possible  only  on  condition  of  immunity  from  attack 
by  external  hordes.  The  gain  to  Europe  was  however  offset  by 
the  great  sacrifice  to  Russia  involved  in  the  deprivation  of  im- 
mediate share  in  that  progress.  The  stability  of  European  civili- 
zation has  been  secured  by  continuous   settlement  in  the  same 

*  By  John  Mavor.    Economic  History  of  Russia.  (Dutton.)  p.  viii-x. 


t^ 


42  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

comparatively  restricted  region  for  a  thousand  years,  while  not 
only  were  the  Russians  migratory  by  habit  during  a  large  part 
of  the  time,  but  the  pressure  from  without  caused  on  more  than 
one  occasion  wholesale  migrations.  The  continuity  of  the  na- 
tional life  was  thus  interrupted  and  the  progress  of  it  retarded. 

Only  since  the  disappearance  of  absolutism  in  Western  Europe 
can  Russia  be  held  to  occupy  an  unique  position  in  a  political 
sense.  In  spite  of  the  great  advantages  of  position,  the  victory 
of  the  revolution  over  absolute  authority  was  not  by  any  means 
rapidly  accomplished  in  the  West;  where  traces  of  absolutism 
lingered  until  quite  recent  days.  In  Russia,  notwithstanding 
enormous  difficulties  both  within  the  government  and  outside  of 
it,  important  modifications  have  at  last  been  effected  during  the 
past  few  strenuous  years.  It  must  be  said  also  that  at  no  period 
of  their  history  were  the  Russian  people  entirely  quiescent  under 
autocratic  rule.  Anciently  the  people,  in  spite  of  their  generafly 
peaceful  character,  were  by  no  means  infrequently  engaged  in 
violent  disputes  with  the  representatives  of  authority,  and  in 
modern  times  the  country  has  on  several  occasions  been  plunged 
into  chaos  by  revolutionary  movements. 

External  causes  have  at  frequent  intervals  profoundly  affected 
Russian  development.  The  defeat  of  Peter  the  Great  at  Narva 
by  Charles  XII  of  Sweden  occasioned  the  reorganization  of  the 
Russian  military  system ;  and  through  that  the  reorganization  of 
Russian  society.  The  invasion  of  Russia  by  Napoleon  drew 
Russia  into  the  vortex  of  European  diplomacy.  The  defeat  of 
Russia  by  England  and  France  in  the  Crimea  led  on  the  one  hand 
to  the  emancipation  of  the  serfs  and  on  the  other  to  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  Russian  Far-Eastern  empire.  The  defeat  of  Russia 
by  Japan  occasioned  the  revolution  and  endowed  Russia  with  a 
quasi-constitutional  system.  From  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great 
until  now  Russia  has  benefited  rather  by  her  defeats  than  by  her 
victories.  She  has  the  Asiatic  quality  of  resilience.  She  is  never 
more  to  be  feared  than  when  she  has  just  been  beaten. 

To  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  energy  of  Russians  Europe 
already  owes  much.  Russian  social  life  has  made  for  the  de- 
velopment to  an  extraordinary  degree  of  critical  acuteness — 
witness  the  penetrative  literary  criticisms  of  Byelinsky;  as  well 
as  of  artistic  power — witness  Pushkin  in  poetry,  Turgueniev  and 
Tolstoy  in  prose,  Tchaikovsky  in  music,  and  Repin  in  painting; 
and  of  ethical  enthusiasm — as  in  Tolstoy,  for  instance.    The  con- 


RUSSIA  43 

ditions  of  Russian  life,  sordid  enough  for  the  cultivator  and  the 
artisan,  have  preserved  the  best  minds  of  the  nation  from  falling 
victims  to  commercial  materialism.  If  sometimes,  to  the  practical 
Western  European  many  Russians  seem  visionary  and  imprac- 
ticable, it  is  well  that  self-complacent  satisfaction  with  comfor- 
table material  fortune  resulting  from  the  exercise  of  mercantile 
shrewdness  should  receive  a  mental  and  moral  jolt  from  those 
who  consider  none  of  these  things,  but  who  look  upon  life  from  a 
detached  point  of  view.  If  the  Western  European  points  out  that 
Russian  culture  and  the  idealism  to  which  it  gives  rise  have  been 
rendered  possible  by  serfdom,  the  Russian  may  retort,  as  in  high 
probability  he  would,  that  European  culture  is  similarly  depend- 
ent upon  the  e->^n]nitatipn  of  the  free  labourer,  but  that,  compared 
with  Russian  culture,  it  is  rather  destitute  of  idealism. 

The  maintenance  of  serfdom  in  Russia  long  after  it  had  been 
abandoned  in  Western  Europe,  and  the  maintenance  of  absolute 
government  until  now,  have  contributed  importantly  to  the  retar- 
dation of  the  development  of  the  country  in  a  social  as  well  as 
in  a  political  sense.  From  the  point  of  view  of  social  progress 
this  has  been  a  deplorable  disadvantage;  but  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  student  the  retardation  has  led  to  the  survival  of 
customs  and  institutions  which  in  somewhat  similar  forms  pre- 
viously existed  in  Western  Europe,  and  which  have  there  dis- 
appeared at  a  more  or  less  remote  age,  leaving  indefinite  indi- 
cations of  their  former  existence.  The  structural  changes  which 
have  brought  Russia  from  a  mediaeval  to  a  modern  economic 
and  social  state  have  been  going  on  during  the  past  sixty  years 
under  the  eyes  of  close  and  competent  observers. 


THE  NEW  RUSSIA* 

"With  the  war  and  without  vodka,  Russia  is  more  prosperous 
than  with  vodka  and  without  the  war."  This,  the  greatest  single 
sentence  ever  uttered  for  prohibition,  comes,  not  from  a  profes- 
sional Prohibitionist,  but  from  M.  KharitonoflF,  Controller  of  the 
Treasury,  speaking  before  the  Budget  Committee  of  the  Russian 
Parliament  on  January  25.  The  Controller  added  that,  owing  to 
the  extraordinary  increase  in  the  national  savings  due  to  pro- 
hibition, the  enormous  outlay  occasioned  by  the  war  had  caused 

^  By  Charles  Johnston.    Review  of  Reviews.  51:568-72.  May,  1915. 


44  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

no  widespread  hardship  in  Russia.  As  a  proof  of  this,  M.  Kha- 
ritonoff  cited  the  figures.  The  national  savings,  as  shown  in 
bank  deposits  between  December,  1913  (seven  months  before  the 
war)  and  December,  1914  (after  five  months'  war),  had  been  in- 
creased by  147  per  cent.  What  a  contrast,  this,  with  the  countr3^s 
condition  just  ten  years  ago!  For  it  is  exactly  ten  years  since 
the  fall  of  Port  Arthur,  and  the  great  battle  of  Mukden,  which 
broke  the  power  of  Russia  in  Manchuria,  was  fought  and  lost  in 
March,  1905. 

In  these  ten  years  Russia  has  gained : 

1.  Civil  and  religious  liberty. 

2.  A  Parliament,  of  two  houses,  rapidly  becoming  fitted  to 
the  national  genius. 

3.  A  new  principle  of  citizenship,  affecting  a  hundred  million 
Russian  peasants. 

4.  A  new  ideal  in  education. 

5.  A  new  cultivated  area  of  50,000,000  acres. 

6.  An  increase  in  national  revenue  of  $500,000,000. 

7.  A  new  epoch  of  agricultural  and  industrial  prosperity. 

8.  An  added  population  of  40,000,000. 

It  is  doubtful  whether,  since  the  world  began,  any  nation  has 
ever  made  an  equal  ten  years'  gain. 


THE  NEW  RUSSIA* 

The  real  awakening  of  the  new  Russia  came  with  the  Japan- 
ese War.  The  policy  of  the  court  party  was  at  that  time  an 
Eastern  policy,  conversely  peaceful  toward  the  Hapsburgs  and 
Hohenzollerns.  Port  Arthur  and  Vladivostok  had  been  fortified. 
Special  interests  crossed  the  Yalu  into  Korea,  clashed  with  the 
Japanese  over  certain  timber  and  mineral  concessions,  and  at 
once  demanded  imperial  support.  The  giving  of  that  support 
led  to  a  disastrous  and  highly  unpopular  war,  in  the  course  of 
which  Austria  and  Germany  noted  Russia's  weakness,  and  treated 
her  thereafter,  in  Balkan  matters,  as  her  military  record  appeared 
to  deserve. 

The  consequent  unpopularity  of  the  court  party  obliged  them 
to  make  concessions  at  home.  Beaten  by  their  Japanese  enemies, 
browbeaten  by  their  Teutonic  friends,  they  recognized  the  exis- 

1  By  Gerald  Morgan.    North  American  Review.  205:502-10.  April,   1917- 


RUSSIA  45 

tence  of  a  Russian  nationalist  party  because  they  had  to.  They 
allowed  its  representatives  to  help  reorganize  the  army  and  navy, 
and  to  assert  themselves  unofficially  but  generally.  Their  power 
was  shaken ;  their  hand  was  forced ;  where  violence  was  no  longer 
safe,  they  resorted  to  subterfuge — a  sure  sign  of  weakness.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  the  growth  of  the  new  Russia  might  have 
been  observed  in  the  West,  but  in  America  particularly  the 
obsessing  idea  continued  to  prevail  that  the  New  Russia  must  be 
born  by  a  sudden  bloody  revolution;  and  such  slow  progress  as 
was  known  to  obtain  elsewhere  in  the  world  could  not  be 
imagined  in  Russia.  It  is  true  that  the  all-important  Ministry  of 
the  Interior  was  usually  represented  by  a  reactionary  or  else  con- 
trolled by  reactionary  influences;  but  nevertheless  reform  after 
reform  has  since  1908  been  conceded  by  the  Czar.  But  the  main 
result  of  the  hostile  Teutonic  policy  since  Mukden,  and,  even 
more,  of  the  present  hostilities,  has  been  the  nationalization  of 
the  Russian  army  and  navy.  Russia's  army  is  Russia  in  arms, 
Russia  intent  on  the  destruction  of  the  Hohenzollem-Hapsburg 
breakwater,  behind  which,  in  the  stagnant  water  of  the  Petro- 
grad  bureaucracy,  the  reactionaries  have  been  trembling  with 
apprehension.  They  feared  the  fall  of  Teutonic  conceptions  of 
autocratic  government  which  must  inevitably  have  been  followed 
by  the  fall  of  their  own  conceptions ;  they  feared  equally  the  tri- 
umph of  German  arms,  which  would  have  been  succeeded  by  a 
revolution  of  new  Russia,  already  armed,  not  longer  to  be  with- 
stood, bound  to  be  victorious.  Like  many  another  government, 
they  were  in  the  position  of  a  man  who  has  started  a  fire  which 
he  could  not  check.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  in  the  exas- 
peration of  the  moment,  the  Czar  said  he  would  sacrifice  his  last 
moujik  in  the  cause  of  victory;  but  today  it  is  the  moujik  himself 
who  is  going  to  do  the  sacrificing.    The  tables  are  turned. 

The  old  Russia  is  passing,  and  has  been  passing  for  some  time. 
The  Russia  of  Kipling — the  Russia  of  the  'eighties,  of  The  Man 
Who  Was,  of  the  Bear  that  Walks  Like  a  Man — the  Russia  which 
threatened  the  Khyber  Pass,  is  gone.  That  was  the  Russia  of 
the  Grand  Dukes,  the  Russia  which  was  defeated  by  Japan  be- 
cause she  was  unsupported  by  the  Russian  peoople.  The  Bear 
that  Walks  Like  a  Man  is  today  a  stuffed  and  hollow  sham. 

Gone  also  is  the  old  Russia  of  the  anarchist  and  intellectuals, 
of  George  Kennan's  Siberia,  of  those  wonderful  spies,  the  "agents 
provocateurs,"  who  committed  crimes  themselves  in  order  to  de- 


46  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

tect  criminals,   and  who  could  scarcely  be  distinguished   from 
their  quarry. 

All  this  is  past  or  passing.  The  Russian  Cossacks  riding  down 
the  crowds,  slaughtering  Jews,  are  today  as  fabulous  as  the 
Russian  wolves.  It  is  true,  conspirators  are  still  treated  with  a 
harshness  unknown  in  the  West.  It  is  true  that  equality  of 
opportunity  is  still  denied  to  the  Jews.  It  is  true  that  the  special 
reactionary  interests  tried  to  the  last  to  hold  the  Russian  people 
in  subjection.  It  was  against  those  interests,  as  represented 
not  only  in  Petrograd  but  also  in  Berlin  and  Vienna,  that  the 
new  Russia  was  fighting. 


THE  RUSSIAN  EMPIRE 


POLAND'S  STORY^ 

The  traveler  in  old  Russia  finds  no  more  interesting  place 
than  the  Kremlin  at  Moscow,  that  collection  of  the  memorials  of 
East's  contacts  with  West  through  many  centuries.  In  the 
Kremlin  he  will  find  no  more  pathetic  relics  than  those  which 
testify  to  the  victory  of  Russia  in  the  long  rivalry  that  decided 
whether  the  great  power  of  eastern  and  northern  Europe  should 
be  Russia  or  Poland. 

Russia  won,  and  in  sign  thereof  may  be  seen,  in  a  wonderful 
carved  casket  in  the  Kremlin  museum,  the  Constitution  of  the 
Polish  Kingdom,  adopted  May  3,  1791.  The  American  traveler 
will  bethink  himself  that  there  is  a  striking  proximity  of  this  date 
to  that  of  the  adoption  of  our  own  Federal  charter.  If  he  pur- 
sues the  subject,  he  will  discover  that  the  Polish  Constitution  of 
1 791  was,  as  nearly  as  it  might  be  made,  an  adaption  to  Po- 
land's conditions  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  submitted  by  the  convention  at  Philadelphia  on  Sep- 
tember 17,  1787. 

To-day  that  Polish  Constitution  is  a  relic  in  a  Russian  mu- 
seum, testimony  to  the  last  effort  of  an  expiring  nationality  to 
deserve  perpetuation.  It  recalls  that  the  fires  of  the  American 
revolution  of  1775  and  the  French  revolution  of  1789  found  reflec- 
tion in  the  skies  of  eastern  Europe.  But  it  was  too  late  for 
Poland.  Torn  by  factional  dissensions,  victim  of  the  intrigues  of 
more  stable  neighbors,  menaced  by  the  rising  Russia  at  the  east, 
the  covetous  Austria  in  the  west,  the  ambitious  Germany  in  the 
north,  and  the  rapacious  Turks  in  the  south,  Poland  fell  in  the 
moment  of  the  finest  inspiration  that  had  marked  all  its  pitiful 
career  as  a  nation.  The  first  child  of  democratic  genius  among 
Slavic  peoples  was  stricken  down  as  the  penalty  for  too  early  dis- 
closing his  talents  to  a  sordid  world. 

»  P7  J.  C.  Welliyer.    Century.  90:57-66.  May,  1915. 


48  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

For  the  memorials  of  Poland  in  its  power  and  glory  we  may 
go  to  ancient  Cracow,  where  the  ashes  of  a  long  line  of  kings  lie 
in  the  great  cathedral  which  is  both  the  Westminster  Abbey  and 
the  Valhalla  of  the  lost  nation;  but  for  the  present-day  testimo- 
nies that  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  a  Polish  nation  yet  survive,  we 
must  visit  the  Swiss  village  of  Rapperswil,  where  for  safety's 
sake  the  patriots  of  the  disinherited  race  have  set  up  their  na- 
tional museum. 

But  Poland's  is  not  all  a  story  of  martyrdom.  It  is  also  a 
story  of  the  tragedy  of  retribution.  It  may  well  be  doubted 
whether  Poland  ever  possessed  in  any  single  generation  the  attri- 
butes of  a  true  nation.  It  was  ruled  by  a  land-owning  aristocracy 
which  tried  to  keep  the  king  from  getting  too  much  power,  and 
at  the  same  time  insisted  that  the  people  should  not  get  any.  The 
Polish  aristocracy  succeeded  where  other  medieval  aristocracies 
failed,  and  its  success  was  Poland's  ruin.  The  king  was  kept 
a  figurehead,  isolated  from  the  mass  of  people  largely  by  reason 
of  the  Polish  custom  of  electing  kings.  It  all  looked  very  demo- 
cratic; but  in  fact  it  merely  served  to  keep  aliens  or  weaklings 
on  the  throne  much  of  the  time.  Thus  suppressing  the  king  and 
oppressing  the  people,  the  aristocracy  became  a  military  and 
political  caste,  lived  in  barbaric  splendor,  despised  trade  and  in- 
dustry, cultivated  the  arts  of  war  and  social  decadence,  affected 
the  use  of  alien  languages  and  devised  institutions  of  government 
which  ultimately  deprived  it  of  capacity  for  exercising  the  very 
governmental  functions  it  had  monopolized. 

The  Polish  people  are  Slavs,  and  Poland  is  literally  the  plain- 
land,  the  great  central  European  depression.  There  was  hardly 
a  time  when  a  surveying  party  could  have  laid  down  accurate 
limits  of  the  country,  nor  a  generation  throughout  which  those 
limits  would  have  remained  stationary.  Nature  provided  no 
obvious  frontiers,  but  in  general  old  Poland  included  the  valley 
of  the  Vistula  River — Galicia,  which  belongs  now  to  Austria- 
Hungary;  the  westernmost  projection  of  Russia,  commonly  called 
Russian  Poland ;  and  East  Prussia.  All  this  represented  perhaps 
a  third  of  the  present  area  of  France. 

Beyond,  extending  northeast,  east,  and  southeast,  lay  the 
Polish  hinterland,  comprising  Courland  and  Livonia  on  the  Bal- 
tic Sea;  farther  south,  the  great  extent  of  Lithuania;  south 
of  this,  Volhynia,  Podolia,  and  the  Ukraine,  extending  to  the 
Black  Sea. 


RUSSIA  49 

We  commonly  think  of  Poland  as  a  country  without  frontage 
on  the  salt  seas;  yet  at  its  widest  extent  it  touched  both  the 
Baltic  and  the  Black;  and  Polish  ambition  clung  fiercely  to  the 
thought  of  a  national  heritage  looking  out  on  these  twain  win- 
dows of  the  cold  and  warm  seas,  with  western  Europe  before  it, 
and  the  illimitable  East  at  its  back. 

If  Polish  national  policy  had  been  as  vigorous  and  effective 
as  Polish  ambitions  were  magnificient,  the  state  might  have  led 
in  subduing  the  east  of  Europe,  and  Poland  to-day  have  been 
the  mighty  empire  of  the  steppes,  its  heart  at  Cracow  instead  of 
Moscow,  its  head  at  Warsaw  instead  of  St.  Petersburg. 

At  the  time  when  the  cavaliers  were  settling  in  Virginia,  Po- 
land was  the  great  state  of  eastern  Europe.  Touching  both  the 
Baltic  and  the  Black  seas,  it  reached  in  the  west  to  well  within 
a  hundred  miles  of  Berlin,  and  in  the  east  about  as  near  to  Mos- 
cow. The  extreme  north-and-south  length  of  the  country  was 
about  seven  hundred  miles ;  that  east  and  west  approximately  the 
same.  It  embraced  little  less  than  300,000  square  miles,  or 
nearly  the  combined  areas  of  France  and  Italy.  Only  Russia 
had  so  wide  an  extent;  and  Russia  then  signified  about  as  much 
to  the  Western  world  as  Nigeria  does  to  us.  Warsaw,  the 
capital,  was  almost  the  geographic  center  of  Europe.  The 
geographic  Poland  of  that  day,  now  restored  to  its  place 
among  nations,  would  have  more  population  than  France,  and 
this  number  would  include,  besides  the  Poles,  fully  half  the  Jews 
in  the  world,  together  with  millions  of  Mongols,  Turks,  Fmns, 
Scandinavians,  Teutons,  Latins— the  greatest  conglomerate  of 
races  and  tongues  in  any  nation,  if  perhaps  Austria-Hungary  be 
excepted. 

Indeed,  Austria-Hungary  gives  us  an  idea  of  what  Poland 
was  in  its  greatness.  We  think  of  the  dual  empire  of  to-day  as 
a  mid-European  jumble  of  fragments  of  races,  languages,  and 
religions,  crowded  together  in  an  empire  that  yet  is  not  a  nation ; 
held  together  by  pressure  from  without,  not  cohesion  within. 
Poland  also  was  a  dual  kingdom,  composed  of  Poland  proper 
and  Lithuania.  In  Poland,  as  in  Austria-Hungary,  the  union 
was  one  of  convenience  rather  than  of  felicity.  Whether  Austria 
and  Hungary  can  be  held  together  after  the  life  of  the  present 
ruler  has  been  for  decades  a  favorite  speculation  with  European 
politicians.  That  same  speculation  as  to  Poland  and  Lithuania 
was  in  the  forefront  of  eastern-European  politics  for  centuries. 


50  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

As  Warsaw  in  the  time  of  Poland's  greatness  was  the  pivot  on 
which  turned  the  contest  between  East  and  West,  so  is  Vienna 
to-day.  The  East  at  last  captured  Warsaw.  Now  it  is  pressing 
on  to  Vienna.  The  glacial  Slavic  race  is  the  western  outpost  of 
east,  forever  pushing  toward  the  west.  That  unknown  and  un- 
knowable East  is  both  age  and  youth — age,  with  its  power  to 
bide  in  calm  assurance;  youth  in  its  impetuous  demand  that 
it  be  served.  Who  can  contemplate  Poland's  fate  of  yesterday 
and  not  forecast  the  future  of  Austria-Hungary?  Who,  vision- 
ing  the  sweep  of  these  huge  forces  through  the  centuries  behind, 
and  projecting  it  just  a  little  way  into  the  tomorrows,  can  feel 
assurance  that  the  world  is  fighting  its  last  great  war? 

Some  ethnologists  claim  to  find  the  earliest  Poles  in  a  Slavic 
people  along  the  Vistula  in  the  second  century  of  our  era.  His- 
tory safely  identifies  them  only  six  or  seven  centuries  later  as  an 
agricultural  people,  with  those  institutions  of  communism  in  the 
soil,  patriarchal  authority  in  the  family,  and  democracy  in  the 
small  community  that  were  characteristic  of  all  the  Slavs.  There 
is  a  legend  of  a  good  peasant  King  Piast,  putative  progenitor 
of  Poland's  rulers   for  many  generations. 

Under  King  Mieczyslaw,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, the  country  was  converted  to  Christianity,  and  claimed  as 
tributary  to  that  German  Empire  which  yet  survived  in  some 
of  the  greatness  Charlemagne  had  won  for  it.  But  Germany  re- 
linquished the  claim,  and  Boleslaus,  the  next  king  in  Poland,  was 
saluted  as  equal  by  a  German  Otto,  who  in  sign  of  their  kingly 
equality  gave  Boleslaus  the  lance  of  a  good  old  saint.  As  proof 
of  Poland's  rightful  status  among  the  kingdoms,  they  will  still 
show  this  lance  to  visitors  in  the  cathedral  at  Cracow. 

Boleslaus  conquered  most  of  the  western  Slavs;  he  and  his 
successors  warred  constantly  with  Russia,  and  a  later  King 
Boleslaus  fell  into  a  quarrel  with  Pope  Gregory  VH,  who  placed 
the  kingdom  under  an  interdict,  so  that  several  successive  kings 
in  Poland  were  refused  recognition  as  such  by  Rome.  For  gen- 
erations an  almost  constant  warfare  was  carried  on  by  the  Poles 
against  the  German  emperors,  who  repeatedly  tried  to  reassert 
their  suzerainty ;  against  the  eastern  Slavs  in  what  is  now  Russia ; 
against  Bohemia  and  Hungary.  The  Mongols,  then  the  terror 
of  all  eastern  Europe,  made  various  irruptions  even  as  far  west 
as  Poland. 


RUSSIA  51 

During  this  period,  down  to  the  accession  of  Casimir  the 
Great  in  the  first  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  poHtical  and 
social  evils  which  were  at  last  to  ruin  Poland  began  to  develop 
clearly.  The  peasants  were  extremely  miserable,  because  the 
nobility  were  warring  among  themselves  when  there  was  no  con- 
venient foreign  enemy  to  oppose.  The  nobles  held  the  land,  but 
were  too  busy  with  their  feuds  to  develop  it.  No  noble  might 
engage  in  trade  or  industry.  The  peasants  had  been  originally 
divided  into  two  classes,  those  who  were  mere  chattels  attached 
to  the  land,  and  those  of  better  estate  who  were  entitled  to  live 
where  they  pleased,  even  to  hold  a  little  land.  But  the  tendency, 
as  always  in  such  a  state,  was  toward  bearing  down  the  free 
peasant  to  the  level  of  the  enslaved. 

During  this  period  the  Teutonic  Knights  come  into  Poland's 
story.  In  the  Teutonic  Knights,  originating  in  far-away  Pales- 
tine, we  see  the  beginning  of  that  militarist  power  that  is  the 
Prussia  of  today.  During  the  crusades  the  Hospital  of  Saint 
Mary  was  established  at  Jerusalem.  When  the  infidels  at  last 
captured  the  city,  the  memory  of  this  institution  was  perpetuated 
by  the  creation  of  the  Order  of  the  Teutonic  Knights  of  Saint 
Mary's.  Two  other  orders  were  created  for  the  defense  of  the 
Latin  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  the  Knights  Templars  and  the 
Knights  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem.  Perhaps  the  Teutonic  Knights 
have  played  the  largest  part,  for  they  founded  the  power  of  the 
Prussian  state.  While  the  other  two  orders  continued  in  the 
fatuous  purpose  of  recovering  the  Holy  Land,  the  thrifty  Teu- 
tonic Knights  transferred  their  seat  to  the  lower  Vistula,  promis- 
ing to  Christianize  the  pagan  Prussians,  which,  with  fire  and 
sword  and  the  barbaric  zeal  of  medieval  Christianity,  they  cer- 
tainly did.  When  they  ran  out  of  a  supply  of  convenient  pagans 
to  proselyte,  they  turned  attention  to  Poland,  which  was  generally 
in  a  state  of  sufficient  turbulence  to  warrant  intervention.  The 
quarrels  between  the  Polish  state  and  the  Knights  went  far  to 
break  both.  Each  in  its  time  was  the  most  important  power  in 
northern  and  eastern  Europe. 

The  great  Casimir  came  to  the  Polish  throne  in  1333,  and  in- 
troduced Poland  into  the  European  family  of  nations.  He 
fought  Russians,  Tatars,  and  Lithuanians  successfully;  gave  his 
approval  to  the  organization  of  a  rudimentary  parliament;  and, 
because  he  had  no  son,  permitted  the  convocation  of  the  nobles 
to  choose  his  successor,  thus  allowing  the  precedent  to  be  es- 


S^  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

tablished  which  made  the  throne  elective,  and  ultimately  brought 
Poland  to  ruin.  For  the  nobles  imposed  conditions  on  the  crown, 
and  these  conditions  they  afterward  expanded  into  the  pacta 
conventa,  which  proved  a  chief  cause  of  Poland's  failure. 

We  may  vision  the  greatness  that  might  have  grown  yet 
greater  in  the  Poland  of  this  time.  From  the  East  and  the  Medi- 
terranean countries  came  a  commerce  so  rich  that  Dantzic  and 
Cracow  won  their  way  into  the  Hanseatic  League;  furs  came 
from  Russia;  fabrics  and  spices,  perfumes  and  jewels,  from  the 
East.  Warsaw  was  founded  seemingly  with  the  destiny  of  being 
one  of  the  entrepots  of  the  world,  a  half-way  house  between 
East  and  West. 

The  nephew  whose  election  to  the  throne  Casimir  had  pro- 
cured was  Louis  of  Hungary.  With  his  demise,  his  daughter 
Jadwiga,  a  good  and  beautiful  woman,  was  elected  queen.  She 
wedded  Jagello,  Duke  of  Lithuania,  and  thus  Lithuanian  and 
Polish  crowns  were  united,  and  Lithuania  was  Christianized. 
The  Jagellon  family  ruled  in  Poland — always,  however,  through 
elections — the  greater  part  of  three  centuries.  The  first  Jagello 
reigned  nearly  half  a  century.  His  crowning  military  exploit 
was  the  utter  defeat  of  the  Teutonic  Knights  in  a  great 
battle  (1410),  almost  at  the  identical  place  where  the  battle  of 
Tannenberg  was  fought  between  Germans  and  Russians  a  few 
months  ago. 

For  centuries  Poland  was  the  buffer  for  western  Europe 
against  Tatars,  Turks,  and  Russians ;  but  instead  of  appreciating 
Poland's  services,  Sweden,  Germany,  Austria,  Prussia,  and  Bo- 
hemia were  commonly  quarreling  with  her.  Poland  of  to-day, 
dismembered  and  prostrate  while  East  and  West  fight  over  her, 
is  merely  living  again  the  agonies  that  have  been  her  part  for  a 
thousand  years.  It  is  impossible  here  even  to  outline  this  con- 
tinuation of  struggles. 

Early  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  liherum  veto  gained  recog- 
nition in  the  Polish  diet.  This  and  the  pacta  conventa  were  twin 
causes  of  the  country's  ruin.  The  liherum  veto  was  the  power, 
claimed  and  finally  granted,  of  a  single  member  to  veto  all  busi- 
ness by  refusing  to  make  it  unanimous.  The  pacta  conventa 
took  almost  all  power  from  the  king;  the  elective  system  com- 
pelled long  interregnums  between  rulers  while  domestic  faction 
and  foreign  influence  were  intriguing  to  dictate  the  succession; 
the  liherum  veto  rendered  the  diet  impotent  to  give  real  par- 


RUSSIA  53 

liamentary  government.  Thus  weakened  within  and  beset  from 
without,  Poland  could  only  be  sacrificed. 

Yet  there  were  periods  when  the  country  came  near  rising  to 
its  opportunities.  Under  Sigismund  Augustus,  latter  sixteenth 
century,  the  nation  saw  one  of  these  eras;  but  when  he  died, 
Austria,  France,  Sweden,  and  Russia  presented  candidates  for  the 
crown,  a  rich  prize.  Henry  of  Valois,  brother  of  the  French 
king,  was  elected  after  a  long  and  ruinous  interregnum.  He  was 
brought  to  Poland  in  great  state,  hailed  as  the  sign  of  a  glori- 
ous union  with  France,  crowned  at  Cracow,  and  in  less  than  a 
year  later  ran  away  from  the  kingdom  on  learning  that  his 
brother  had  died  and  he  was  successor  to  the  throne  of  France. 
He  left  a  banquet-hall  at  midnight,  sneaked  to  the  outskirts  of 
his  capital,  and  rode  madly  the  rest  of  the  night  to  get  beyond 
the  country's  border.  The  diet  declared  the  throne  vacant,  and 
Stephen  Bathori,  a  Translyvanian  prince,  was  elected  king. 

Bathori  was  successful  enough  in  war,  but  unable  to  get  on 
with  the  turbulent,  selfish,  unseeing  nobility,  who  considered  the 
country  their  oyster.  When  he  died  the  country  was  widely 
extended  and  seemingly  powerful,  but  institutionally  rotten. 
After  a  period  of  riots,  murders,  and  turbulence  it  elected  a 
Swedish  prince,  another  Sigismund.  The  election  was  accom- 
plished only  after  a  battle  had  been  fought  to  drive  the  insist- 
ent Austrian  candidate  out  of  the  country.  Such  were  the  woes 
Poland  periodically  experienced  in  picking  for  itself  a  king  who 
commonly  knew  neither  it  nor  its  people,  and  to  whom  it  gave  no 
power. 

During  this  reign  occurred  the  strange  affair  of  the  false 
Demetrius,  a  bogus  claimant  to  the  Russian  throne.  The  ac- 
tual heir  had  been  disposed  of,  probably  by  murder.  The  pre- 
tender was  backed  by  a  junta  at  Cracow,  and  apparently  also  by 
Rome.  At  any  rate,  he  had  ample  funds,  and  a  Polish  army  went  to 
Moscow,  placed  him  on  the  throne,  and  maintained  him  there  for 
a  short  time,  till  he  was  murdered  in  an  outbreak.  Somebody 
who  will  clear  away  the  mystery  of  this  imperial  adventure  will 
illumine  one  of  the  strange  pages  of  history.  It  is  believed  that 
a  document  in  the  Vatican  archives,  if  accessible,  would  prove 
who  he  was  and  what  backing  he  had.  If  it  was  a  Polish 
Catholic  plot  to  bring  Russia  under  the  Latin  church,  it  failed; 
but  it  brought  Poland  nearer  than  it  ever  was  again  to  domina- 
tion of  Russia. 


54  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  seventeenth  century  saw  the  country  overrun  by  a  Swed- 
ish invasion,  Cracow  and  Warsaw  being  taken.  The  king,  John 
Casimir,  was  driven  into  Silesia,  and  after  the  Swedes  had  made 
peace  and  retired,  he  warned  his  subjects  that  unless  they  ceased 
their  internal  strifes  the  country  would  surely  be  taken  from 
them  by  their  neighbors.  Indeed,  the  idea  of  a  partition  of 
Poland  was  undoubtedly  seriously  considered  at  this  time,  more 
than  a  century  before  it  actually  took  place. 

The  closing  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  saw  the  last 
burst  of  the  old  Polish  glory.  The  Turks  prepared  their  great 
raid  on  western  Europe,  and  in  1683  appeared  before  Vienna. 
The  Austrians  were  pitifully  incapable  of  helping  themselves,  and 
Louis  XIV  of  France  was  willing  that  Austria  should  suffer.  So 
Poland,  headed  by  the  splendid  John  Sobieski,  who  had  been 
elected  king  because  of  earlier  victories  over  the  Turks,  sent  an 
army  to  save  Vienna.  The  Turkish  horde,  supposed  to  be  irre- 
sistible, was  overthrown  just  outside  Vienna  with  terrific 
slaughter,  and  Sobieski  made  Poland  the  savior  of  Europe,  as 
Charles  Martel,  on  the  field  of  Tours,  had  made  France  its  savior 
near  a  thousand  years  before. 

But  proud  as  they  were  of  the  glory  he  had  garnered  for  them, 
the  Polish  grandees  would  not  let  even  Sobieski  rehabilitate  their 
country.  He  lived  a  dozen  years  after  the  Vienna  campaign, 
often  on  the  verge  of  abdicating  in  disgust.  A  weak  king  suc- 
ceeded him,  who  fell  into  a  quarrel  with  Charles  XII  of  Swe- 
den. Charles  conquered  the  country,  deposed  the  king,  set  up  a 
new  one,  and  marched  on  to  conquer  Russia,  just  as  Napoleon 
did  a  century  later. 

Like  Napoleon,  Charles  took  Moscow ;  and  taking  it  cost  him 
his  army.  He  went  into  exile  in  Turkey,  as  Napoleon  went 
to  Elba;  he  came  back  as  did  Napoleon,  and  tried  again.  He 
rehabilitated  his  fortunes  so  far  that  he  was  able  to  launch 
new  projects  of  empire  which  looked  to  the  conquest  of  Norway 
first,  then  to  the  invasion  of  England.  He  was  killed  while  be- 
sieging Frederikshald,  in  Norway,  almost  exactly  a  century  be- 
fore Napoleon  lost  Waterloo.  It  is  a  strange  parallel  between 
two  men  who  sought  to  rule  Europe  at  intervals  of  a  century;  the 
more  suggestive,  in  view  of  the  present-day  effort  of  another 
ambitious  prince,  after  another  century,  to  achieve  what  both 
failed  to  do. 


RUSSIA  55 

When  Poland  escaped  from  the  Swedish  conqueror,  the 
Russians  restored  a  weak  king,  Stanislaus  Leszcynski ;  next,  the 
Germans  came  uppermost,  and  placed  the  Elector  of  Saxony  on 
the  throne  of  Poland.  He  reigned  till  his  death  in  1763.  Then 
came  the  last  act  in  the  tragedy — the  dictation  by  Russia  and 
Prussia,  jointly,  of  the  election  of  Stanislaus  Augustus  Ponia- 
towski  as  king.  He  was  destined  to  be  the  last  king  in  Poland, 
and  it  is  worth  while  to  tell  a  little  of  his  election.  He  was  a 
Pole  of  noble  family,  born  in  1732,  and  raised  in  the  elegant  and 
cosmopolitan  fashion  of  the  wealthy  Poles.  He  went  as  a 
secretary  to  the  English  ambassador  at  St.  Petersburg,  where  he 
met  the  Grand  Duchess  Catharine,  already  beginning  to  shine 
in  that  process  of  plot  and  intrigue  that  brought  her  to  the  throne 
as  Catharine  the  Great.  Among  the  amours  of  this  marvelous 
woman  none  was  fraught  with  more  significance  in  history  than 
that  with  young  Poniatowski. 

There  seems  no  doubt  that  the  woman  did  the  courting.  In 
her  memoir  Catharine  frankly  tells  of  her  affection  for  this 
man  and  her  long  liaison  with  him,  which  she  coolly  says  might 
have  lasted  indefinitely  had  he  not  become  bored !  Not  so  the 
lady;  though  the  affaire  had  ended  long  before,  she  as  empress 
kept  a  warm  place  for  him  in  her  regard.  Opportunity  present- 
ing, she  not  only  supported  him,  but  induced  Frederick  the  Great 
to  join  her  in  placing  him  on  the  Polish  throne. 

Looking  back,  it  is  plain  enough  that  Frederick  and  Catharine 
intended  to  take  Poland  from  the  day  they  set  this  weakling  on 
the  throne.  Maria  Theresa  of  Austria  came  in  for  a  part  of  the 
spoil,  and  suffered  the  only  conscientious  scruples  that  seem  to 
have  assailed  any  of  the  triumvirate  of  imperial  freebooters. 

In  May,  1764,  the  Convocation  Diet,  a  sort  of  nominating  con- 
vention, met  in  Warsaw.  The  city  was  full  of  Russian  and 
Prussian  troops,  with  no  few  Tatars  carrying  bows  and  arrows. 
Poland  still  pretended  independence,  but  it  had  only  the  shadow 
of  a  national  existence.  Stanislaus  Augustus  was  forced  upon 
the  country,  and  later  the  convention  of  electors,  gathered  in  the 
famous  field  at  Warsaw,  ratified  the  choice.  There  were  80,000 
qualified  electors,  but  only  a  few  thousand  appeared.  The 
soldiers  of  Catharine  and  Frederick  were  probably  more  numer- 
ous than  the  Polish  electors,  and  their  show  of  power  insured  the 
result.  Under  this  coercion,  the  Polish  convention  elected  the 
last  king  of  their  country. 


56  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Great  indignation  over  this  usurpation  swept  Poland.  The  Con- 
federation of  Bar  was  formed  at  the  town  of  that  name  to  throw 
off  the  Russian  domination.  It  improvised  an  army,  attempted 
to  force  reforms,  and  was  overthrown  by  Catharine's  troops. 

Count  Casimir  Pulaski,  a  soldier  of  fortune  and  of  freedom 
who  afterward  fought  in  the  American  Revolution  and  to  whom 
Congress  has  recently  erected  a  statute  in  Washington,  was  a  son 
of  the  man  who  headed  the  Confederation  of  Bar.  Count  Pu- 
laski organized  a  strange  plot  to  kidnap  the  king,  right  in  the 
heart  of  Warsaw,  at  night.  A  handful  of  conspirators  actually 
seized  the  king  and  got  him  well  out  of  the  city.  Ignorance, 
treachery,  and  superstition  foiled  the  plan,  which  seems  to  have 
been  aimed  not  at  the  murder  or  even  dethronement  of  Stan- 
islaus, but  at  getting  him  securely  into  the  power  and  influence 
of  the  patriots. 

The  plot  failed,  as  did  the  whole  effort  of  awakening  patriot- 
ism and  understanding  among  the  Poles.  In  1772,  Russia,  Austria, 
and  Prussia  began  the  division  of  territory,  taking  perhaps  two 
fifths  of  the  national  area,  Russia  getting  everything  east  of  the 
Dnieper;  Austria  getting  Galicia  and  some  adjacent  lands  to  the 
southeast,  and  Prussia  receiving  a  liberal  slice  in  what  is  now 
eastern  Prussia. 

After  this  rape  of  their  domain,  the  Poles  tried  to  reform 
their  country  and  save  it.  The  liherum  veto  was  abolished,  but 
the  upper  classes  had  no  serious  notion  of  giving  real  freedom 
to  the  peasants.  Religious  and  race  prejudices  were  more  bitter 
than  in  the  progressive  countries  of  the  Continent.  There  were 
some  earnest  and  thoughtful  people  who  watched  the  American 
revolution,  and  these  guided  the  deliberations  of  Poland's  Long 
Parliament,  the  famous  diet  that  met  in  1788  and  continued  four 
years. 

This  diet  convened  just  a  year  after  the  Constitution  for  the 
United  States  had  been  framed.  It  was  marked  throughout  by  a 
sincere  effort  to  save  the  country  by  adapting  to  it  the  scheme  of 
the  much-admired  American  union.  The  crown  was  made 
hereditary,  and  a  very  fair  scheme  of  constitutional  monarchy  was 
adopted.  But  the  nobles,  facing  loss  of  their  political  authority, 
fled  to  Russia,  protested  against  the  wicked  radicalism,  and  in- 
duced Russia  to  send  armies  into  Poland,  exactly  as  the  exiled 
French  nobility  a  little  later  enlisted  the  toryism  of  monarchial 
Europe  against  the  revolution  in  France. 


RUSSIA  57 

Suppressing  corrupt  and  wretched  Poland  was  easier  than 
suppressing  inspired  and  frenzied  France.  Again  foreign  troops 
entered  the  country,  and  another  partition  took  place  in  1792,  and 
a  third  in  1795,  which  finished  the  business  by  wiping  Poland 
off  the  map.  In  1814  the  lines  were  somewhat  reorganized 
by  the  Congress  of  Vienna;  but  this  was  merely  writing  the 
epitaph. 

Of  course  there  were  afterclaps.  The  revolutionary  move- 
ment centering  in  France  kept  the  fires  of  Polish  ambition  burn- 
ing. When  Napoleon  rose  to  power,  the  Poles  looked  for  him 
to  restore  their  country.  He  established  the  Duchy  of  Warsaw, 
which  seemed  the  promise  of  a  later  Kingdom  of  Poland;  and 
when  he  marched  away  to  Moscow,  a  great  force  of  Poles  joined 
him,  fatuously  imagining  that  the  conqueror  had  been  raised  up 
to  restore  their  ancient  country.  When  the  Corsican  was  at  last 
subdued,  Russia  took  over  his  Duchy  of  Warsaw  and  promised  to 
make  it  an  autonomous  kingdom,  with  the  czar  as  king.  But  the 
promise  was  shadowy,  and  its  realization  still  less  substantial. 
In  1830  there  was  a  revolt  which,  being  suppressed,  ended  the 
fiction  of  this  Polish-Russian  kingdom.  Another  uprising  in 
1863,  marked  by  assassination,  terrorism,  and  all  the  horrors  of 
guerilla  warfare,  brought  further  devastation  to  the  Russian 
parts  of  the  country. 

After  this  Russia  set  about  deliberately  to  suppress  the  Polish 
language,  break  down  the  national  spirit,  and  Russify  the  coun- 
try. Under  a  policy  instigated  by  Bismarck,  Prussia  has  Prus- 
sianized the  German  parts  of  Poland  with  methods  about  as 
objectionable,  though  perhaps  less  effective. 

Austria  has  come  nearer  discouraging  Polish  national  feeling 
than  either  Germany  or  Russia,  partly  because  Galicia,  the  Aus- 
trian part  of  old  Poland,  was  never  fully  Polish ;  partly  because 
the  Poles  have  been  given  a  generous  part  in  governing  their  own 
provinces  and  in  the  affairs  of  the  dual  empire.  A  Pole  has  even 
been  premier  of  the  empire. 

The  present  is  a  time  to  discourage  prophecy  about  Poland's 
future.  Russia  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  war  pledged  her- 
self to  restore  Poland.  More  recently  Germany  and  Austria 
have  given  a  like  promise.  After  the  war  the  council  of  Europe 
will  decide  whether  Poland  shall  be  restored  or  whether  the  old 
partition  shall  be  confirmed.  Restored,  it  would  likely  be  no 
more  capable  of  united  action  than  formerly,  for  the  various  parts 


58  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

have  been  knitted  more  or  less  firmly  by  ties  of  education,  in- 
dustrialism, travel  routes,  and  economic  relationship  into  their 
several  places  in  the  present-day  scheme  of  European  affairs. 
The  peasant  masses  are  yet  poor  and  uneducated;  much  of  the 
land  has  passed  away  from  the  old  noble  families;  the  Poles, 
even  in  their  restored  country,  would  number  a  doubtful  ma- 
jority; and  the  non-Polish  elements  would  have  little  enthusi- 
asm about  returning  to  the  ancient  regime.  At  best  it  would  be 
little  more  than  another  buffer  state,  like  the  little  powers  of  the 
Balkan  States. 

To-day  Poland  is  once  more  the  battle-ground  between  Ger- 
mans and  Slavs ;  its  fate,  more  awful  than  in  any  war  of  the 
past,  is  yet  merely  a  twentieth-century  presentation  of  its  ex- 
perience in  all  the  other  centuries  since  the  irrepressible  con- 
flict of  Slav  and  Teuton  began.  In  the  light  of  history's  experi- 
ence and  to-day's  realizations  of  Europe's  complex  problems,  its 
future  is  anything  but  promising. 

Much  pretty  sentiment  and  more  foolish  sentimentality  have 
been  written  about  the  "fate  of  the  lost  republic."  But  no 
man  who  regards  to-day's  conditions  in  Mexico  as  a  menace  to 
our  own  country  can  be  far  from  understanding  the  pretext 
that  served  Catharine  and  Frederick  for  taking  Poland.  Na- 
ture did  not  mark  out  its  territory  in  big,  bold  strokes  as  the 
domain  of  a  nation.  Napoleon  saw  in  rivers,  mountain  ranges, 
and  oceans  the  natural  boundaries  of  states;  Poland  had  none 
of  these.  She  was  right  in  the  middle  of  the  European  world, 
pressed  on  all  sides,  without  natural  defenses.  Turks,  Tatars, 
Slavs,  Northmen,  Austrians,  Germans — all  were  her  natural 
enemies,  and  to  all  she  was  accessible;  for  all  she  was  at  one 
time  or  another  a  buffer. 

A  people  of  stronger  genius  for  government  might  have  ex- 
tended their  influence  and  become  a  great  power;  but  the  Poles 
were  without  the  genius.  They  were  basically  democratic,  as 
all  Slavs  are,  but  they  were  woefully  without  constructive  faculty. 
Calling  their  country  a  republic,  the  ruling  class,  composed  of 
the  landowning  nobles  or  the  decadent  members  of  the  caste 
who  had  lost  their  land,  while  still  possessing  the  proud  tradition 
of  having  once  held  it,  was  willing  to  fight  among  themselves  for 
freedom,  but  always  to  unite  in  preventing  the  masses  from  get- 
ting it.  This  caste  became  numerous,  and  as  its  economic  power 
diminished,  its  jealousy  of  its  political  authority  increased.    A 


RUSSIA  59 

noble  might  wear  a  sword,  and  vote  for  king  in  the  convocation 
of  electors,  though  he  owned  not  a  foot  of  land.  He  might  sell 
his  vote  for  king,  or  he  might  run  a  peasant  through  with  his 
sword  on  penalty  of  a  modest  fine.  He  was  much  given  to  both 
practices. 

It  has  been  observed  that  the  authorities  attribute  the  institu- 
tional weakness  of  the  Polish  state  to  the  pacta  conventa  and 
the  liherum  veto.  The  pacta  conventa,  or  contract  between 
nobles  and  king,  deprived  the  king  of  almost  all  real  power,  save 
when,  in  war,  he  headed  the  army.  The  nobles  took  no  chances 
of  turning  up  a  king  who  might  make  common  cause  with  the 
peasants,  as  had  often  happened  in  western  Europe,  and  clip  the 
wings  of  the  privileged  class.  In  other  states  the  curtailment  of 
the  regal  power  was  always  accompanied  by  an  increase  of  the 
parliamentary  authority.  In  Poland  the  power  taken  from  the 
king  was  given  to  nobody.  Instead,  the  nobles  actually  sur- 
rendered their  own  powers  by  yielding  to  the  liberum  veto  in  the 
diet. 

The  pacta  conventa  at  its  full  development  must  strike  a 
twentieth-century  reader  as  rather  a  charter  of  liberties  than 
an  apple  of  discord.  The  king  was  elective ;  only  the  parliamen/ 
could  make  war,  impose  taxes,  or  commission  ambassadors; 
parliament  must  be  convened  at  least  biennially;  the  king's  cabi- 
net was  to  be  elected  by  the  diet  once  a  year.  The  sovereign 
might  not  even  wed  except  to  the  candidate  named  by  the  diet ! 

Manifestly,  the  powers  so  liberally  shorn  from  the  king  would 
seem  well  reposed  in  the  parliament;  but  Poland's  parliament 
never  rose  to  a  realization  of  its  own  dignity.  It  would  be  in 
session  only  a  very  short  time ;  commonly,  the  shorter  the  better, 
because  it  could  seldom  agree  on  anything  save  the  privilege  of 
florid  oratory.  This  incompetent  diet  was  reduced  at  length  to 
absolute  impotence  by  the  liberum  veto. 

The  liberum  veto  was  the  privilege  of  a  single  member  of  the 
diet  to  nullify  any  piece  of  legislation,  or  a  whole  session's  legis- 
lative work,  by  simply  rising  in  his  place  and  solemnly  pro- 
claiming, "I  forbid  !"  When  first  asserted  it  was  bitterly  opposed, 
but  the  principle  was  at  length  accepted.  If  it  seems  utterly  in- 
explicable that  a  legislature  would  thus  surrender  all  its  power,  a 
medieval  Pole  might  with  reason  retort  that  in  the  American 
Senate  unlimited  debate  is  even  now  permitted;  that,  according 
to  high  parliamentary  authority,  the  great  bulk  of  legislation  is 


6o  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

done  virtually  by  unanimous  consent ;  and,  most  suggestive  of  all, 
that  a  single  member,  by  a  point  of  order,  may  strike  from  a 
supply  bill  any  proposed  limitation  on  the  use  of  the  funds. 

.  Despite  the  pacta  conventa  and  the  liherum  veto,  Poland  might 
have  built  up  a  constitutional  system  suited  to  a  limited  monarchy 
if  it  had  had  responsible  cabinet  government.  But  the  cabinet, 
while  chosen  by  the  diet,  was  not  responsible.  If  the  privy 
treasurer  had  stolen  the  revenues,  an  investigation  by  the  diet 
could  be  ended  instanter  by  the  liherum  veto,  and  there  were 
always  corrupt  personages  to  exercise  it. 

But  it  was  not  for  want  of  "Rules  of  Order"  printed  entirely 
in  the  aspirated  consonants  that  Poland  fell.  The  Poles  called 
their  country  a  republic,  and  their  institutions  might  have  justified 
their  claim  if  only  they  had  understood  that  a  republican  govern- 
ment must  be  truly  representative.  It  must  represent  all  the 
people;  Poland's  represented  a  select  upper  class  only.  It  was 
the  world's  most  undemocratic  attempt  at  a  republic.  The 
frailties  of  its  institutions  were  a  reflection  of  the  misconception 
which  its  ruling  classes  entertained  of  the  relation  of  govern- 
ment to  the  people. 

Throughout  the  period  of  its  importance  as  a  nation  Poland 
elected  its  king.  Like  almost  all  peoples  habited  to  the  mon- 
archic idea,  the  Poles  imagined  that  a  king  must  be  of  the  kingly 
caste,  born  to  the  purple.  Whether  he  was  competent  to  rule, 
whether  a  Pole  or  not,  whether  he  understood  or  sympathized 
with  the  people,  was  not  so  important.  Because  of  a  dread  of 
building  up  too  great  a  power  in  the  reigning  family,  there  ap- 
peared repeatedly  a  positive  prejudice  against  allowing  the  suc- 
cession to  remain  in  the  direct  line.  So  Poland  was  found  con- 
stantly shopping  about  the  courts  of  Europe  for  an  amiable  prince 
willing  to  wear  its  crown  on  terms  which  involved  the  sacrifice 
of  his  self-respect.  The  king  was  the  merest  figurehead;  the 
nobility  ruled.  And  never  was  there  a  class  in  any  state  more 
devoted  to  liberty — strictly  for  its  own  use — than  this  Polish 
aristocracy.  Never  a  caste  more  determined  to  have  no  real 
power  above  or  no  real  freedom  below. 

Members  of  this  class  might  do  honest  work  in  agriculture; 
never  in  industry,  trade,  finance.  The  peasants  were  too  poor 
and  ignorant  to  dream  of  themselves  as  real  partners  in  the  na- 
tion. Their  backs  burned  and  bled  under  the  burden  of  the 
turbulent  nobility  and  its  sport  of  everlastingly  quarreling  with 


RUSSIA  6i 

itself.  Some  of  the  kings,  indeed,  in  despair  of  ever  getting  on 
with  the  nobles,  bethought  themselves  of  that  stratagem  of  the 
old  British  monarchs,  who  enlisted  the  peasants  on  their  side,  and 
united  king  and  people  against  the  barons;  but  in  Poland  the 
nobility  always  managed  to  frustrate  such  efforts.  So  treason- 
able a  project  on  the  king's  part  was  sure  sign  that  if  he  were  not 
driven  to  abandon  it,  he  would  at  least  be  succeeded  by  a  king 
weak  and  acquiescent  enough  to  undo  whatever  he  had  accom- 
plished. 

When  a  king  died  and  a  successor  was  to  be  chosen,  there 
was  a  great  scramble  among  the  princely  families  of  neighboring 
states  for  the  advantage  of  providing  a  sprig  of  royalty  to  wear 
the  crown.  Austria,  France,  Russia,  Saxony,  Germany,  Sweden, 
Hungary,  and  Bohemia  were  constantly  intriguing  for  the  Polish 
scepter.  Austria  was  peculiarly  successful  in  marrying  its  prin- 
cesses to  Polish  kings.  This  continual  plotting  for  the  throne 
inevitably  inspired  the  idea  of  partitioning  Poland. 

In  the  long  interregnums  between  the  demise  of  a  king  and 
the  election  of  a  successor,  other  nations,  espousing  the  cause  of 
this  or  that  aspirant,  often  sent  armed  forces  to  support  the  fac- 
tions with  which  they  were  intriguing.  The  country  was  thus 
kept  in  a  demoralization  that  made  the  constant  foreign  wars 
almost  a  relief  because  for  the  time  they  compelled  a  certain 
cohesion  and  cooperation. 

We  may  stratify  the  Polish  people  roughly  into  four  social 
layers :  at  the  top,  the  impotent  king  and  his  gorgeous,  profligate 
court ;  next,  the  small  group  of  rich  and  really  powerful  nobles 
who  owned  the  land,  maintained  as  many  armed  retainers  as -they 
could,  and  ruled  in  their  several  castellans  and  palatinates ;  next, 
the  minor  nobility,  or  sczlachta,  who  owned  little  or  no  land,  but 
were  none  the  less  proud  of  their  rank  and  privileges  as  nobles; 
and  underneath  all  this  the  peasantry  free  and  the  bond,  but  the 
freeman  tending  constantly  toward  the  level  of  the  lower  class. 

These  classes  constituted  the  PoHsh  people.  They  did  not  in- 
clude any  industrial  or  merchant  classes;  these  were  introduced 
from  the  outside,  and  were  mainly  Germans  and  Hebrews.  These 
were  never  considered  a  part  of  the  Polish  community;  they  were 
in  it,  not  of  it.  The  Germans  were  long  ruled  in  a  curious  extra- 
territorial fashion  under  the  lex  Magdeburgicum.  Aliens  in 
race,  denied  political  participation,  socially  despised,  these  out- 
landers  became  largely  the  burghers  of  the  towns,  the  merchants. 


62  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Finally,  there  were  the  religious  divisions  among  the  people: 
Jews  and  Gentiles,  Tatars  and  Teutons,  Turks  and  Slavs, 
Protestants  and  Catholics  and  Greek  orthodox.  Lithuania  was 
largely  disposed  toward  the  Greek  Church.  Roman  Catholic  and 
Lutheran  reform  forces  struggled  for  domination,  the  Catholic 
power  asserting  itself.  The  kings  were  latterly  sworn  to  enforce 
religious  toleration,  but  the  oath  meant  chiefly  that  the  nobles 
were  denying  the  king  power  to  exercise  an  intolerance  that  they 
themselves  displayed  with  the  greatest  ardor. 

The  differences  of  language  were  accentuated  as  a  national 
weakness  by  the  fact  that  the  ruling  class  of  Poles  were  never 
very  loyal  to  their  native  tongue.  They  cultivated  Latin  as  the 
language  of  literature  and  government  long  after  it  had  been  gen- 
erally abandoned  in  more  Western  countries,  and  they  dropped 
from  it  into  French  and  Italian  as  the  tongues  of  culture  and 
elegance.  Thus  while  other  north-of-Europe  peoples  were  per- 
fecting their  native  languages,  the  Poles  were  dissipating  that 
most  potent  of  all  national  ties,  a  common  and  beloved  tongue. 
Here  one  of  the  greatest  opportunities  of  Slavonic  leadership 
was  lost. 

The  various  strata  and  parts  of  the  Polish  people  never  be- 
came acquainted  with  one  another.  The  superior  classes  did  not 
take  any  interest  in  the  peasantry,  but  regarded  themselves  as  the 
nation,  and  the  peasantry  as  if  they  might  have  been  an  inferior 
order  of  beings.  Nobility  and  peasantry  alike  looked  upon  the 
Germans  and  the  Jews,  who  were  willing  to  submit  to  the  degra- 
dation of  trade  and  industry,  as  mere  outlanders. 

When  the  era  of  discovery  and  of  widening  vision  came,  Po- 
land was  lost  from  the  main-traveled  highways  of  the  world. 
There  had  been  a  time  when  a  great  commerce  between  far  East 
md  West  passed  in  considerable  part  through  Poland,  but  the 
Tatar  irruptions  closed  the  northern  caravan  routes,  and  the  fall 
of  Constantinople  clogged  the  more  southerly.  This  had  a  large 
part  in  cutting  off  the  commercial  classes  of  Poland  from  inti- 
macy with  the  progressive  communities  to  the  west.  The  ex- 
clusive classes  in  Poland  did,  indeed,  continue  relations  with  the 
West,  but  they  were  the  relations  of  a  sycophantic  social  class 
rather  than  of  the  virile,  enterprising  body  of  the  nation.  The 
discovery  of  America  and  of  the  ocean  routes  to  the  east  left 
Poland  off  the  revised  map  of  the  world,  and  the  country,  too 


RUSSIA  63 

late,  was  thrown  back  on  its  own  scant  resources  of  capacity  for 
modernistic  development. 

If  Poland  in  the  era  of  chivalry  could  have  been  blessed  with 
more  isolation,  more  chance  to  develop  a  phase  of  that  fine,  in- 
dividualizing provincialism  that  England  produced,  and  if  later 
Poland  could  have  established  its  touch  with  the  awakening 
world,  there  might  have  been  a  different  and  a  happier  story 
of  the  nation.  But  Poland  was  cosmopolitan  too  early  and 
provincial  too  late. 


PARTITIONED  POLAND^ 

What  we  now  know  as  Russian  Poland  is  that  neck  of  terri- 
tory stretching  westward  between  the  Prussias  and  Galicia.  This 
territory  has  an  area  almost  exactly  equal  to  that  of  New  York, 
yet,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  its  extreme  southern  boundary  lies 
north  of  the  latitude  of  Winnipeg,  its  population  is  as  great  as 
those  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey  combined. 

Russian  Poland,  in  this  Hmited  sense,  consists  of  a  great 
plain,  somewhat  undulating,  with  an  average  elevation  of  about 
400  feet,  sloping  upward  toward  the  highlands  of  Galicia  on 
the  south  and  toward  the  swelling  ground  paralleling  the  Baltic 
on  the  north.  It  joins  the  lowlands  of  western  Germany  with 
the  great  plain  of  western  Russia.  Its  rivers  are  slow  and  slug- 
gish, with  their  mouths  often  but  a  few  dozen  feet  below  their 
sources  and  seldom  more  than  a  few  hundred  feet  below.  Their 
basins  intricately  interpenetrate  one  another,  and  the  frequent 
inundations  of  these  basins  have  covered  them  with  a  very  rich 
alluvial  soil. 

Russian  Poland  usually  has  a  winter  somewhat  similar  to 
that  of  New  England.  There  is  an  even  cold,  with  not  a  great 
deal  of  snow,  but  often  with  razor-edged  winds  from  the  north- 
ward. The  rivers  of  this  region  usually  freeze  over  about  the 
middle  of  December,  and  the  Vistula  is  under  ice  for  approx- 
imately 80  days  during  the  average  winter. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  city  of  Warsaw,  next  to 
Paris,  was  the  most  brilliant  city  in  Europe,  this  flat  plain  was 

*  By  W.  J.  Showalter.  National  Geographic  Magazine.  27:88-106.  Janu- 
ary, 1915. 


64  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

unusually  rich  in  herds  and  in  geese  flocks,  though  almost  bare 
of  manufactures. 

Warsaw  has  never  been  able  to  forget  that  it  was  the  capital 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Poland,  and  it  still  conscientiously  main- 
tains the  vivacious  gayety  for  which  it  was  famed  during  the 
days  of  its  highest  fortunes.  It  is  still  Russian  Poland,  but  in- 
stead of  a  native  king  and  court  it  has  a  Russian  governor  gen- 
eral and  a  Russian  army  corps.  The  gayety  of  the  city,  long 
ago  modeled  upon  that  of  Paris,  is  one  of  the  few  distinctive 
characteristics  which  it  has  been  able  to  retain  from  the  past. 

The  city  is  well  situated.  It  is  built  in  the  midst  of  a  fertile, 
rolling  plain,  mostly  upon  the  left  bank  of  the  Vistula,  which  is 
navigable  here  for  large  river  boats.  The  main  part  of  the  city 
lies  close  to  the  river  and  is  compact  and  massive.  Its  streets 
are  very  narrow  and  very  crooked,  wriggling  in  and  out  regard- 
less of  all  logic  of  direction.  The  more  modern  parts  of  the 
city,  on  the  other  hand,  are  laid  out  in  broad,  straight  streets.  In 
these  parts  one  occasionally  finds  bathtubs,  steam-heating,  and 
various  devices  of  sanitary  plumbing  in  the  private  homes. 

There  are  many  magnificent  palaces  of  the  old  Polish  nobility 
in  the  city.  A  number  of  these  sumptuous  buildings  are  being 
put  to  public  use,  such  as  the  renowned  Casimir  Palace,  which 
now  houses  the  university.  Other  palaces  are  being  made  to 
serve  the  needs  of  municipal  and  garrison  administration. 

Warsaw  has  become  under  Russian  rule  a  great  industrial 
and  commercial  center.  It  manufactures  machinery,  carriages, 
and  woven  goods,  and  it  trades  in  these  things  and  in  the  animal 
and  food  products  of  Russian  Poland.  A  large  export  of  leather 
and  coal  to  Russia  passes  through  Warsaw.  A  great  deal  of  the 
city's  production  is  the  output  of  handwork,  and  here  are  to  be 
found  some  of  the  poorest,  most  patient,  and  persistent  artificers 
of  the  western  world.  There  are  50  book-printing  establish- 
ments in  the  city,  most  of  them  engaged  in  the  labor  of  pro- 
moting the  supremacy  of  the  Russian  language. 

Russian  is  the  language  of  instruction  in  nearly  all  of  the 
Warsaw  schools.  It  is  also  the  language  of  the  government  and 
of  polite  and  learned  society.  This  currency  of  the  conquerors' 
tongue  has  deeply  tinged  the  life  of  old  Warsaw,  and  the  Polish 
spirit  of  proud,  ostentatious  frolic  has  taken  on  a  color  of  mel- 
ancholy and  meditative  reflection.  The  Warsaw  medical  school 
is  famous,  as  is  also  its  school  of  art.  Its  musical  conse/vatory 


RUSSIA  65 

is  modeled  upon  those  of  Petrograd  and  Moscow,  and  the  un- 
PoHsh  music  of  Rimsky-Korsakov,  Balakirev,  Caesar  Cui,  and 
Chaikovsky  has  replaced  the  Hghter  of  native  fancy. 

If  Russia  got  the  bulk  of  Poland's  territory  and  the  major 
portion  of  the  Polish  population,  she  also  got  by  far  the  larger 
part  of  the  PoHsh  problem.  Russian  Poland  was  the  cradle  of 
the  Polish  race — a  land  in  which  both  ruling  aristocrat  and 
serving  peasant  were  Poles.  The  result  was  that  Poland  became 
a  thorn  in  the  side  of  Russia,  causing  the  Empire  no  end  of 
trouble  and  bringing  upon  the  heads  of  the  Poles  in  turn  no  end 
of  repressive  measures.  Indeed,  at  times  this  became  so  great 
that  more  than  one  Russian  statesman  came  to  advocate  turning 
Russian  Poland  over  to  Germany. 

For  a  long  time  the  Poles  were  forbidden  even  to  use  their 
native  tongue.  Even  the  railway  employees  could  not  answer 
questions  asked  in  Polish.  The  word  "Polish"  itself  could  not 
be  used  in  the  newspapers.  For  a  while  no  letter  could  be  ad- 
dressed in  Polish.  Outside  of  what  is  now  known  as  Russian 
Poland,  in  the  provinces  acquired  before  the  final  partition,  one 
still  encounters  notices  in  and  on  all  public  buildings  reading: 
"The  speaking  of  Polish  is  forbidden."  In  one  of  these  prov- 
inces street-car  conductors  were  fined  because  they  answered 
questions  asked  in  Polish. 

The  national  dress  was  forbidden,  even  as  a  carnival  costume 
or  in  historical  dramas  in  the  theater.  The  coat  of  arms  of 
Poland  had  to  be  erased  from  every  old  house  and  from  the 
frame  of  every  old  picture.  The  singing  of  the  national  songs 
was  strictly  taboo. 

Yet  with  all  the  efforts  at  repression,  and  with  all  the  re- 
sistance made  against  that  repression,  when  the  present  war 
broke  out  the  Russian  Pole  seems  to  have  been  as  loyal  to  his 
government  as  the  German  Pole  was  to  Germany  or  the  Austrian 
Pole  to  Austria.  The  whole  war  in  the  eastern  theater  has  been 
fought  in  territory  which  once  belonged  to  Poland,  territory 
largely  peopled  by  Poles,  and  yet  there  is  no  evidence  that  any 
of  them  have  betrayed  their  respective  flags. 

Germany  has  tried  in  every  possible  way  to  transform  her 
Poles  into  Germans.  It  has  used  the  Russian  tactics  in  quench- 
ing the  fire  of  their  nationalism,  but  with  no  better  success  than 
Russia  had.  Heretofore  Poles  were  not  appointed  to  office;  let- 
ters addressed  in  Polish  went  undelivered.    Marriages  between 


66  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

German  men  and  Polish  women  were  discouraged,  for  Bismarck 
had  not  let  it  escape  his  notice  that  "a  Polish  wife  makes  a 
Polish  patriot  out  of  her  husband  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye." 

There  were  laws  forbidding  the  use  of  Polish  in  public  meet- 
ings, and  Polish  children  who  refused  to  answer  the  catechism 
in  German  were  punished. 

In  the  hope  of  making  Germans  out  of  the  Poles,  the  Prussian 
government  decided  to  colonize  German  settlers  among  them. 
First  this  was  undertaken  by  private  enterprise,  but  the  Poles 
boycotted  the  settlers,  and  their  lands  finally  were  bought  back. 
Then  a  law  was  enacted  that  no  Pole  could  build  upon  lands  ac- 
quired after  a  certain  date.  The  result  is  that  one  who  travels 
through  Polish  Germany  today  occasionally  will  see  farmhouses, 
barns,  dairies,  stables,  and  even  chicken-coops  on  wheels.  The 
people  live,  move,  and  have  their  being  in  glorified  wagons. 

When  private  enterprise  failed  to  Germanize  Prussian  Poland 
the  government  made  appropriations,  which  up  to  the  present 
time  have  amounted  to  a  hundred  million  dollars,  to  acquire 
Polish  lands  and  turn  them  over  to  German  settlers ;  but  with  all 
that  was  done,  the  Poles  are  still  Poles,  and  in  spite  of  the  law 
forcing  some  to  sell  their  lands  and  preventing  others  from  buy- 
ing, the  German  settler  has  not  succeeded  in  getting  much  of  a 
foothold  on  Polish  lands;  and  Germany  has  about  four  million 
Poles  in  her  population. 

The  lot  of  the  Polish  peasant  is  always  a  hard  one,  whether 
he  live  in  Russia,  Germany,  or  Austria.  His  food  is  simple,  if 
not  poor.  His  whole  family  must  toil  from  the  hour  that  the 
sun  peeps  over  the  eastern  horizon  to  the  hour  when  twilight 
falls  into  dusk.  If  he  can  say  that  his  wife  works  like  a  horse, 
he  has  bestowed  the  acme  of  praise  upon  her.  Hard  work,  many 
cares,  and  much  childbearing  make  a  combination  that  takes  all 
pride  out  of  the  wife's  heart  and  gives  to  the  women  of  peasant 
Poland  a  haggard  look,  even  before  the  third  decade  of  their 
lives  is  closed. 

You  may  even  see  them  working  as  section  hands  on  many 
of  the  railroads,  and  they  are  reputed  to  make  good  ones.  It  is 
not  exceptional  to  see  them  carrying  mortar  for  bricklayers  and 
plasterers  or  to  find  them  painting  or  paper-hanging  in  the 
cities. 

Every,  peasant  wants  his  daughters  married  off  as  soon  as 
they  reach  womanhood,  and  little  hands  are  drawn  upon,  the 


RUSSIA  67 

lintel  of  the  door  to  indicate  to  the  world  that  there  is  a  mar- 
riageable daughter  inside  the  house.  And  the  wedding  day 
among  the  peasants  is  about  the  one  bright  spot  in  a  girl's  life. 
Where  the  children  of  the  United  States  roll  eggs  on  Easter 
Monday,  those  of  peasant  Poland  pour  water  over  one  another 
in  a  spirit  of  fun. 

Poland  was  a  republic  of  landowners,  in  which  the  serf  did 
not  count.  The  man  who  owned  land,  or  whose  ancestors 
owned  land,  was  a  noble.  He  might  match  poverty  for  poor- 
ness, he  might  not  have  a  single  sole  between  his  feet  and  the 
ground,  he  might  have  only  a  rusty  old  sword  to  tie  to  his  girdle, 
and  only  a  piebald  blind  horse  to  drive,  and  that  a  hired  one,  but 
he  still  was  a  noble  if  ownership  of  land  had  ever  set  its  ap- 
proving stamp  upon  him  or  his  family. 

With  him  the  peasants  were  as  but  worms  of  the  dust.  The 
Russian  noble  is  proud  of  his  peasants,  the  German  noble  was 
proud  of  his,  and  the  Austrian  noble  had  nought  but  words  of 
praise  for  his ;  but  the  Polish  noble  was  not  proud  of  his. 

Nothing  illustrates  better  how  the  Polish  peasant  felt  toward 
the  Polish  noble  than  the  insurrection  of  the  Poles  of  Austria  in 
1846.  That  was  a  movement  of  the  nobles.  The  government 
did  nothing  to  check  the  outburst,  and  it  is  said  that  the  loyalty 
of  the  peasants  to  the  government  and  their  hatred  of  their  aris- 
tocratic brethren  caused  the  insurrection  to  die  aborning. 

Whatever  may  be  said  about  the  relations  between  the  Polish 
aristocrat  and  the  Polish  peasant,  however,  the  hospitality  of 
the  former  has  always  been  whole-hearted  and  sincere.  Tact- 
fulness  is  as  natural  with  them  as  taking  to  the  water  is  natural 
with  a  duck.  They  like  company  and  love  entertainment,  and 
are  as  fond  of  dancing  as  any  other  people  in  the  world.  It 
takes  vigorous  men  to  stand  all  the  liquor  that  is  provided  by 
the  Polish  host. 

Polish  women  are  among  the  most  beautiful  in  the  world. 
The  perfect  shape  of  their  hands  and  feet  is  commented  upon 
by  every  visitor  to  the  home  of  the  Polish  aristocracy.  When 
they  visit  the  shoe  stores  in  Vienna,  it  is  averred  that  the  shop- 
keeper exclaims :  "We  know  those  are  Polish  feet,"  and  pro- 
ceeds to  go  to  cases  that  are  not  drawn  upon  except  when 
Polish  women  come  into  his  store. 

With  their  beauty  they  combine  unusual  linguistic  abilities 
and  almost  unprecedented  devotion  to  the  lost  cause  of  their 


68  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

fair  Poland.  It  has  frequently  been  asserted  by  those  who  know 
the  Poles,  from  intimate  social  relations  with  them,  that  but  for 
the  women  the  national  spirit  of  the  Pole  would  long  since  have 
succumbed  to  the  wound-healing  processes  of  time.  As  it  is, 
there  is  a  proverb  that  while  there  is  a  single  Polish  woman  left 
the  cause  of  Poland  is  not  lost.  "Four  ladies  do  not  meet  on  a 
charity  committee  without  promoting  the  national  cause  under 
its  cover,"  is  the  way  one  writer  shows  their  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  Poland. 

Poland  has  contributed  a  long  list  of  great  and  near  great  to 
civilization.  It  was  Copernicus,  a  Pole,  who  first  taught  that 
the  sun  is  the  center  of  the  solar  system  and  laid  the  foundations 
of  modern  astronomy.  It  was  John  Sobieski  who  saved  Europe 
from  the  Turks  as  Charles  Martel  hammered  it  out  of  the  grasp 
of  the  Saracens.  Kosciuszko  and  Pulaski  served  the  cause  of 
freedom  both  in  Europe  and  America.  The  "Quo  Vadis"  of 
Sienkiewicz  will  never  be  forgotten  as  long  as  literature  and 
history  are  appreciated  by  man.  The  music  of  Paderewski  en- 
titles him  to  a  place  among  the  immortals,  and  the  histrionic  art 
of  Modjeska  gave  her  a  foremost  place  in  the  history  of  the 
stage.  The  compositions  of  Chopin,  a  Pole  by  birth,  though  a 
Frenchman  by  education,  will  float  down  through  the  corridors 
of  time  along  with  those  of  Wagner,  Beethoven,  Handel,  Verdi, 
and  the  other  masters. 

THE    ECONOMIC    BASES    FOR    AN    AUTONO- 
MOUS POLAND' 

In  the  past  winter  the  Polish  press  in  Europe  was  engaged 
in  extensively  discussing  the  question  whether  Poland's  political 
independence  would  not  cause  her  economic  ruin.  The  discus- 
sion has  become  so  general  that  it  overflowed  the  boundaries  of 
the  press  and  for  a  time  became  the  subject  of  public  debates 
and  lectures  in  Petrograd  Polish  circles.  Polish  public  opinion 
was  divided  in  two  camps,  each  expounding  an  opposite  theory. 
The  old,  generally  accepted  view  that  Poland  owed  its  economic 
prosperity  to  Russia,  and  that  to  retain  that  prosperity  it  was  in 
the  interests  of  Poland  to  remain  a  unity  with  Russia,  is  cham- 
pioned by  Professor  Petrazhitsky,  an  eminent  scholar  and  pub- 

1  Review  of  Reviews.  54:100-1.  July,   1916. 


RUSSIA  69 

Heist.  The  new  theory  that  Poland  could  be  economically  self- 
supplying,  and  that  political  autonomy,  would  also  mean  an 
economic  blessing  to  Poland,  is  being  effectively  preached  by 
Stanislav  Pekarski,  Polish  editor,  and  a  cohort  of  journalists 
and  economists.  In  the  Retch  (Petrograd)  for  March  and 
April,  I.  Clemens,  a  Polish  publicist,  reviewed  in  a  series  of 
articles  the  arguments  of  the  two  factions,  and  summarized 
their  reasons  and  deductions.  He  first  outlines  the  facts  form- 
ing the  foundation  of  the  former  view. 

The  total  value  of  Russian  Poland's  industrial  products  reached  in  19 10 
the  sum  of  860  million  rubles.  To  this  sum  the  textile  industries  had  con- 
tributed 390  millions,  and  the  metallurgical — no  millions.  Three-fourths  of 
the  products  of  these  two  chief  industries  went  to  Russia.  The  same  phe- 
nomenon is  observable  in  the  haberdashery  industry.  When  one  should 
add  to  this  the  various  other  industries,  like  shoe,  clothing,  furniture,  etc., 
the  total  Polish  export  to  Russia  will  eloquently  speak  for  itself.  Also,  in 
the  life  of  Poland  the  most  important  part  was  played  by  those  events 
which  in  one  way  or  other  helped  to  promote  closer  economic  unity  be- 
tween Russia  and  the  Polish  provinces.  In  this  respect  the  year  1851 
marks  a  historic  occasion,  as  on  that  date  custom-duties  between  Poland 
and  Russia  were  abolished.  Then,  the  connection  of  Warsaw  and  Lodz 
with  Petrograd,  Moscow,  South  Russia  and  Siberia  by  a  railroad  system 
was  of  tremendous  import.  The  Russian  markets  on  one  hand,  Russia's 
protective  tariff,  guarding  her  industries  from  foreign  competition,  on  the 
other  hand,  furnished  the  bases  for  the  industrial  development  of  the 
"Russian  Belgium" — Poland,  the  "Polish  Manchester" — Lodz,  nourishing 
and   supporting   them. 

The  economic  tie,  binding  Russia  and  Poland,  having  become  an  or- 
ganic tie,  was  ignored  by  the  Polish  press,  it  being  in  contradiction  to  the 
traditional  Polish  ideals  and  aspirations.  But  tacitu  concensu  it  was  rec- 
ognized by  all,  and  considered  as  a  fact.  Nevertheless,  no  party  but 
the  Social  Democratic  dared  to  proclaim  this  view  as  a  starting  point  for 
a  Polish  political  program.  Only  in  the  critical  hour  of  the  outbreak  of 
the  war  in  Poland,  when  the  economic  unity  of  Poland  and  Russia  was 
clearly  proved  by  events,  there  began  to  appear  groups  and  factions  in 
Poland  whose  political  orientation  was  based  on  that  unity.  In  19 14  these 
elements  gained  much  strength,  drawing  their  power  from  the  masses 
that  have  been  bound  by  a  thousand  ties  and  links  to  that  social-economic 
structure  which  came  into  existence  as  a  result  of  Polish-Russian  rela- 
tions. These  forces,  even  before  the  Grand  Duke's  manifesto,  were 
awaiting  some  kind  of  a  real  or  superfluous  move,  in  order  to  go  over  to 
the  Russian  side  and  put  their  trust  in  Russian  policies.  "Our  Polish 
press,"  wrote  at  that  time  Pekarski,  "evidently  considers  the  question  of 
the  benefit  to  Poland  of  its  economic  union  with  Russia  as  settled,  and 
therefore  evades  reference  to  this  ticklish  problem,  dreaming,  one  imagines, 
that  we,  Poles,  will  get  not  only  the  opportunity  for  a  political  existence 
as  would  satisfy  our  nationalistic  aspirations,  but — that  we  shall  also  retain 
the    opportunity    for    further    exploiting    Russia    economically." 


IQ  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  latest  theory,  however,  is  fully  contradictory  to  the 
above  statements.  The  modern  school  of  Polish  economists 
claims  that  conditions  have  so  changed  that  it  is  no  longer  prof- 
itable for  Poland  to  be  united  with  Russia  economically,  that  it 
is  Russia  which  is  now  interested  in  Poland  as  a  market  for  her 
products,  and  that  Poland's  economic  independence  would  guard 
against  foreign  industrial  aggression  and  promote  her  economic 
interests.  M.  Clemens  goes  on  to  review  the  history  and  argu- 
ments of  the  new  view. 

As  far  back  as  1905  the  Polish  economist  Radishevski  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  Poland  could  be  a  self-supplying  economic  organism,  given 
her  natural  resources,  her  own  government,  and  her  outlets  to  the  sea. 
.  .  .  In  19 1 3  V.  V.  Zhukovski  wrote  that  "the  Polish  industries  .  .  . 
are  unable  to  capture  their  own  home  markets.  More  than  a  third  of  the 
textile  products  consumed  in  Russian  Poland  are  supplied  by  Russian 
plants.      And   this   import   from    Russia   is   constantly   growing." 

Poland's  industrial  power  is  her  textile  industry.  It  furnishes  Poland 
a  yearly  profit  of  150  millions,  derived  from  exports  to  Russia.  But  at 
the  same  time  it  is  Poland's  sore  spot,  as  not  a  single  other  Polish  indus- 
try is  as  much  dependent  upon  Russian  markets  as  the  textile.  In  this 
fortress  of  Polish  industries — Hannibal  ante  portas:  The  Russian  prod- 
ucts, imported  from  Russia,  like  cotton,  wool  and  linen  material,  beat  the 
Polish  products  in  their  own  markets.  Moscow  triumphantly  competes 
with  Lodz  within  the  boundaries  of  Poland.  In  the  years  1900-19 10  the 
export  of  textile  products  from  Poland  to  internal  Russia  was  growing 
at  the  annual  rate  of  one  per  cent,  while  the  export  of  the  same  products 
from  Russia  to  Poland  was  growing  at  the  rate  of  J,'^  per  cent  annually. 
"If  this  process  should  continue,"  writes  Pekarski,  "in  the  near  future 
the  Empire  would  cease  being  a  market  for  Poland's  textile  products, 
and  an  entirely  opposite  situation  would  arise — Poland  would  become  a 
market    for    Russia's    textile    industry." 

The  case  of  Belgium  proves  that  separation  from  industrial  markets,  the 
formation  of  a  state  in  a  portion  of  the  original  state,  is  not  economically 
dangerous.  When  Holland  and  Belgium  were  one  state,  the  latter  was  sup- 
plied with  raw  material  by  the  former  and  its  colonies,  while  they  in  return 
were  supplied  with  manufactured  products  by  Belgium.  Since  1831  Belgium 
is  separated  from  Holland  by  a  tariff  barrier,  and  Belgian  industries,  in 
spite  of  the  predictions  of  the  manufacturers  of  Ghent  and  Li6ge,  have  not 
only  refused  to  perish,  but  prospered  greatly. 

Poland,  therefore,  can  have  no  fear  of  becoming  an  inde- 
pendent state.  Her  political  autonomy  would,  if  the  views  of 
the  modern  school  are  correct,  be  the  cause  of  her  economic 
prosperity,  and  not  ruin.  What  Poland  will  need  then  is  not 
Russia,  but  capital.  With  her  dense  population,  enterprise,  and 
political  independence  she  would  have  no  trouble  in  securing 
foreign  capital,  and  this  would  assure  for  her,  from  the  stand- 
point of  these  writers,  a  brilliant  economic  future. 


RUSSIA  71 


FINLAND  AND  THE  FINNS^ 

"The  Land  of  Many  Waters"  is  the  poetic  designation  of 
their  beloved  country  most  cherished  by  the  people  of  Finland. 
Mountain  ranges  and  forest  stretches — bold  and  verdant — are  in- 
terspersed with  valley  waterways  and  fragrant  meadowlands.  In 
summertime  the  foam  and  spray  of  rushing  torrents  hang  spark- 
ling dewdrops  on  the  golden  pine-needles  whilst  the  vaporous 
mists  of  the  marshlands  weave  fairy  rainbows  among  the  rus- 
set fruit  of  the  bronzy  hazels.  The  greenest  of  green  moss 
and  the  most  tender  gray  stonewort  spread  softest  carpets  for 
the  feet  as  with  the  hand  are  plucked  the  sweetest  wild  flowers. 

"The  Thousand  Lakes"  of  Finland,  placid  in  the  sunshine 
but  whipped  to  fury  by  autumn  storms,  resemble  clusters  of 
precious  gems  cast  by  beneficent  deities  upon  the  bosom  of  Na- 
ture. The  eye  delights  in  the  serenity  of  the  panorama  till  the 
ear  catches  the  impressive  thunder  of  the  cataracts  and  water- 
falls. A  river-lake-land  trip  is  an  experience  at  once  novel  and 
thrilling.  Light  boats,  too  frail  they  look,  push  off  boldly  into 
the  rapids,  manned  by  sturdy  young  fellows  in  red  flannel  shirts, 
slouched  felt  hats  and  leather  boots  far  up  the  thigh,  singing 
snatches  of  plaintive  folk-lore  as  their  craft  clears  rock  and 
boulder  daringly.  The  long  wooden  paddle  thrown  out  behind 
and  the  supple  oars  dash  showers  of  crystal  water  over  the 
traveller.  Groups  of  white-kerchiefed  women  and  bare-legged 
children  toss  cheery  welcome  all  along  the  course  whilst  the 
crafty  boatmen  take  vigorous  pulls  at  the  ubiquitous  cigarettes. 

Winter  brings  about  a  marvellous  transformation.  True,  the 
rude  storms  expend  their  fury  upon  the  rock-bound  coast  but 
the  deadly  blizzard  tears  away  Nature's  beauty  spots.  When 
the  "Lady  of  the  Snows"  has  spread  her  glittering  mantle  far 
and  wide  peace,  white  and  lasting,  reigns  everywhere.  Ice  crys- 
tals depend  from  every  bough  and  eave  and  frost  diamonds 
sprinkle  on  the  ground.  Above  all  and  everything  the  great 
horizon  is  flashed  with  the  dazzling  Northern  Lights  giving 
promise  of  life  and  constancy. 

Spring,  which  saw  vegetation  leap  like  magic  out  of  the  melt- 
ing snows,  is  swiftly  followed  by  brief  and  brilliant  summer, 
and  autumn  comes  on  apace,  reaidy,  so  it  seems,  to  be  devoured 

*  By  J.  E.  Staley.    Canadian  Magazine.  40:6572.  November,  1912. 


72  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

by  the  greedy  frost  king.  Seed  time  and  harvest  hold  each 
other  by  the  hand  to  resist  the  grip  of  ice.  Forest  work  ceases, 
and,  the  short  day  of  winter  over,  old  and  young  assemble  in  the 
homestead's  long  common  room  and  together  weave  and  spin, 
and  read  and  smoke,  and  dance  and  sing.  Certainly  by  sledge 
and  ski  and  skate  distances  are  covered,  and  happy  school  chil- 
dren glide  hither  and  thither,  sometimes  scurrying  home  for  fear 
of  wolves. 

Physically  the  Finns  are  tall  and  vigorous.  Their  faces,  it  is 
true,  lack  the  handsome  and  expressive  features  of  the  South 
but  they  possess  intelligence  and  determination.  The  women 
are  even  plainer  than  the  men.  Among  the  working  class  there 
is  little  time  to  spend  upon  the  elegancies  of  the  toilet.  They 
have  to  toil  day  in  day  out  like  men — manning  boats,  feeding 
cattle,  doing  forest  work,  and  making  bricks.  What  hair  they 
have,  and  it  is  not  superabundant,  is  bleached  and  coarse,  and 
their  faces  are  without  colour  and  vivacity.  In  the  extreme 
north  there  is  an  extraordinary  absence  among  men  folk  of 
hirsute  adornment.  This  is  due  possibly  to  their  diet,  which 
consists  almost  exclusively  of  rye-bread  and  milk,  without  meat 
or  vegetables. 

The  Finns  came  originally  from  the  Altai  Mountains.  They 
took  possession  of  the  "Land  of  Many  Waters"  away  in  the 
seventh  century.  The  language  spoken  by  the  country  people 
had  a  similar  origin;  it  is  an  unique  tongue,  soft  and  sonorous, 
not  unlike  modern  Italian.  The  people  of  the  Eastern  Province, 
touching  upon  Russia,  exhibit  the  Mongolian  type — thick  lips, 
high  cheek  bones  are  narrow  eyes.  The  inhabitants  of  the  West- 
ern Province  are  mostly  of  Swedish  origin  and  speak  the  Swed- 
ish language. 

The  word  "Finn"  means  wizard.  Among  their  many  super- 
stitions is  the  tradition  that  a  trinity  of  spirits  presides  over 
their  destiny — "Ukko,"  the  spirit  of  the  air;  "Tapo,"  the  spirit 
of  the  forest,  and  "Abte,"  the  spirit  of  the  lakes.  The  mountain 
ash  is  sacred,  its  ashes,  after  burning,  are  carefully  preserved, 
for  when  sprinkled  on  the  ground  they  decry  luck  or  the  re- 
verse in  wooing.  Frogs. and  swallows  are  hallowed;  they  are 
the  reincarnation  of  our  first  parents,  Adam  and  Eve.  Teeth 
after  extraction  are  hung  up  in  the  way  of  spiders;  should  the 
web  be  woven  above  it  is  a  token  of  good  fortune,  if  below  of 
evil  omen. 


RUSSIA  73 

Land  tenure  and  the  land  service  in  Finland  present  many  in- 
teresting features.  The  more  salient  points  are  actual  survivals 
of  feudal  times.  The  class  of  peasant  which  may  be  called  "la- 
bourer-farmers" consists  of  men  who  receive  no  wages.  They 
occupy  buildings  belonging  to  the  landowner,  which  they  are  re- 
quired to  keep  in  repair.  The  land-owners  make  grants  of  seed 
and  other  necessaries,  and  of  certain  lands  which  the  labourer- 
farmers  cultivate  for  their  own  benefit.  They  have  free  access 
to  the  forest  for  fuel  and  for  lumber  for  repairs.  In  return  they 
are  obliged  to  work  for  the  land-owner  with  their  own  families 
and  horses.  On  holdings,  where  there  is  clay,  the  labourer- 
farmers  are  allowed  to  make  bricks  and  to  earn  what  they  can 
by  sales,  paying  so  much  per  cent  on  their  gains  to  their  land- 
owner. 

Many  labourer-farmers  are  quite  well  off,  and,  whilst  they 
retain  their  status  as  peasants,  their  sons  and  daughters  are  sent 
to  excellent  schools  and  enter  government  and  commercial 
employments.  This  class  of  men  must  not,  however,  be 
confounded  with  the  "free"  peasantry.  The  latter,  although 
generally  poorer,  have  superior  civil  rights  and  form  an 
Estate  of  the  Realm  with  direct  representation  in  the  Finnish 
Parliament. 

Finland  was  first  occupied  by  the  Russians  in  1809.  Alexan- 
der I  granted  the  inhabitants  autonomy  under  their  ancient 
laws  and  institutions.  Recent  events  have  greatly  curtailed 
Finnish  liberties,  but  like  the  patriots  the  Finns  abide  and  sing: 

"Land  of  a  Thousand  Lakes, 

Where  faith  and  life  are  ours. 

Past  wrongs  inspire  our  powers, 
For  us  the  future  wakes  1" 

Like  other  folk,  the  Finns  rejoice  in  festivals — religious  and 
profane.  Christmas  is  the  greatest  of  them  all.  Ever  so  long 
before  the  eve  of  the  Nativity  the  stores  are  crowded  with  peo- 
ple choosing  klapps,  gifts  for  family  and  friends.  In  each  town 
and  village  the  snow-covered  market-place  becomes  a  pine  for- 
est full  of  Christmas  trees,  for  every  home  keeps  Christmas 
thus.  If  they  do  not  rejoice  in  beef  and  plum  pudding  they 
have  their  seasonable  dishes  all  the  same — lutfisk,  dried  cod, 
soaked  in  brine  and  boiled  to  a  jelly;  with  it  they  eat  a  sort  cf 
pease  pudding.  Smoked  roast  pork  follows  and  then  comes  a 
rice  pudding  full  of  almonds — the  more  almonds  you  get  the 


74  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

more  happy  months  you  will  have.  Plum  tarts,  served  with 
paste  and  clotted  cream,  form  the  dessert. 

On  Christmas  Eve  each  house  and  cottage  exhibits  a  burning 
candle  in  every  window ;  the  peasants'  dwellings  are  littered  with 
clean  straw  and  the  cattle  in  their  stalls  have  extra  supplies  of 
food.  A  popular  observance  is  to  arrange  inverted  saucers 
around  the  festive  board — one  for  each  guest — under  which  are 
placed  objects  bearing  significant  meanings.  Each  person  in 
turn  raises  a  saucer.  May  be  it  has  covered  a  piece  of  red  rib- 
bon— that  presages  a  wound  or  some  bodily  injury;  or  a  coin^ 
riches ;  or  a  key,  for  a  girl  the  token  of  her  direction  within  a 
twelve-month  of  some  household,  for  a  boy  the  entrance  on  a 
commercial  career;  or  a  piece  of  fuel,  which  foretells  death;  or 
a  ring  for  matrimony,  and  so  forth. 

The  "Christmas  Buck"  visits  every  home  in  Finland,  He  is 
an  old  man  with  long  white  hair  and  beard  and  heavily  clad  in 
fur.  He  drives  his  team  of  reindeer  over  mountains  and  frozen 
lakes  and  enters  unannounced  each  doorway.  He  makes  a  cir- 
cuit of  the  family  and  inquires  whether  the  children  have  been 
good  or  bad.  Before  leaving  he  throws  down  klapps  for  all.  At 
Twelfth  Night  the  "Star  Boys"  make  their  appearance.  They 
are  five  young  men  in  fancy  dress.  Three  represent  the  Three 
Holy  Kings  of  the  Epiphany,  one  is  King  Herod,  and  the  last  a 
goat  with  hoofs  and  horns.  They  enact  a  legendary  play  which 
has  for  its  finale  the  death  of  Herod,  whilst  the  goat  is  thrust 
outside  the  door.  Wherever  they  go  they  collect  alms  for  poor 
people  who  have  no  Christmas  cheer. 

After  the  gaieties  of  Christmas  two  months  elapse  during 
which  one  is  able  to  restore  one's  digestive  organs,  and  then 
comes  Lent.  A  distinctive  Lenten  diet  is  blines  and  caviar;  the 
former  are  large  thick  pancakes  which  are  eaten  with  butter^ 
sour  cream  and  fruit  juice.  At  mid-Lent  a  fresh  water  fish  is 
much  esteemed — lake  it  is  called.  It  is  caught  in  nets  sunk 
through  holes  in  the  ice  of  rivers  and  lakes.  It  is  boiled  in 
milk.  On  Easter  Eve  everybody  eats  hard  boiled  eggs.  A  uni- 
versal diet  is  memma,  the  principal  ingredients  being  malt  and 
syrup  which,  forming  a  brown  dough,  is  packed,  after  being 
boiled,  in  boxes  made  of  birch  bark.  When  quite  cold  and  set  it 
is  eaten  with  whipped  cream  and  sugar. 

The  first  of  May  is  an  ancient  festival  of  general  observance, 
especially  by   students   and  youths.     They  meet   in  the   public 


RUSSIA  75 

parks  of  Helsingfors,  the  capital,  and  in  country  market-places, 
and  there  sing  old  folk-songs  to  the  spirit  of  Spring.  Then  they 
drink  deeply  of  sweet  mead  and  consume  vast  quantities  of 
struvor — rich  puff-paste  tarts — and  then  they  dance  and  flirt 
with  buxom  maidens  to  their  hearts'  content.  Midsummer  day 
is  of  universal  observance  in  Finland.  Birch  trees  are  planted 
at  all  the  house  doors  and  twigs  of  birch  are  stuck  all  over  every 
room.  The  sun  sets  in  the  eve  at  eleven  o'clock,  and  rises  in  the 
day  at  two.  During  those  three  brief  hours  the  young  people 
kindle  big  fires.  All  are  bent  on  dancing  around  and  above  the 
blazing  embers.    They  call  the  fires  kokko,  "love's  flame." 

Rye  harvest  is  a  very  important  season.  On  the  first  day  the 
labourer-farmers,  with  their  wives  and  families,  foregather  at 
the  mansion  of  the  land-owner.  They  are  divided  into  squads — 
one  man,  two  women  and  three  children.  To  each  squad  is  as- 
signed a  certain  area  wherein  the  man  cuts  the  crop,  the  women 
shock  and  the  children  glean.  They  work  from  four  in  the 
morning  until  eight  at  night,  with  intervals  for  breakfast  and 
dinner.  These  meals,  together  with  the  supper  at  the  end  of  toil, 
are  substantial  in  every  sense.  They  are  provided  gratis  by  the 
land-owner  and  are  eaten  at  long  tables  placed  in  front  of  the 
mansion,  whereat  the  land-owner  and  his  family  serve.  After 
supper  all  join  in  singing  the  plaintive  national  song,  kalewala, 
and  then  a  happy  time  is  passed  with  games  and  dances. 

The  rye  crop,  which  provides  the  Finns  with  their  staff  of 
life,  does  not  dry  in  ordinary  seasons  in  the  fields.  It  is  con- 
sequently carried  to  the  rias,  or  barns,  and  laid  on  racks  and 
rafters.  Fires  are  kindled  in  each  corner  and  the  smoke  per- 
meates the  crop  imparting  a  much-loved  and  peculiar  flavour. 
The  country  people's  diet  consists  chiefly  of  talkumma,  a  sort  of 
porridge  made  of  rye.  This  is  carried,  when  well  set,  in  birch 
bark  knapsacks.  It  is  also  baked  hard  and  hung  in  great  round, 
thick  cakes,  with  holes  in  the  centre,  from  the  ceilings  of  the 
houses.  Their  favourite  beverage  is  coffee  which  they  brew  to 
perfection.  Corn-rye  brandy  is  a  liquer  much  esteemed  by  all 
classes  and  sometimes  indulged  in  to  excess. 

The  greatest  refreshment  of  the  Finns  is  the  bath;  every 
homestead  has  a  bath-house.  It  is  their  unfailing  remedy  in 
sickness.  "If  bath  and  brandy  fail,"  they  say,  "then  comes 
death."  In  the  bath-houses  are  stone  ovens  wherein  wood  fires 
are  kindled  and  every  orifice  is  closed.    After  the  fire  has  burnt 


76  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

itself  out  and  the  smoke  has  somewhat  vanished  buckets  of 
water  or  shovelfuls  of  snow  are  dashed  upon  the  embers  and  red 
hot  stones.  Dense  clouds  of  steam  arise  and  into  them  the 
bathers  plunge.  The  whole  body  is  switched  with  small  birch 
rods,  and  then  follow  thorough  massage  and  rubbing  down  with 
soap.  As  the  bather  quits  the  bath-house  sousings  of  cold  water 
or  snow  are  administered;  sometimes  a  header  into  deep  snow 
is  preferred!  Then  for  a  while  to  cool  they  all  sit  on  benches 
in  the  open  air,  and  then  they  resume  their  clothes.  During 
harvest  time  such  baths  in  common  are  taken  every  evening  after 
work  is  done;  in  winter  the  Saturday  night  tub  suffices.  Few 
spectacles  can  be  more  weird  and  astounding  for  the  traveller 
than,  when  driving  to  night  quarters,  he  suddenly  comes  upon 
the  family  at  bath.  The  British  royal  motto  has  at  last  its  due 
significance:    Honi  soit  qui  mal  y  pense! 


THE  LAND  OF  PROMISE^ 

Our  journey  across  Siberia  confirmed  the  opinion  of  the  au- 
thor, formed  from  previous  geographical  studies,  that  no  other 
country  approaches  Russia  in  the  extent  of  its  territory,  the  di- 
versity of  its  people,  or  in  variety  of  climates;  and,  further, 
created  the  belief  in  its  unsurpassable  superiority  as  to  the  latent 
and  fast-developing  productivity  of  its  agricultural,  forest,  and 
mineral  resources. 

Vladivostok 

After  an  uncomfortable  and  somewhat  tempestuous  voyage 
across  the  Sea  of  Japan,  at  the  end  of  May,  our  eyes  viewed 
with  refreshing  delight  the  green  and  graceful  hills  that  fringe 
the  covered  waterways  on  approaching  Vladivostok.  Soon,  how- 
ever, our  thoughts  turned  from  Nature's  smiling  aspect  to  mat- 
ters of  human  interest  as  we  approached  the  city,  with  its  won- 
derful dry-dock,  its  green-domed  churches,  its  railway  terminals, 
and  the  outlying  shipping,  all  glorified  by  the  spring  sun  and 
smiling  skies. 

Before  us  was  the  stir  of  civil  life  and  the  bustle  of  com- 
mercial activity  in  the  city  proper,  but  from  our  decks  we  saw 

*By  A.  W.  Greely.  National  Geographic  Magazine.  23:io78»90.  No- 
vember,  19 12. 


RUSSIA  ^^ 

the  smooth  fields  and  gentle  hill-slopes  alive  with  the  morning 
drills  and  operations  of  a  Russian  army  corps.  Apart  from  the 
rhythmic  evolutions,  novel  to  all  and  thrilling  to  a  soldier's  ear, 
were  the  melodious  and  stirring  sounds  of  martial  songs — 
anthems  of  loyalty  to  the  Czar  and  devotion  to  country  which  are 
chanted  by  Russian  soldiers  on  the  march. 

Although  having  many  business  buildings  of  the  latest  mod- 
ern types,  Vladivostok  is  plainly  in  the  transitory  stage  attendant 
on  its  struggles  to  assume  metropolitan  importance.  With  a 
permanent  population  of  about  50,000,  its  outlying  military  forces 
were  estimated  to  be  somewhat  more  numerous.  There  were 
apparent  the  usual  concomitants  of  camp  followers,  ambulatory 
merchants,  army  contractors,  and  speculators. 

Despite  the  inevitable  reaction  and  commercial  depression 
consequent  on  the  end  of  a  great  war,  Vladivostok  will  steadily 
grow  in  commercial  importance,  apart  from  its  assured  advan- 
tages through  dry-docks,  military  depots,  and  railway  facilities. 
Large  areas  of  northeastern  Manchuria  and  the  whole  of  the 
great  Amur  Valley  must  always  be  tributary  to  Vladivostok.  On 
the  lower  Amur  there  are  already  50  or  more  villages  of  Russian 
pioneers,'  who  are  developing  the  agricultural  possibilities  be- 
sides exploiting  the  extensive  fisheries.  The  vast  timber  re- 
sources of  the  Amur  and  of  the  maritime  province  are  on  the 
point  of  development.  Their  forested  areas  exceed  half  a  mil- 
lion acres,  which  are  gradually  passing  under  foreign  control, 
with  the  wise  governmental  policy  of  requiring  the  labor  to  be 
done  by  Russian  workmen. 

Rude  tarantasses  and  antiquated  droskies  in  scanty  numbers 
furnish  the  local  transportation.  The  rude  vehicles  are  dragged 
by  Siberian  ponies  slowly  and  painfully  through  almost  impas- 
sable streets,  where  the  mud  was  axle-deep  during  our  stay. 

A  Railway  Without  a  Parallel 

The  railway  journey  on  which  we  entered  is  without  a  paral- 
lel elsewhere,  extending  across  the  entire  Empire  of  Russia 
from  east  to  west,  the  distance  exceeding  6,400  miles  from 
Vladivostok  via  Moscow  and  Warsaw  to  Alexandrov,  on  the 
frontier  of  Germany.  This  Russian  railway  system,  covering 
III  degrees  of  longitude,  extends  practically  one-third  of  the 
way  around  the  world  near  the  6oth  parallel  of  latitude. 

While  there  are  now  various  lines  comprised  in  the  Siberian 


78  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

system,  the  main  stem,  crossing  northern  Manchuria  and  passing 
around  the  southern  shores  of  Lake  Baikal,  has  its  termini  at 
Vladivostock,  on  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  at  Moscow — 5,600  miles 
apart.  Unique  in  its  length,  the  railway  was  constructed  with 
unparalleled  rapidity.  The  strictly  Siberian  sections  of  3,300 
miles  were  built  in  seven  years,  1891-1898,  the  rate  of  construc- 
tion approaching  two  miles  for  each  working  day,  from  which 
are  excluded  Sundays  and  the  numerous  Russian  feast  days. 

It  is  the  recognition  of  conditions  to  say  that  the  construction 
of  this  great  transcontinental  railway  is  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable feats  of  man's  energy,  persistency,  and  industry  re- 
corded in  the  annals  of  human  history.  There  has  been  a 
tendency  outside  of  Russia  to  underestimate  this  railway 
through  irrelevant  or  unfair  comparisons  of  the  equipment  and 
road-bed  with  those  found  on  the  standard  systems  of  Europe 
and  America. 

The  cost  of  the  entire  Siberian  railway  systems  has  been  vari- 
ously stated,  but  it  probably  approximates  $400,000,000 — far  ex- 
ceeding the  amount  spent  on  any  previous  work  of  public  utility, 
although  it  will  be  equaled  or  surpassed  by  the  total  cost  of  the 
Panama  Interoceanic  Canal. 

The  Siberian  railways  may  be  viewed  as  yet  in  conditions  of 
transition  as  to  rails,  road-bed,  and  equipment.  Originally  of  the 
lightest  and  least  expensive  character,  not  unsuited  for  the  level, 
thinly  settled  country  of  western  Siberia,  they  have  of  necessity 
been  improved  and  modified  so  as  to  meet  the  growing  traffic,  to 
suit  the  changing  conditions  of  the  mountainous  country  to  the 
east,  and  especially  to  provide  for  the  exigent  demands  involved 
in  the  transportation,  feeding,  clothing,  equipment,  and  opera- 
tions of  armies  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men.  This  road  is 
being  gradually  brought  up  to  European  standards.  Much  work 
was  progressing  in  the  direction  of  reduced  grades,  modified 
curves,  improved  alignment,  and  other  betterments.  Enlarged 
sidings  and  yards,  improved  freight  facilities,  and  extended  sec- 
tions of  double  track  are  adding  greatly  to  the  transporting  ca- 
pacity of  the  road. 

It  may  be  added  that  in  the  year  1910  the  railroad  transported 
1,869,183  passengers,  an  average  journey  of  957  miles,  and  7,5o8,- 
675  tons  of  freight — military,  private,  and  service.  The  rolling 
equipment  is  being  increased,  and  beautiful,  powerful  locomo- 
tives of  various  types — wood,  coal,  and  oil-burning,  as  economy 


RUSSIA  79 

demands — were  in  evidence.    As  will  be  shown  later,  the  accom- 
modations and  facilities  for  passengers  are  excellent. 

The  Transbaikal  Railways 

Excluding  the  main  Manchurian  stem  (which  across  North 
Manchuria  is  organized  and  technically  known  as  the  Eastern 
Chinese  Railway),  there  are  three  Russian  branches  to  the 
Transiberian  Railway.  The  original  plan  looked  to  a  system  en- 
tirely within  Russian  territory,  and  the  perfection  of  this  scheme 
caused  two  roads  to  be  built — one  of  178  miles,  from  Karimskaia 
to  Stretensk,  on  the  Chilka  River,  and  the  other  of  337  miles, 
from  Nikolsk,  near  Vladivostok,  to  Khabarovsk,  on  the  Amur. 
Stretensk  and  Khabarovsk,  it  may  be  added,  have  intercom- 
munication by  river  steamers  during  the  navigable  season  some- 
what irregularly,  about  once  a  week. 

By  far  the  most  important  branch  is  that  toward  China 
proper,  which  by  a  road  139  miles  in  length  from  Harbin  con- 
nects with  the  South  Manchurian  Railway  system,  of  which  the 
center  is  Mukden,  190  miles  farther  to  the  south.  From  Muk- 
den there  is  one  Japanese  road  of  258  miles  to  Dairen  (formerly 
Dalny),  Port  Arthur,  while  another  light  Japanese  military  rail- 
way, now  in  course  of  reconstruction,  extends  from  Mukden  to 
Antung,  there  connecting  with  the  Korean  road  to  Seoul  and 
Fusan.  Especially  interesting,  however,  is  the  Chinese  exten- 
sion, over  which  one  travels  comfortably  756  miles  via  Peking 
to  Hankau  whence  via  weekly  steamers  down  the  Yang-tse-kiang 
to  Nanking  and  over  another  railway  196  miles  in  length,  Shang- 
hai is  reached.  ^ 

Excellent  Accommodations 

•These  railways  have  brought  Peking  within  14  days'  travel  of 
London,  the  fare,  including  sleeping  car,  being  about  $150  for 
second-class  and  $230  for  first-class  passengers. 

The  following  information  is  of  practical  value  regarding 
fares,  distances,  and  time.  The  distance  from  Vladivostok  to 
Moscow  is  5,426  miles,  which  were  traversed  in  9  days  and  21 
hours.  There  are  three  through  trains  each  week — an  ordinary 
express,  the  state  express,  and  the  international  train  de  luxe. 
On  the  last  our  journey  was  made.  Except  a  transfer  at  Irkutsk, 
3,425  miles  east  of  Moscow,  there  is  no  change  of  cars. 

The  international  is  a  steam-heated,  electric-lighted,  well-ven- 


8o  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

tilated  corridor  train  with  an  attached  dining  car.  There  are  no» 
ordinary  passenger  coaches,  but  there  are  first-class  and  second- 
class  sleeping  cars,  divided  into  state-rooms  for  two  and  for  four 
persons,  the  fare  for  each  person  being,  respectively,  3^^8.50 
rubles  (about  $165)  and  213.82  rubles  (about  $107). 

Breakfast  (bread  and  coffee,  chocolate,  or  tea)  cost  0.55, 
lunch  1.25,  and  dinner  1.50  rubles.  The  food  is  plain  but  well 
cooked,  the  service  good,  and  the  cars  clean. 

There  is  practically  no  difference  between  second  and  first- 
class  accommodations  except  better  jipholstery  and  an  indifferent 
toilet  for  the  latter.  Each  compartment  has  leather-lined  fittings 
(easily  washed),  a  small  table  with  a  movable  electric  light,  snd 
very  ample  room  for  all  baggage  that  can  be  needed  in  the  ten 
days'  journey.  The  free  registered  baggage  is  strictly  limited 
and  charges  are  high  for  extra  weights. 

While  each  compartment  is  private,  there  are  no  curtains  to 
insure  privacy  of  the  separate  berths.  Other  notable  defects  are 
scarcity  of  towels,  lack  of  good  drinking  water,  and  the  indif- 
ferent toilet  conveniences,  there  being  no  separate  provision  for 
women.  Bathing  was  possible  in  a  section  of  the  baggage  car. 
The  road  being  broad  gauge  and  the  speed  low  made  night  travel 
most  comfortable. 

East  of  Manchuria  there  are  excellent  buffets  at  the  larger 
stations,  and  at  every  stop  during  daylight  there  were  present 
venders  of  bread,  butter,  fruit,  milk,  chickens,  etc.,  all  of  excel- 
lent quality  and  at  moderate  prices. 

Manchuria  is  Rich  Beyond  Calculations 

The  slow-moving  train  and  long  stops  enable  one  to  form 
clear  opinions  as  to  the  physical  characteristics  of  Manchuria 
during  the  travel  of  926  miles  which  bisects  this  great  region. 
There  can  be  but  one  conclusion — that  its  agricultural,  mineral, 
and  other  possibiHties  are  valuable  beyond  present  computa- 
tion. It  resembles  in  appearance  and  approximates  both  in 
area  and  fertility  that  part  of  the  United  States  which  lies  be- 
tween the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Al- 
though in  the  main  a  level,  disforested,  and  agricultural  country, 
Manchuria  presents  in  its  northwestern  section,  in  the  valleys  of 
the  upper  Sungari  and  Yalo  rivers,  not  only  valuable  virgin  for- 
ests, but  also  vast  mineral  deposits,  of  which  the  most  valuable, 
coal,  is  already  in  process* of  utilization  by  the  railway.  ^ 


RUSSIA  8i 

Whatever  opinions  may  be  held  regarding  the  past  policy  and 
conduct  of  Russia  as  regards  Manchuria,  it  is  evident  to  any  ob- 
servant traveler  that  its  railway  construction  and  attendant  de- 
velopments have  vastly  benefited  this  Chinese  province.  Brigand- 
age has  been  largely  suppressed,  life  and  property  made  more 
secure,  local  industries  stimulated,  and  distant  markets  made 
accessible.  With  settled  conditions  since  the  war,  the  trade  in 
agricultural  products  was  reaching  tens  of  millions  of  dollars  in 
value,  and  within  ten  years'  time  should  aggregate  annually  hun- 
dreds of  millions  in  amount. 

Although  a  Russian  block-house  flanks  every  railway  station, 
and  its  garrison  doubtless  rules  with  a  rod  of  iron,  yet  the  long- 
established  Russian  policy  obtains  and  the  racial  susceptibilities 
of  the  Chinese  are  regarded  to  an  extent  that  would  be  impos- 
sible for  Americans  to  observe.  In  addition  to  other  instances 
in  evidence,  there  was  noted  the  decorations  of  the  small  attrac- 
tive railway  stations  at  lempo.  The  ornamentation  was  strictly 
Chinese,  the  graceful  roof-trimmings  being  a  series  of  the  sym- 
bolated  Chinese  dragons  pursuing  their  fleeing  prey.  All  along 
the  railway  Manchurians  of  every  grade  and  class  were  seen 
mixing  with  Russian  civilians  and  soldiers,  pursuing  their  vari- 
ous affairs  with  such  freedom  and  assurance  as  would  not  be 
tolerated  in  most  localities  in  the  United  States. 

The  Aladdin   City 

While  Russian  activities  have  thoroughly  affected  the  peoples 
of  northern  Manchuria,  yet  they  have  centered  in  the  Aladdin- 
like city  of  Harbin,  which  very  lately  was  unpleasantly  brought 
to  the  world's  attention  as  the  scene  of  the  deplorable  assassina- 
tion of  that  great  statesman,  Prince  Ito,  of  Japan. 

The  most  populous  of  European  cities  in  Asia,  the  former 
medical  center  of  the  Russian  army — with  a  hospital  so  immense 
that  10,000  patients  were  cared  for  at  one  time — it  seems  an  irony 
of  fortune  that  Harbin  should  recently  have  lost  thousands  by 
pestilential  plague.  It  is,  however,  a  logical  outcome  of  the  gov- 
ernmental defects  at  Harbin.  With  unsanitary  habits  almost 
universal  among  its  cosmopolitan  population,  there  was, 
strangely  enough  in  autocratic  Russia,  no  dominant  central  au- 
thority over  this  collection  of  cities  to  enforce  proper  sanitary 
regulations,  even  if  such  were  ever  planned. 


82  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  existence  of  Harbin  is  due  to  the  conjoined  action  of  the 
Russian  government  and  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank.  The  cor- 
poration obtained  from  China  exclusive  rights  for  36  years  to  a 
region  100  miles  square.  Lavish  expenditures,  aggregating  from 
ID  to  12  millions  of  dollars,  built  up  a  modern  town  near  the 
.point  where  the  Transiberian  Railway  crosses  the  Sungari  River 
over  a  fine  steel  bridge  of  modern  type  and  standard  construc- 
tion. 

With  great  and  fluctuating  business  interests,  Harbin  has  va- 
ried in  population  from  50,000  to  100,000  or  more.  It  appeared 
to  be  a  collection  of  heterogeneous  communities  rather  than  an 
administrative  unit.  There  then  existed  nine  practically  inde- 
pendent administrations — the  official,  the  army,  the  military  hos- 
pital, the  business,  the  manufacturing,  the  milling,  the  river,  the 
Chinese  quarter,  and  on  the  outskirts  the  original  Manchurian 
village. 

The  milling  facilities  are  adequate  to  care  for  more  than  one 
and  a  quarter  millions  of  souls;  the  railway  equipment  is  so 
extensive  and  well  arranged  that  an  army  corps  with  its  entire 
impedimenta  can  be  entrained  or  detrained  in  a  day.^ 

From  observation  and  by  report  the  Russians  maintain  a 
most  conciliatory  and  tactful  attitude  towards  the  Chinese  in 
general  and  Manchurians  in  particular.  The  enormous  expendi- 
tures of  the  Russians  yet  continue  at  Harbin,  whereby  the  Chi- 
nese— laborers,  traders,  and  officials — have  profited  beyond  their 
wildest  expectations.  As  we  tarried,  there  were  in  evidence  a 
number  of  Chinese  officers  of  the  new  army,  smartly  uniformed, 
alert  in  action,  and  prepossessing  in  appearance. 

While  many  public  and  some  private  buildings  are  large  and 
costly,  there  was  that  unmistakable  cast  of  crudity  to  Harbin 
which  causes  it  to  somewhat  resemble  a  thriving  frontier  city  of 
America.  The  cosmopolitan  character  of  the  city  was  markedly 
emphasized  by  the  incoming  South  China  mail-train,  which 
brought  naked  coolies  and  full-robed  mandarins,  the  turbaned 
Hindu  and  the  German  merchant,  the  silent  Korean  and  com- 
placent Japanese,  the  somber  English  official  and  the  active 
American  tourist. 

*  Mr.  Putnam  Weale  Simpson  names  nine  flouring  mills  at  Harbin  with 
an  output  capacity  of  about  1,700,000  pounds  daily,  and  nine  others  near 
that  city  which  raise  the  capacity  of  Central  Manchuria  to  more  than  1,500 
tons  of  flour  daily.  ^ 


RUSSIA  83 

A  4-berthed  compartment  of  our  Siberian  train  received  as 
occupants  a  Japanese,  a  German,  an  Italian,  and  an  Australasian, 
no  two  of  who^  could  speak  the  same  language.  The  Mukden 
route  is  fast  gaining  favor,  as  from  Harbin  one  reaches  Peking 
in  two  days  at  an  expense  of  $29,  first-class. 


Out  of  Manchuria 

After  crossing  the  Nonni  River  near  Tsitsihar,  the  prairie 
soon  gives  place  to  a  hilly  ascending  country,  where  from  time 
to  time  there  were  interesting  glimpses  of  weird  Bouriat  camps. 
Occasionally  parties  were  seen  on  the  march,  all  mounted,  as  the 
women  are  expert  riders.  Novel  in  costume  and  pastoral  in 
tastes,  they  yield  slowly  to  Occidental  civilization. 

The  country  becomes  more  rugged  and  the  route  more  cir- 
cuitous as  we  ascend  the  eastern  flanks  of  the  Great  Khingan 
range,  where  the  summit  is  pierced  by  a  tunnel  two  miles  in 
length  at  an  altitude  of  about  3,500  feet.  Dense  forests,  wild 
torrerrts,  narrow  valleys,  and  sharply  uprising  ridges  are  the  sali- 
ent features  of  the  western  slopes,  welcome  changes  from  the 
treeless  plains  of  central  Manchuria. 

Between  the  greater  and  less  ranges  of  Khingan  the  railway 
crosses  a  corner  of  the  eastern  Gobi  Desert,  which  there  resem- 
bles closely  the  so-called  desert  of  our  Rocky  Mountain  regions, 
with  more  or  less  vegetation  and  an  occasional  shrub  or  stunted 
tree.  With  the  view  vanished  childish  illusions  wherein  the  Gobi 
Desert  was  pictured  as  the  dreariest  and  most  desolate  region  of 
the  world. 

The  prolonged  stay  at  Manchuria,  the  customs  station 
on  the  Russo-Chinese  frontier,  was  not  without  interest 
The  accustomed  tediousness  of  such  examinations  was  re- 
duced to  the  minimum  by  the  marked  courtesy  of  the 
inspectors. 

There  were  hundreds  of  small  bales  of  caravan-tea  awaiting 
shipment  by  rail  to  European  Russia.  This  tea  trade  has  been 
pursued  for  centuries,  the  trains  of  tea-loaded  camels  winding 
their  slow  way  over  the  rough  trails  which  lead  hither  from  the 
remote  tea-farms  of  inland  China.  Formerly  they  traveled  west- 
ward to  Irkutsk  and  Omsk,  but  now  the  railway  displaces  still 
further  the  camel,  who  gave  way  in  part  to  the  Suez  Canal  years 
ago. 


84  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  Transbaikal  Region 

The  Transbaikal,  a  country  of  great  forests,  with  extensive 
areas  of  arable  land  interspersed  here  and  there,  charmed  all  by 
the  quiet  beauty  of  its  varied  landscapes  and  its  attractive  as- 
pects. Although  called  a  mountainous  country  in  comparison 
with  the  low  plains  of  western  Siberia,  where  the  highest  eleva- 
tion does  not  exceed  400  feet,  the  Transbaikal  is  really  a  region 
of  moderate  hills,  like  our  own  Catskills,  the  highest  point  on 
the  railway  being  but  3,100  feet. 

The  mountainous  regions  of  Manchuria  are  practically  unin- 
habited, save  by  wandering  hunters  and  pastoral  people,  so  that 
the  presence  of  permanent  settlements  and  signs  of  human  ac- 
tivities were  welcome  signs  in  the  Transbaikal  scenery. 

In  the  watershed  of  the  upper  Amur,  especially  in  the  Ingoda 
Valley,  and  within  sight  of  the  railway,  were  lumber  camps 
along  and  timber  rafts  on  the  river,  pioneer  huts  in  the  forest 
clearings,  small  herds  of  cattle,  newly  broken  land,  and  quickly 
growing  grain,  which  marked  the  western  limits  of  that  vast  im- 
migration that  is  rapidly  transforming  uninhabited  Siberia  into 
a  land  of  wealth  and  prosperity.  The  cloudless  sky,  pure  air, 
countless  flowers,  lofty  trees,  and  luxuriant  vegetation  set  off 
to  great  advantage  the  new  country  that  is  passing  under  the 
domination  of  Russian  colonists. 

Crossing  the  Ingoda,  the  thriving  town  of  Karimskaia  was 
reached,  whence  a  branch  railway  of  177  miles  extends  to 
Stretensk,  which  is  the  inland  center  of  the  navigable  waterways 
of  nearly  2,000  miles  in  the  watershed  of  the  Amur. 

To  the  westward  the  way  is  pleasant  and  picturesque  across 
the  low  Yablonoi  Mountains,  with  their  many  striking  bits  of 
landscape,  especially  while  descending  their  wooded  slopes, 
which  led  through  the  beautiful  Selenga  Valley  to  the  precipitous 
shores  of  the  wondrous  inland  sea.  Lake  Baikal. 


Lake  Baikal 

For  nearly  150  miles  the  railway  skirts  the  southern  shores 
of  this  great  lake.  It  is  one  of  the  lacustral  wonders  of  the 
world,  with  its  depth  of  5,000  feet,  its  average  width  of  40  miles, 
its  length  of  375  miles,  and  its  great  distance— nearly  3,000  miles 
— from  the  ocean.    Frozen  over  between  four  and  five  ;months 


RUSSIA  85 

each  year,  there  were  at  the  end  of  May  large  drifting  ice-fields 
within  view  as  the  train  passed.  The  warm,  balmy  airs,  lovely 
scented  flowers,  the  tuneful  chorus  of  singing  birds,  a  luxuriant 
undergrowth,  and  the  spring  dress  of  the  huge  forest  trees— all 
gained  in  sweet  contrasting  attractiveness  from  the  drifting  ice- 
floes, the  occasional  snowdrifts  in  sheltered  spots,  and  the  white- 
topped  peaks  of  Chamanka  and  other  mountains. 

Now  the  way  stations  had  their  quota  of  gazing  but  never- 
rude  Russian  colonists,  and  with  them  came  shy  peasant  girls  in 
quaint  costumes  and  bright,  becoming  colors,  whose  welcome 
wares  of  wild  flowers,  sweet  cream,  soft  cheeses,  etc.,  were  daily 
proffered  and  purchased  from  Transbaikalia  to  the  Ural  Moun- 
tains. 

Irkutsk 

Much  is  not  expected  from  a  subordinate  city,  some  3,500  miles 
distant  from  the  formal  center  of  all  Russian  power — Saint 
Petersburg — especially  when  such  city  has  been  cursed  through- 
out its  history  as  a  selected  destination  for  political  and  criminal 
exiles. 

Every  traveler  is  therefore  surprised  to  find  Irkutsk  a  well- 
built,  prosperous,  modern  city,  with  a  population  of  about  75,- 
000.  Among  Siberian  cities,  Irkutsk  is  noted  for  its  churches, 
orphanages,  hospitals,  schools,  observatories,  and  museums.  It 
is  a  city  of  imposing  buildings,  beautiful  homes,  and  is  given  to 
lavish  hospitality,  while  its  extended  business  operations  are 
supplemented  by  all  modern  municipal  equipments,  including  tele- 
phony and  an  efficient  fire  service. 

It  must  be  added  that  it  has  in  summer  nearly  impassable 
streets,  that  the  prevalence  of  unpunished  crimes  is  notorious, 
while  it  is  said  by  free-speaking  Russians  that  the  inefficiency  of 
its  police  is  only  surpassed  by  the  corruption  of  its  officials. 
With  a  steady  inflow  of  honest  immigrants,  conditions  are  be- 
lieved to  be  slowly  improving  and  the  future  is  more  promising. 

The  capital  of  a  province  of  nearly  a  million  people,  Irkutsk 
on  the  Angara  is  admirably  located  to  control  a  very  large  and 
lucrative  trade.  Lake  Baikal,  with  its  five  contributory  rivers, 
affords  unusual  transportation  facilities  inland,  while  the  Angara, 
the  discharging  stream  of  Lake  Baikal,  leads  to  the  Yenisei,  with 
its  10,000  miles  of  navigable  waterway.    The  government  assay 


86  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

office  at  Irkutsk    handles    the  gold    produced  in  the    province, 
which  averages  annually  $10,000,000  in  value. 

Siberian  Immigration 

The  real  creative  force  of  a  country's  material  prosperity, 
and  the  most  essential  element  of  its  grandeur,  is  its  population. 
Far-seeing  statesmen  have  realized  that  within  the  twentieth 
century  Siberia  will  be  the  center  of  Russian  trade  and  com- 
merce. In  consequence  a  prominent  feature  of  the  empire's  do- 
mestic policy  has  been  the  economic  evolution  of  Siberia.  In 
former  years  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  were  spent  to  main- 
tain Russia's  prestige  and  power  in  the  Orient  through  military 
establishments  and  strategic  lines  of  railways,  but  to  scant 
avail.^ 

Now  a  wiser  policy  is  appropriating  millions  of  dollars  an- 
nually for  a  peaceful  invasion  of  Asia.  In  a  single  year  more 
than  $5,000,000  was  spent  to  promote  emigration  from  European 
Russia  to  Siberia,  which  is  systematically  and  successfully  pro- 
moted. Emigration  agencies  have  been  established,  traveling 
agents  employed,  surveyors  utilized,  and  occasionally  allotments 
have  been  made  for  travel  expenses.  Along  the  Siberian  Rail- 
way there  have  been  established  suitable  stations  where  immi- 
grants are  cared  for  through  barracks,  kitchens,  and  hospitals. 

Schools  and  churches  have  been  provided  for  the  newcomers, 
who  are  also  helped  over  the  first  year  by  grants  of  seeds,  loans 
of  stock  and  machinery,  and  other  practical  methods.  Timber, 
pasture,  and  arable  lands  are  allotted  to  newcomers,  which -may 
be  either  rented  or  bought  on  very  favorable  terms.  Instruction 
is  given  along  practical  lines,  and  valuable,  up-to-date  machinery 
has  been  bought  in  large  quantities  for  rent  or  sale  to  actual 
settlers. 

In  the  Transbaikal  region  there  were  incoming  pioneers,  as 
they  termed  the  immigrants,  by  the  score,  and  in  Irkutsk  prov- 
ince by  the  hundreds.  It  was  only  in  the  region  of  Omsk  that 
the  travel  was  in  full  tide,  with  from  2,000  to  4,000  arrivals  each 
day.  Travel  was  in  fourth-class  cars  at  an  expense  of  a  quarter 
of  a  cent  a  mile.  The  cars  were  fitted  up  with  berths,  three- 
tiered,  the  lower  changeable  at  will  into  seats. 

Here  could  be  seen  an  arriving  train,  from  which  ran  at  top 

*  In  ten  years,   1898-1907,  Russia  spent  $994,500,000  on  railways. 


RUSSIA  87 

speed  the  men  on  their  way  to  obtain  hot  water  for  tea,  which  is 
provided  free  at  each  station,  and  later  to  buy  bread  at  the  emi- 
grants' market.  The  women  and  children  await  in  the  train  the 
arrival  of  bread  and  water  for  their  frugal  meals. 

Again,  at  an  important  station  would  be  seen  several  hundred 
pioneers,  huddled  in  family  groups  on  the  main  platform  or  in 
sheltered  places.  Surrounded  by  large  bundles  which  contained 
their  worldly  goods,  they  slept  or  ate,  awaited  their  turn  in  bar- 
racks, or  looked  forward  to  the  arrival  of  the  train  that  carried 
them  to  the  Orient 

Official  statistics  show  that  in  1908  there  were  785,712  kho- 
doki,  or  pioneers,  who  entered  Siberia,  and  that  121,204  returned 
to  European  Russia,  making  a  net  gain  for  Siberia  of  637,608 
settlers — a  marked  increase  over  1907,  when  the  net  gain  ap- 
proximated 550,000.  It  is  said  that  a  bad  harvest  in  Europe 
would  swell  the  annual  figures  to  a  million  or  more. 

From  observation  of  pioneers  en  route  (of  whom  about  7,000 
were  personally  seen)  and  of  actual  settlers,  it  seemed  certain 
that  Siberia  is  receiving  a  hardy,  courageous,  and  resourceful 
immigration.  In  physique  and  deportment  they  appeared  to  be 
superior  to  the  peasantry  between  the  Urals  and  Moscow.  Nat- 
urally the  provinces  nearer  to  Europe  profit  most  largely,  and 
the  destination  of  incoming  pioneers  is  not  far  from  50  per 
cent  between  the  Urals  and  Omsk,  30  per  cent  to  Tomsk  prov- 
ince, 15  per  cent  to  Irkutsk  province,  and  5  per  cent  to  Trans- 
baikalia. 

The  Yenisei  Valley 

Descending  the  Angara  Valley,  the  road  passes  through  the 
pastoral  country  of  the  Russian  Bouriats,  offshoots  of  the  tribes 
seen  in  China,  and  cross  to  the  watershed  of  the  Yenisei.  In- 
coming pioneers  are  rapidly  settling  this  region,  already  beauti- 
ful with  extensive  fields  of  grain,  for  which  the  soil  is  especially 
suited.  Crossing  the  Yenisei  by  a  fine  steel  bridge,  half  a  mile 
long,  brought  the  train  to  Krasnoyarsk,  the  capital  of  the  prov- 
ince, the  thriving  business  center  of  the  fertile  upper  valley. 

The  Yenisei  watershed,  in  area  more  than  one-quarter  the 
size  of  all  Europe,  is  destined  to  be  one  of  the  great  grain-grow- 
ing centers  of  the  world.  The  grain  grown  in  these  and  other 
regions  in  easy  water  communication  already  aggregates  three 
or  more  millions  of  tons  annually,  which  can  be  readily  increased 

8 


88  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

to  five  million  tons.  There  exists  uncertain  and  irregular  water 
communication  with  Europe,  which  can  be  so  improved  as  to 
furnish  cheap  transportation  and  assure  wonderful  prosperity  to 
these  inland  regions. 

The  Taiga,  or  Virgin-Forest  Country 

The  train  soon  enters  the  Taiga,  an  immense  region  of  dense 
forests,  largely  of  the  well-known  Russian  birch  and  Siberian 
cedar.  Here  appears  one  of  the  strange  vagaries  connected  with 
the  engineering  of  the  Siberian  railway,  which  left  to  the  north 
Tomsk,  the  capital  of  Siberia,  now  reached  by  a  branch  line  of 
46  miles.  Time  failed  in  which  to  visit  this  city,  the  center  of 
the  well-known  mining  district  of  the  Altai,  to  the  south,  and  of 
the  vast  and  unique  hunting  grounds  to  the  north,  from  which 
come  the  renowned  Russian  furs,  the  martin,  ermine,  otter,  etc. 
Tomsk  province  bids  fair  to  be  in  the  near  future  one  of  the 
leading  gold-producing  centers  of  the  world,  as  the  gold  mines 
of  the  Altai  are  now  supplemented  by  extensive  and  widespread 
placer  deposits  in  the  forest  regions. 

As  we  passed  there  were  seen  thousands  of  pioneers  who  had 
come  to  Tomsk  province  to  seek  their  fortunes.  Some  were 
joining  the  bands  of  trappers,  but  most  were  augmenting  the 
hordes  of  gold-seekers  who  are  fast  invading  this  region. 

The  Siberian  Steppes 

To  the  west  the  gloomy  Taiga  gradually  fades  away,  and  one 
comes  into  the  bright,  open  steppes  or  great  Siberian  plains, 
which  strikingly  resemble  the  prairies  of  Illinois,  Iowa,  Kansas, 
and  Nebraska.  Extending  1,000  miles  north  and  south,  and  as 
far  from  east  to  west,  the  vast  watershed  of  the  Obi  (nine- 
tenths  the  area  of  the  Mississippi  and  Missouri  combined  water- 
sheds), despite  its  long  winters  in  the  north,  is  unsurpassed  in 
its  suitableness  for  stock-raising,  dairy  farming,  and  other  agri- 
cultural pursuits.  Its  level  and  well-watered  plains,  dotted  here 
and  there  by  light  growths  of  birch,  alder,  willow,  and  Siberian 
cedar,  are  covered  by  vigorous  growth  of  nutritious  grasses. 
The  soil  is  fertile,  stock  of  all  kinds  thrives,  transportation  fa- 
cilities are  good,  coal  is  abundant,  modern  agricultural  methods 
largely  obtain,  markets  are  accessible,  and  the  population  is 
rapidly  increasing. 


RUSSIA  89 

The  Most  Important  City  of  Siberia 

The  capital,  Omsk,  on  the  Irtish,  a  tributary  of  the  Obi,  is 
now  the  largest  (about  100,000)  and  commercially  the  most  im- 
portant city  in  Siberia.  Here  centers  the  river  transportation  of 
western  Siberia,  an  interior  system  elsewhere  unsurpassed  in 
extent,  which,  through  a  large  canal  connecting  tributaries  of  the 
Obi  and  Yenisei,  aggregate  about  15,000  miles  of  navigable 
waterways  open  six  months  in  the  year.  In  the  Obi  fleet  alone 
there  are  242  steamers  and  numberless  other  crafts.  As  the  area 
of  the  watershed  of  the  Obi  alone  is  more  than  double  that  of 
Denmark,  France,  Germany,  and  Italy  combined,  the  future  im- 
portance of  the  fertile  region  may  be  vaguely  estimated. 

The  great  Omsk  station  was  the  scene  of  business  activity 
and  of  railway  travel  such  as  characterize  the  large  railway  sta- 
tions in  America.  The  force  of  uniformed,  self-important  rail- 
way officials,  led  by  the  gorgeous  station-master,  were  full  of 
fuss  and  fury  between  the  important  train-de-luxe,  the  hordes  of 
immigrants — arriving,  encamping,  departing — and  the  groaning, 
shunting  freight  trains  which  were  disentangling  themselves  in 
the  spacious  train  yards. 

Immigrants  by  the  hundreds  swarmed  over  and  around  the 
station — men  and  women  in  the  flush  and  vigor  of  life,  gay  and 
careless  youth,  the  aged  bordering  on  the  verge  of  the  grave,  and 
the  tiny  babe  at  its  mother's  breast.  Their  humble  belongings 
were  in  bundles  and  portable  packages,  among  which  spinning- 
wheels,  cooking  utensils,  and  the  indispensable  samovar  were 
most  evident.  There  was  nothing  disconsolate  in  act  or  face, 
but  all  looked  forward  hopefully  to  the  promised  land.  Their 
quiet,  orderly  deportment  was  quite  impressive ;  no  quarreling  or 
bickering,  no  drunkenness  or  dissipation  was  to  be  seen. 

Here  was  a  picturesque  Tartar,  there  a  little  Russian;  here 
an  assertive  Cossack,  there  a  determined  Khirgis  chief.  The 
national  sombreness  of  dress  was  generally  relieved  by  a  bit  of 
gay  color;  most  pioneers  were  equipped  with  the  Russian  high 
boots,  and  their  outer  garments  were  of  sheepskin,  long  since 
past  its  pristine  whiteness. 

The  Siberian  is  Stolid  and  Silent 

As  a  rule — natives  and  pioneers — the  Siberian  is  stolid  and 
silent,  but  he  was  found  to  be  kindly,  interested,  and  invariably 


90  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

courteous.  The  contented  and  satisfied  appearance  of  the  peas- 
ant was  generally  remarked.  They  were  well  fed,  well  clothed — 
though  the  outer  garments  were  often  dirty — of  very  decent 
appearance,  and  had  a  self-respecting  manner  far  from  grovel- 
ing or  sycophantic. 

They  appear  more  manly  and  energetic  than  the  European 
peasants,  and  doubtless  are  so.  It  takes  energy  and  determina- 
tion to  break  loose  from  the  environment  of  a  lifetime,  and  to 
build  a  new  home  thousands  of  miles  away  under  unknown  con- 
ditions— this  even  with  a  paternal  government  to  aid. 

From  Omsk  westward  to  the  Ural  Mountains,  about  800  miles, 
extends  the  Baraba  country,  the  great  producing  region  for  for- 
eign markets.  In  two  provinces  from  Omsk  west  there  are  es- 
timated to  be  about  12  million  head  of  stock,  one-half  sheep, 
one-quarter  cattle,  and  one-quarter  horses  with  nearly  a  quarter 
of  a  million  camels. 

Tons  of  Butter  Are  Shipped  Each  Year  to  Europe 

The  country  is  one  of  quiet  beauty,  luxuriant  in  vegetation, 
interspersed  with  groves  of  birches,  willows,  and  alders,  its  soil 
evidently  of  great  fertility  and  apparently  equally  divided  be- 
tween stock-raising,  grain-growing,  and  dairy  farming.  Here 
and  there  were  visible  the  rounded  tents  of  the  Khirgis,  but  in 
general  the  region  along  the  railway  has  been  taken  up  by 
pioneers,  whose  new  huts  and  cultivated  fields  are  much  in  evi- 
dence. 

There  was  a  constant  succession  of  attractive  sights:  Bands 
of  dromedaries,  troops  of  ponies,  stretches  of  purple  heather, 
herds  of  cattle,  scattered  Khirgis  tents,  groves  of  white  birches, 
fields  of  grain,  files  of  carts,  and  miles  upon  miles  of  fragrant 
white  lilacs. 

The  shipments  to  foreign  markets  from  the  Baraba  region 
consist  almost  entirely  of  meat  and  butter.  While  the  greater 
portion  of  the  meat  goes  to  St.  Petersburg  and  other  cities  of 
European  Russia,  yet  large  and  increasing  shipments  are  made 
to  Germany  and  England. 

The  most  wonderfully  developed  industry  in  west  Siberia  is 
dairy  farming.  The  latest  methods  and  most  improved  ma- 
chinery are  used  in  the  production  of  butter.  The  shipments  to 
foreign  markets  are  increasing  year  by  year.  More  than  65,000 
tons  of  butter  are  shipped  to  Europe  annually.    The  butter  is  of 


RUSSIA  91 

the  finest  quality  and  commands  the  highest  prices  in  England 
and  in  Germany,  where  the  demand  is  steadily  increasing. 

Cheliabinsk,  at  the  eastern  foot  of  the  Ural  Mountains,  is  the 
point  at  which  the  western  section  of  the  Siberian  Railway  bifur- 
cates, the  newer  road  running  to  St.  Petersburg  via  Ekaterinburg 
and  Perm,  while  the  older  main  line,  crossing  the  Urals,  con- 
tinues via  Samara  to  Moscow. 

Cheliabinsk  is  the  point  from  which  were  distributed  in  for- 
mer years  the  exiles  to  Siberia.  In  these  later  days  it  has  been 
made  a  resting  place  for  immigrants,  of  whom  it  is  estimated  that 
about  4,000,000  have  passed  through  the  city.  There  are  bar- 
racks, hospitals,  laundries,  baths,  and  summer  camps,  vv'here 
everything  essential  for  the  health  and  necessities  of  the  immi- 
grant are  provided.  Twenty-five  hundred  can  be  comfortably 
cared  for  in  winter  and  thirty-five  hundred  in  summer. 

Crossing  the  low-crested  Urals  at  1,800  feet  elevation,  the 
plains  of  the  Volga  were  found  unattractive  as  compared  with 
Siberia,  while  the  peasants  seemed  inferior,  in  appearance  at 
least.  Although  the  city  of  Toula  exhibits  Russia  in  its  new 
role  of  industrial  establishments,  all  were  glad  when,  practically 
on  schedule  time,  the  Transiberian  train  rolled  into  the  great 
Koursk  depot  of  the  holy  and  busy  city  of  Moscow. 

Of  unique  and  absorbing  interest  was  "little  mother"  Mos- 
cow, with  its  praying  pilgrims,  countless  icon-decked  chapels, 
with  its  multi-colored  houses  and  holy  sanctuaries,  culminating 
in  the  church-crowned  walls  of  historic  Kremlin,  with  their 
glittering  cupolas  and  towers  brightly  beautiful  in  green  and 
gold ;  but,  however,  they  were  symbols  of  a  vanishing  past. 

One's  thoughts  turned  from  these  sensuous  attractions  to  the 
things  of  the  present  and  near  future,  exemplified  by  the  vast  em- 
pire just  crossed;  for  Siberia,  somewhat  relieved  from  the  dead- 
ening bonds  of  autocratic  officialdom,  is  teaching  individual  re- 
sourcefulness and  independence  through  its  vast  plains,  dense 
forests,  lofty  mountains,  and  great  rivers.  Slowly  but  surely 
the  fuller,  freer  life  of  Asiatic  Russia  is  bringing  into  higher  and 
harmonious  relations  with  its  environment  the  godlike  soul  of 


92  SELECTED  ARTICLES 


THE  REAL  SIBERIA' 

Exile,  Prisons,  and  Snow  rise  before  our  minds  at  the  mere 
mention  of  the  word  Siberia,  but  we  are  told,  these  preconceived 
notions  are  now  radically  wrong.  The  Russian  Horace  Greeley 
of  to-day  is  wont  to  say,  "Young  man,  go  East."  East  to  Si- 
beria, that  pleasant  land  of  promise,  which  fidouard  Blanc,  the 
well-known  explorer,  tells  us  in  the  Paris  Annales  de  Geographie, 
so  strongly  resembles  our  own  Golden  West.  None  the  less,  the 
colonization  of  Siberia  is  but  a  matter  of  yesterday.  Mr.  Blanc 
writes : 

The  real  colonization  started  with  the  year  1896,  when  the  Transibe- 
rian  railroad  reached  the  river  Ob,  and  a  special  law,  dated  April  15  of  that 
year,  permitted  the  farmers  of  European  Russia  to  settle  in  the  open  re- 
gions. At  the  same  time,  the  whole  system  of  criminal  transportation  was 
modified.  With  the  outbreak  of  the  Russo-Japanese  War  (1904-05),  the 
entire  movement  suddenly  came  to  a  stop,  to  be  started  again  almost  as 
suddenly  in  1906,  when,  for  the  first  time,  the  isolated  efforts  of  the  gov- 
ernors of  the  various  provinces  were  systematized  and  the  problems  of 
transportation  and  irrigation  seriously  taken  up  by  the  central  government. 

This  sudden  zeal  for  colonization  on  the  part  of  the  Russian 
government  was  due  to  an  agrarian  crisis  resulting  from  the 
rapid  growth  of  population  in  European  Russia,  so  great  that 
the  peasants  complained  that  they  had  not  land  enough  to  keep 
themselves  and  their  families   from  starvation: 

The  Russian  government  was  therefore  forced  to  open  new  territories 
in  order  to  avoid  a  revolution.  In  1906,  a  special  Department  of  Coloniza- 
tion was  established,  and,  with  an  annual  appropriation  of  $500,000,000,  it 
has  done  marvels  in  Asia.  The  Czar,  to  show  his  personal  sympathies  with 
the  new  colonization  movement,  made  the  farmers  a  present  of  his  Imperial 
Altai  Domain,  which  had  been  in  his  family  for  more  than  a  century  and 
embraces  a  territory  almost  as  large  as  that  of  France  and  able  to  support 
over  6,000,000  colonists.     .  .  . 

Siberia,  up  to  1906,  was  practically  an  empty  country.  Besides  the 
sparsely  settled  native  tribes  of  the  Yakuts,  Samoyedes,  Tungus,  and  Kara 
Kirghiz,  there  were  only  a  few  functionaries,  political  delinquents,  hunters, 
and  fishers,  and  a  handful  of  colonists.  The  arrival  in  quick  succession  of 
several  millions  of  farmer  families  revolutionized  the  whole  administration 
of  the  vast  territory.  The  elaboration  of  a  new  code  is  contemplated,  and 
it  is  more  than  probable  that  Siberia  will  gradually  evolve  into  a  kind  of 
Russian  Canada  or  Australia.  The  average  acreage  allotted,  in  the  first 
stage  of  colonization,  to  the  family  of  five  (including  three  males)  was 
about  no  acres;  these  had  to  be  reduced  gradually  to  20-25  acres. 

*  Literary  Digest.  53:1401.  November  25,  1916. 


RUSSIA  93 

The  Russian  villages  often  send  a  representative  as  advance  agents. 
The  government  advances  about  $400  to  each  family  for  transportation,  con- 
struction of  farm  buildings,  and  purchase  of  cattle. 

The  colonization  of  Siberia  has  been  rapid  and  successful, 
how  rapid  can  be  seen  from  a  few  of  Mr.  Blanc's  figures.  In 
one  year,  1903,  111,338  immigrants  passed  through  the  frontier 
town  of  Tcheliabinsk,  in  1907  the  figures  had  risen  to  752,812, 
while  the  city  itself  had  grown  from  8,800  inhabitants  in  1893  to 
70,500  at  the  present  time.  Going  into  further  details,  Mr. 
Blanc  writes : 

Western  Siberia,  comprising  the  two  provinces  of  Tobolsk  and  Tomsk, 
has,  of  course,  received  the  largest  immigration  contingent,  for  it  is,  to  a 
certain  extent,  the  continuation  of  European  Russia.  Central  Siberia  is 
much  less  favored  than  the  steppes  situated  north  of  Turkestan.  This 
latter  province  itself  has  been  almost  overlooked  by  the  emigrant,  and  this 
for  the  natural  reason  that  the  country  has  a  dense  native  population,  which 
combines  the  cultivation  of  agriculture,  commerce,  and  industry  with  rare 
success.  The  province  of  Syr-Darya  alone  attracted  some  Russian  colonists: 
3,500  in  1908,  5,000  in  1909.  As  soon,  however,  as  the  Orenburg-Tashkend 
Railroad  line  will  have  reached  the  region,  with  its  terminal  at  the  entrance- 
gate  to  China,  and  the  great  irrigation  work,  started  some  time  ago,  will 
have  been  completed,  the  country  will  be  able  to  receive  its  proper  quota 
of  the  surplus  population  of  the  European  provinces.  These  folks  will  join, 
there,  among  others,  the  curious  colony  which  is  composed  of  the  descend- 
ants of  the  Nestorian  pioneers,  dating  back  to  the  Middle  Ages,  German 
Mennonites  who  settled  in  those  regions  half  a  century  ago,  and,  finally, 
Chinese  refugees  who  fled  from  their  fatherland,  fearing  the  consequences 
of  their  participation  in  the  various  lebellions  against  the  Peking  Govern- 
ment. 

The  colonization  of  eastern  Siberia  offered,  relatively  speaking,  the 
greatest  difficulties.  A  couple  of  years  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
with  Japan,  Russia  attempted  to  establish  a  strong  colony,  ready  made, 
with  a  Viceroy  as  governor,  at  the  eastern  terminal  of  the  Transiberian 
Railway,  to  secure  the  control  of  northern  China.  The  issue  of  the  war 
crossed  the  program.  But  the  Russian  bear,  by  no  means  discouraged  and 
not  fearing  the  arctic  climate,  climbed  up  to  the  slopes  of  the  left  shore  of 
the  Amur  River,  a  rich  forestland  never  trod  heretofore  by  a  European 
foot.  The  three  provinces  of  Amur,  Maritime  Province  (Primorskaya), 
and  Transbaikalia  received  from  1906-1909  an  immigration  of  61,000,  154,000, 
and  7.175.  respectively.     .  .  . 

The  law  of  19 13,  granting  the  colonists  individual  property  rights,  will, 
no  doubt,  present  one  of  the  safest  guaranties  of  success  in  this  gigantic 
work  of  redeeming  Siberia  and  the  Asiatic  steppes  for  the  benefit  of  the 
European  settler. 


94  SELECTED  ARTICLES 


SIBERIA  IN  WAR  TIME* 

The  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  witnessed  a 
change.  Russia — official  Russia — had  moved.  The  Transiber- 
ian  railway  had  acted  on  the  nerve-centres  of  the  Umb,  towns 
had  been  roused  from  their  lethargy,  and  there  was  a  general 
feeling  that  the  dawn  was  near.  That  it  was  delayed  was  due 
rather  to  outside  influences  than  internal  volition.  True,  Ger- 
many, with  her  usual  perspicacity,  was  already  arranging  to  cap- 
ture the  nascent  markets,  but,  as  has  ever  been  her  policy,  her 
campaign  was  directed  towards  the  disposal  of  her  own  manu- 
factures in  preference  to  the  utilisation  of  Siberia's  latent  re- 
sources. England  remained  aloof;  she  was  still  under  the  spell 
of  the  sensational  novelist  and  the  penny-a-line  writer,  whose 
stock-in-trade  consisted  of  snow,  convicts,  wolves  and  a  brutal 
soldiery. 

Then  came  the  war  with  Japan — for  Siberia  a  blessing,  since 
hundreds  of  soldiers  from  the  West  crossed  the  Urals  to  defend 
the  fatherland,  and  remained  as  settlers  in  the  Trans-Baikal 
districts.  But  their  number  was  as  a  drop  in  the  ocean  as  com- 
pared to  the  territory  open  to  occupation,  and  for  strategic  rea- 
sons it  was  urgent  that  the  frontiers,  at  least,  should  be  well 
populated.  Cossacks  there  were,  but  the  essential  features  of 
permanent  colonisation  were  absent. 

Thus  arrived  the  era  of  assisted  immigration  which,  in  the 
main,  has  been  satisfactory,  though  at  great  cost  to  the  Imperial 
treasury.  Certainly  no  complaints  could  legitimately  have  been 
levelled  at  the  methods  employed  to  ensure  the  newcomers  the 
best  possible  chances  in  their  fresh  venture.  Apart  from  land 
grants  and  free  transit,  apart  from  farm  equipment,  machinery 
and  buildings,  practical  assistance  in  all  branches  of  agriculture 
was  forthcoming  from  a  paternal  Government.  In  fact  the 
colonists  were  dry-nursed  to  a  degree  which,  in  the  opinion  of 
many  fitted  to  judge,  was  liable  to  destroy  initiative.  Naturally, 
also,  there  were  failures.  Some  sections  of  the  country  were 
found,  too  late,  to  be  unsuitable  for  settlement  owing  to  the 
swampy  character  of  the  ground;  some  parties  of  immigrants 
(as  far  as  possible  groups  were  always  recruited  from  the  same 
villages)    lost  heart,   suffered  from  unendurable  home  hunger, 

*  By  Marjorie  and  Alan  Lethbridge.     Soul  of  the  Russian,  p.  149-53. 


RUSSIA  95 

and  gave  up  the  struggle.  But  on  the  whole  the  scheme  was 
successful,  only  there  was  not  enough  of  it. 

Remember  that  Canada,  prior  to  the  war,  was  touting  for 
fresh  blood,  not  from  Great  Britain  only,  but  from  Europe  in 
general,  that  same  Canada  which  had  long  been  in  process  of 
evolution,  and  which  now  boasts  of  one  of  the  most  progressive 
civilizations  of  the  world.  Then  recall  the  fact  that  Siberia  has 
hitherto  lacked  the  vitalising  stimulus  of  foreign  immigration, 
and  has  been  dependent  solely  upon  parent  effort.  Her  immi- 
grants have  been  agriculturists,  pure  and  simple.  The  element 
of  the  artisan,  the  constructive  element,  that  is  to  say,  has  been 
lacking. 

Ever  has  that  been  the  case  with  Russia.  Her  people  are  of 
the  land,  and  though  they  have  conquered  millions  of  acres  with 
the  plough  and  the  spade,  unaided,  that  method  does  not  spell 
the  rapid  advance  which  has  distinguished  the  newly-opened 
regions  of  the  Canadian  West.  As  time  passed  the  Siberia  settle- 
ment became  the  town,  and  it  was  then  that  outside  enterprise 
stepped  in  and  completed  the  edifice.  For  its  completion  was  re- 
quired practical  organisation,  and  the  Russian  is  a  theoretician 
from  birth.  Hence,  the  Danish  control  of  the  Siberian  butter 
market,  the  German  control  of  the  grain,  the  American  control  of 
machinery  for  agricultural  purposes,  and  the  British — their  con- 
trol in  the  future  depends  literally  upon  their  own  determination. 

For  with  the  advent  of  war  came  a  great  change,  a  sudden 
upheaval,  which  not  only  dislocated  things  as  they  were,  but 
completely  disassociated  what  had  been  from  what  was  to  be. 
On  that  day  the  endless  Siberian  steppe  heaved  a  sigh  of  relief 
as  the  Teutonic  influence,  which  had  taken  all  and  given  nothing, 
passed  forever  from  its  midst.  At  no  time  was  there  panic  as 
to  final  issues.  There  was  surmise,  certainly,  and  a  reassess- 
ment of  resources.  The  harvest  was  swiftly  and  effectively 
garnered  by  the  womenfolk.  Immense  troop  movements  in  no 
wise  taxed  the  food  supply.  There  was  enough  and  to  spare  for 
all— in  fact  the  Siberian  peasant  for  the  first  time  tasted  his 
own  butter  and  approved  of  it.  Then  commenced  the  arrival  of 
strangers  from  afar — prisoners.  They  came  not  in  hundreds,  but 
in  thousands,  and  the  manner  of  their  reception  was  in  fullest 
accordance  with  the  Russian  tradition,  which  is  most  effectively 
translated  into  the  common  phrase  parcere  suhjectis.  Mean- 
while,  the  provincial  governors  had  issued  proclamations   ex- 


96  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

pressly  stating  the  fact  that  these  quondam  enemies  were  not 
Germans — that  they  were,  in  fact,  first  and  second  cousins  of 
their  own  by  nationality,  who  had  been  pressed  into  the  firing 
line  against  their  kinsmen  by  force  majeure.  And  the  proclama- 
tions concluded  with  appeals  to  the  inherent  kindness  and  sympa- 
thy of  the  mujik  to  treat  these  uninvited  guests  as  he  would 
himself  like  to  be  treated  under  similar  circumstances. 

A  motley  crowd  they  were.  Ruthenians  and  Poles  from  Ga- 
licia,  Slovaks  and  Southern  Slavs  from  Hungary,  they  were  mak- 
ing acquaintance  for  the  first  time  with  territory  to  which,  by 
sentiment  and  nationality,  they  were  allied.  As  prisoners  they 
were  under  no  obligation  to  work ;  they  were,  so  to  speak,  boarded 
out,  their  expenses  being  defrayed  by  the  authorities.  If  they 
liked  to  work,  however,  they  could,  and  thereby  could  earn 
money.  That  was  the  position,  and  thus  was  the  seed  sown. 
The  strangers  quickly  discovered  that  their  speech  was  of  a 
common  origin,  and  that,  without  much  difficulty,  not  only  could 
they  make  themselves  understood,  but  that  it  was  a  milestone  on 
the  road  towards  friendship.  And  thence  it  was  borne  in  upon 
their  intelligence  that  they  were  more  literally  at  home  in  this 
distant  land  than  they  had  ever  been  under  the  domination  of 
Austria.  Speedily  they  grew  to  understand,  respect,  and  ap- 
preciate the  innate  kindness  which  is  the  hall-mark  of  the  Si- 
berian peasantry.  Even  the  vast  steppes  seemed  to  smile  a  wel- 
come to  them  and  bid  them  dwell  upon  the  future  rather  than 
on  the  past,  and  in  truth  no  country  can  be  more  compelling  in 
its  loveliness  than  Siberia  in  the  early  summer.  What  wonder 
then,  that  almost  subconsciously  these  men  dropped  into  their 
allotted  niches  as  though  of  the  country  bom! 

Now  they  were,  many  of  them,  industrialists.  They  had 
learned  trades,  they  could  read  and  write,  they  were  hardy,  and, 
in  fact,  they  had  the  makings  of  ideal  colonists.  That  is  pre- 
cisely what  they  have  become.  Without  difficulty  they  found 
congenial  and  remunerative  employment.  With  zest  they  occu- 
pied themselves  with  the  tasks  of  those  called  away  for  military 
service,  and  by  their  industry  they  have  already  actually  estab- 
lished fresh  undertakings  of  precisely  that  character  for  which 
the  need  was  most  urgent.  To  give  an  instance :  at  a  large  mine 
near  Pavlodar,  no  fewer  than  five  hundred  of  these  prisoners, 
so-called,  are  being  employed,  and  the  manager,  a  Briton  inci- 
dentally,  besides   being   enthusiastic   over  their   steadiness,   has 


RUSSIA  97 

been  enabled  by  their  skill  to  start  a  new  and  complicated  process 
of  ore  extraction. 

Thus  it  is  no  exaggeration,  speaking  broadly,  to  say  that  these 
victims  of  the  war  have  provided  just  that  complement  to  the 
existing  Siberian  population  which  was,  to  a  great  extent,  lack- 
ing. A  vast  industrial  army — its  numbers  must  be  enormous — 
has  entered  Siberia  for  Siberia's  good,  an  army  which  intends 
to  remain,  which  is  thoroughly  happy  and  content,  and  which, 
after  the  war,  will  connect  up  the  broken  threads  of  its  family 
life  and  will  bring  its  kindred  to  its  new  home.  That  will  spell 
a  fresh  acquisition  of  excellent  material  and  a  corresponding  ad- 
vance of  the  clock  as  regards  Siberian  development.  Had  Aus- 
tria wished  to  prove  a  friend  indeed  to  Russia,  she  could  scarcely 
have  devised  a  more  happy  solution  of  Siberia's  industrial  prob- 
lem. 

NEW  PORTS  AND  RAILWAYS  IN  RUSSIA' 

Russia,  as  is  well  known,  has  for  years  desired  improved 
access  to  the  open  ocean,  an  ice-free  seaport  to  the  north,  and 
the  war  has  hastened  the  realization  of  this  long-cherished  pro- 
ject. Although  the  Arctic  Ocean  is  the  last  place  in  the  world 
where  one  would  expect  to  find  an  all-the-year  ice-free  port, 
Novo-Alexandrovsk  (formerly  Catherine  Harbor),  on  the  Kola 
Peninsula,  in  Lapland,  is  not  only  free  from  ice  the  year  around, 
but  affords  a  safe  and  convenient  terminus  for  the  trade  with 
America  and  England. 

This  harbor  is  situated  about  200  miles  east  of  North  Cape, 
in  Norway,  on  an  indentation  of  the  Murman  Coast  of  the  Kola^ 
Peninsula,  which  closes  the  White  Sea  from  the  north  and  forms 
a  sort  of  eastern  continuation  of  the  larger  Scandinavian  Penin- 
sula. Although  Novo-Alexandrovsk  is  even  farther  north  than 
Archangel,  lying  well  within  the  Arctic  Circle,  the  so-called  Gulf 
Stream,  which  here  reaches  the  last  stages  of  its  journey,  pre- 
vents the  formation  of  more  than  a  thin  film  of  ice,  and  the 
mouth  of  the  bay  is  always  open. 

Russia  long  ago  saw  the  advantages  of  a  port  at  this  spot,  and 
the  outbreak  of  the  war  gave  the  matter  a  new  importance.  The 
Government  at  once  decided  to  connect  this  harbor  with  Petro- 
grad  by  an  efficient  railroad.    American  engineers  and  contractors 

1  By  P.  P.  Foster.    Review  of  Reviews.  53:709-11.  June,   1916. 


98  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

were  consulted  and  thousands  of  men  were  engaged  for  the  work, 
which  was  begun  simultaneously  at  both  ends.  The  railway  was 
pushed  forward  with  great  energy  in  spite  of  the  great  difficulties 
presented  by  the  nature  of  the  ground  (a  land  of  morass  and 
swamps),  the  lack  of  population,  supplies,  and  other  causes. 

The  railway  runs  from  Ivanka,  south  of  Lake  Ladoga,  lo 
Petrozavodsk,  on  the  west  side  of  Lake  Onega,  and  thence  to 
Soroka,  at  the  southwest  corner  of  the  White  Sea.  This  section 
is  already  completed,  as  well  as  the  section  running  south  from 
Catherine  Bay  to  Kandalaksha,  at  the  northernmost  comer  of  the 
White  Sea.  The  intermediate  section  is  the  most  difficult  one, 
owing  to  the  prevalence  of  lakes  and  swamps,  but  it  is  probable 
that  the  present  summer  will  see  the  completion  of  the  entire 
line.  Even  as  it  is,  the  transshipment  of  freight  from  Kanda- 
laksha to  Soroka  over  the  White  Sea  will  greatly  relieve  the 
pressure  at  Archangel. 

The  general  direction  of  the  new  line  to  the  Arctic  Ocean  is 
nearly  due  north  from  a  point  about  eighty  miles  east  of  Petro- 
grad.  The  whole  length  of  the  line  will  be  about  650  miles,  and 
it  will  be  standard-gauge  and  double-tracked  throughout.  The 
military  value  of  this  new  warm-water  port  cannot  be  overesti- 
mated, for  the  opening  of  the  new  harbor  and  the  extension  of 
a  railway  to  this  point  will  remove  the  final  obstacle  to  the  con- 
tinuous reception  and  dispatch  of  munitions  and  supplies,  an 
immense  advantage  to  Russia  and  her  allies. 

Eventually  this  port  will  greatly  increase  Russian  export  trade 
in  agricultural  and  dairy  products,  which  has  been  shut  off  when 
winter  closed  the  doors  at  her  other  outlets.  Novo-Alexandrovsk 
is  400  miles  nearer  the  Atlantic  than  Archangel,  its  temperature 
is  more  equable,  and  the  railroad  connects  directly  with  Petro- 
grad.  The  construction  of  the  Novo-Alexandrovsk-Petrograd 
Railway  is  a  triumph  for  American  engineering,  for  not  only 
is  it  being  built  under  tremendous  difficulties  by  American  engi- 
neers and  contractors,  but  most  of  the  rolling  stock  and  the 
great  Mallet  locomotives,  fitted  to  burn  wood,  come  from  this 
country. 


RUSSIA  99 

ECONOMIC  RESOURCES  OF  THE 
RUSSIAN  EMPIRE* 

First  of  all  in  the  extreme  north,  from  the  White  Sea  to 
Bering  Strait,  there  lies  the  region  of  the  tundras — waste  frozen 
marshes  stretching  inland  from  the  sea  for  from  three  hundred 
to  a  thousand  miles.  It  is  often  difficult  to  determine  the  point 
separating  the  land  from  the  sea,  for  the  surface  of  the  ground 
is  frozen  some  forty  feet  deep ;  even  the  heat  of  summer  can  thaw 
only  about  two  feet  of  top  soil.  The  only  possible  vegetation 
consists  of  moss  and  a  few  berry  bushes — scant  food  for  the 
millions  of  birds  and  beasts  of  all  kinds  that  flock  northward 
in  July  and  August  to  escape  their  enemy,  the  hunter.  By  the 
end  of  August,  however,  the  heavy  frosts  set  in,  and  the  tun- 
dras become  a  barren,  lifeless  desert,  covered  with  snow  for 
hundreds  of  miles,  with  never  a  living  speck  of  any  kind  on 
which  to  rest  one's  eyes. 

To  the  south  of  the  tundras  is  the  great  coniferous  forest 
belt,  which  stretches  from  Finland  to  the  Sea  of  Okhotsk.  At 
its  western  end,  where  it  is  more  settled,  this  is  perhaps  the  most 
beautiful  part  of  the  great  Russian  plain.  The  countryside  is 
dark  with  the  shadows  of  the  fir  trees,  but  frequently  shot  with 
the  light,  lithe  trunks  of  silver  birches.  The  aspect  of  the  land, 
too,  is  slightly  rolling  in  parts,  and  cradled  between  these  slight 
elevations  there  are  thousands  of  charming  little  lakes  fringed 
around  with  reeds. 

In  Siberia,  the  forest  region  is  called  the  taiga,  which  means  a 
vast,  more  or  less  unknown  surface,  covered  with  dense,  impass- 
able forests.  Heavy  underbrush,  fallen  trunks,  and  endless 
quantities  of  game  are  its  chief  characteristics.  Comparatively 
little  of  the  taiga  has  been  reclaimed,  that  is,  turned  into  farming 
land.  One  reason  is  that  the  climate  here  is  so  extreme  and  the 
winters  so  endlessly  long.  TiLe_celjLi§_so  intense  that  an  occa- 
sional tree  splits  open,  making  a  noise  like  the  report  of  a  pistol. 
It  is  50  6old  that  the  warmth  from  the  body  of  a  bird,  as  it  rises 
from  the  ground,  will  leave  a  jtre^.pf  steam.  Added  to  this 
is  the  annoyance  from  the  swarms  of  insects  characteristic  of 
Arctic  summers.    The  pioneer  settlers  had  to  live  in  houses  filled 

*  By    E.    K.    Reynolds.     Geog^raphical    Review.    1:249-65.   April,    1916. 


100  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

with  smoke  to  get  any  relief  from  them,  and  they  had  to  build 
huge  bonfires  in  the  pasture  lands  to  protect  the  cattle. 

Vpf  ihis  fpiQ^  ^>'ffnff  of  tbp  grf'at*"^'^^  t*-p?gi^*-ps  in  Russia's  long 
HstjofjaatuxaLresaurcjes.  In  round  figures  it  is  said  to  represent 
ninety  million  acres  of  m.agnific-ent ^.timber.  That  is  less  than 
one-tenth  of  all  the  timber  resources  of  the  Empire,  which  are 
estimated  at  ^^^ZJ^^  ^'  ^^''^^^^^  billjfl^,  acres.  In  addition  to  the 
great  northern  forest  belt,  there  are  extensive  forests  on  the  Urals 
and  the  Caucasus.  The  trees  of  the  taiga  are  pines,  firs,  spruces, 
larches,  and  allied  species,  intermingled  here  and  there  with  vari- 
ous kinds  of  birches,  aspen,  and  a  few  other  leafy  trees.  At  its 
western  end,  in  the  central  provinces  of  Russia,  the  taiga  abuts 
upon  the  mixed  deciduous  forest  which  covers  all  of  cool-tem- 
perate Europe.  Oak,  maple,  elm,  ash,  and  poplar  are  the  chief 
trees.  The  Mediterranean  vegetation  of  southern  Crimea  and  the 
eastern  Black  Sea  littoral  contains  such  species  as  the  cork-oak 
and  the  yew. 

Even  to  guess  at  the  actual  value  of  these  forests  would  be 
futile,  for  they  are  barely  touched  as  yet.  Nevertheless,  Russia 
has  exported  yearly  of  late  $81,800,000  worth  of  timber  of  vari- 
ous kinds,  principally  to  England,  Belgium,  Germany,  and  Austria 
— this  in  spite  of  the  enormous  home  consumption.  All  northern 
and  central  Russia  is  built  of  wood,  stone  being  scarce  and  in- 
accessible. It  is  said  that  all  Russia  burns  down  every  seven 
years !  The  Russians  use  wood  almost  exclusively  as  fuel,  both 
on  the  railroads  and  for  heating.  It  is  interesting  that  in  renting 
an  apartment  one  pays  a  round  sum  which  includes  so  many  cords 
of  wood  for  heating  purposes.  The  Russians  also  employ  wood 
very  extensively  for  utensils  and  implements  of  various  kind^. 
Fortunately,  there  are  forest  preservation  laws.  These  do  not 
enforce  the  replacing  of  trees,  as  is  the  case,  for  instance,  in 
Germany,  but  a  forest  cannot  be  cut  more  than  once  in  a  period 
of  eighty  years.  In  any  case,  Russia  has  an  abundant  supply  of 
timber  for  the  present  and  a  good  bit  of  the  future  in  her  great 
forest  regions,  enough  for  herself  and  her  friends. 

These  same  regions  are  a  source  of  great  wealth  for  a  second 
reason.  They  are  teeming  with  game  of  all  kinds.  Hunting, 
therefore,  is  naturally  the  means  of  support  for  many,  whether 
Great  Russian  peasants  in  the  west,  Siberian  hunters  and  trappers 
in  the  east,  or  wild  tribesmen  in  the  forests  of  the  Urals  or  out- 
of-the-way  places  of  the  Empire.    Here,  again,  it  is  impossible  to 


RUSSIA  loi 

ascertain  the  extent  of  the  hunting  done,  except  from  the  skins 
and  birds  that  are  brought  to  market.  There  are  regular  centers 
for  trading  in  skins.  Vnkiif«s^  jn  pa«stprn  Siberia  is  one  of  the 
largest  markets,  and  there  is  a  fair  held  in  Irbit,  in  the  Urals, 
every  year,  which  is  given  up  entirely  to  barter  in  skins.  Here 
the  traders  buy  up  the  sables  and  ermines  for  which  the  Ostiaks 
have  hunted  along  the  Ob,  or  the  Tatars  and  Soiols  in  the  Altai 
ranges,  or  'the  Yakuts  in  the  region  of  the  Yablonoi  or  Stanovoi 
Mountains.  The  variety  in  the  game  is  astounding.  The  skins 
range  from  $10.00  for  Arctic  fox  to  $50.00  for  dark  sable.  With 
this  abundance  of  supply,  it  surprises  at  first  that  furs  ready 
for  wearing  apparel  should  be  so  expensive  in  Russia.  The 
reason  for  this  is  that  no  furs  are  dyed  in  Russia.  The  skins 
are  sent  mostly  to  Leipzig,  prepared  and  dyed,  and  then  shipped 
back  to  Russia,  laden  with  duties. 

On  the  outskirts  of  the  forest  zone,  in  the  provinces  of  Vo- 
logda and  Yaroslavl  (east  and  southeast  of  Petrograd)  and  in  the 
Baltic  provinces,  lies  the  great  flax-growing  country — 4.0.^0.000 
acres  given  up  solely  to  this  industry.  Flax  has  been  grown  here 
for  centuries  and  has  given  to  Russian  linen  its  high  reputation. 
The  flax  for  the  finer  uses  comes  from  the  Baltic  provinces  and 
that  for  the  coarser  products  principally  from  Vologda,  the  home 
of  the  strikingly  beautiful  Russian  laces,  drawn-work,  and  em- 
broideries which  have  brought  to  the  outside  world  a  realization 
of  the  unusual  artistic  ability  of  the  Russian  peasant. 

To  the  south  of  the  forest  zone  in  European  Russia  and  west- 
ern Siberia,  lies  the  open  country,  usually  known  as  the  steppe 
region.  At  the  very  mention  of  the  name  "steppe"  many  assidu- 
ous readers  of  pseudo-Russian  fiction  will  smile  knowingly  and 
conjure  up  visions  of  a  Russian  Wild  West — overrun  with 
ferocious  Cossacks,  and  probably  a  sprinkling  of  Kalmyks.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  wild  riders  of  the  plain  have  been 
superseded  by  the  farmers.  The  plow  has  robbed  the  horses  and 
sheep,  even  in  the  southernmost  parts,  of  their  fertile  pastures. 
In  traveling  southward  now  one  sees  nothing  but  farm  lands, 
fields  of  grain  everywhere,  until  the  very  edge  of  the  Black  Sea 
is  reached.  The  steppe  is  principally  the  granary  of  Russia. 
Hundreds  ancT  tKousands  of  tons  of  wheat,  rye,  oats,  and  barley 
are  harvested  every  year.  In  the  crop  of  1914  there  was  nearly 
400,000,000  hundredweight  of  spring  and  winter  wheat  alone. 
Some  of  the  best  grain-raising  tracts  are  found  in  the  "black- 


102  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

earth"  region,  the  chernoziom.  This  is  a  band  of  unusually  fer- 
tile land,  stretching  from  the  neighborhood  of  Kiev  in  south- 
western Russia  in  a  general  northeasterly  direction  to  Tambov 
and  the  middle  stretches  of  the  Volga  and  somewhat  beyond. 
It  covers  an  area  of  270,000^000  acres  and,  if  farmed  to  its  fullest 
extent,  could  more  than  feed  the  whole  population  of  Europe. 

To  the  south  and  east,  though  the  climate  is  much  drier,  the 
grain  is  very  good  and  plentiful.  It  was  from  these  driest  parts 
of  the  grain-producing  country  that  Russia  sent  help  to  our  state 
of  Kansas  when  the  continued  droughts  there  had  ruined  the  en-  ' 
tire  crop.  The  state  was  in  a  very  sad  predicament  for  a  time. 
The  situation  was  saved,  however,  by  introducing  the  Russian 
grain,  which  had  adapted  itself  to  drought,  and  could  therefore 
flourish  in  Kansas. 

/  The  best  wheat  comes  from  Siberia.  The  frozen  ground 
thaws  with  the  rays  of  the  summer  sun  and  gives  to  the  grain  a 
steady  but  just  sufficient  supply  of  moisture  to  produce  a  full,  but 
firm  wheat.  Western  Siberia  is  given  up  more  to  Jiay  fields  than 
to  wheat  fields.  This  is  the  center  of  the  dairy  industries.  In 
1913,  123,000,000  pounds  of  butter  were  exported — enough  nd% 
only  to  feed  Russia,  but  also  to  send  to  England  and,  in  small 
amounts,  to  the  United  States. 

To  the  south  of  the  steppes  of  western  Siberia  lie  Russia's 
Central-Asian  possessions,  the  fourth  largest  cotton-producing_ 
area  of  the  world.  Since  ancient  times  this  territory  has  been 
irrigated  and  cotton  has  been  raised  here,  though  not  in  very 
great  quantities.  Russia  used  to  obtain  most  of  her  cotton  from 
China. 

Now  the  tables  are  somewhat  turned,  and  many  of  the  blue 
cotton  coats  worn  b}''  John  Chinaman  come  from  Russia.  There 
has  been  a  great  increase  in  cotton  growing  in  Central  Asia  and 
in  eastern  Transcaucasia;  during  the  last  decade  the  sowings 
have  multiplied  by  three  hundred  and  fifty  times.  Although 
over  1,300,000  acres,  with  a  yield  of  over  91,250,000  hundredweight, 
are  planted,  the  domestic  supply  is  not  equal  to  the  demand,  and 
nearly  half  of  Russia's  supply  of  raw  cotton  has  still  to  come 
from  abroad,  from  America  or  the  British  possessions. 

Central  ^§ia,  particularly  Tiixk£Siaar-is  also"  the  original  home 
of  RussiaYi  silk.  From  time  immemorial  the  raising  of  Bagdad 
cocoons  and  the  weaving  of  silk  have  been  a  staple  means  of  sup- 
port for  the  population.    From  Persia,  Russia  took  a  section  of 


RUSSIA  102 

her  silk-producing  country  when  the  Caucasus  was  conquered, 
and  with  it  the  province  of  Erivan,  whose  silks  were  famed  even 
in  the  old  epic  tales  of  Russia.  A  great  many  cocoons,  of  the 
Italian  variety,  are  raised  in  southern  Russia.  The  industry, 
however,  is  quite  sporadic,  and  it  is  difficult  to  know  exactly  how 
much  is  produced  there.  The  total  yield  of  cocoons  in  all  three 
of  these  areas  amounts  to  nearly  160,000  hundredweight  a  year. 
The  fact  that  here,  as  usual,  the  domestic  supply  cannot  meet  the 
demand  agrees  strangely  with  the  fact  that  Russia  in  1913  ex- 
ported $2,322,QQajK£)rth  of  cocoons,  in  raw  silk  and  silk  fabrics. 
The  reason  is  that  Russia  has  not  yet  built  enough  silk-winding 
factories.  Sfie  is  still  dependent  on  foreign  countries,  France 
particularly,  for  fine  silk  fabrics  and  for  wound  silk  (which  is 
often  made  from  Russian  cocoons!) 

Since  the  construction  of  the  Transcaspian  railroad,  which 
opened  up  markets  in  European  Russia,  and  consequently  abroad, 
for  the  products  of  Russia's  Central-Asian  possessions,  these 
regions  have  proved  themselves  a  source  of  great  wealth,  not 
only  because  of  their  cotton  and  silk,  but  also  because  of  the 
magnificent  fruit  which  is  being  raised  there  in  increasing  quanti- 
ties— luscious  and  fragrant  apples,  which  turn  translucent  in  the 
sun,  apricots,  pomegranates,  figs,  etc.  The  gardens  of  Central 
Asia  are  able  to  grow  an  extraordinary  variety  of  products. 
Fruit  culture  is  also  increasing  in  the  Caucasus  and  southern 
Russia ;  extensive  orange  plantations  have  been  set  out,  and  their 
fruit  has  become  extremely  popular  now  that  the  war  has  cut  off 
the  usual  supply  of  oranges  from  Italy.  Land  is  being  reclaimed 
and  set  out  in  fruit  farms  around  Astrakhan.  The  Crimea,  with 
its  extremely  mild  climate,  has,  of  course,  always  been  a  great 
fruit-growing  center;  and  Bessarabijt.  near  the  Rumanian  fron- 
tier, is  particularly  noted  for  its  apples  and  vineyards.  The 
Russians  are  very  fond  of  fruit,  particularly  dried,  or  in  the 
form  of  fruit  pastes  or  preserves,  often  using  jam  in  their  tea 
instead  of  sugar. 

The  real  Russian  tea,  not  that  generally  known  to  us  and  which 
comes  to  Russia  from  China,  is  being  grown  now  in  fairly  large 
quantities.  In  1913,  2,130  acres  in  the  Caucasus,  on  the  Black 
Sea  coast,  produced  nearly  1,200,000  pounds.  Russia  is  the  only 
tea-growing  country  in  Europe.  The  plantations,  started  by 
Chinese  workers,  are  growing  quickly  and  giving  very  satisfac- 
tory results. 


■IP4  SELECTED^  ARTICLES 

,  ,    ,    f. 

Tobacco  is  raised  either  from  native,  American,  or  Turkish 
seeds.  In  1912  there  were  over  175,000  acres  under  tobacco,  in 
southern  Russia,  Siberia,  and  CenlranSsta,  with  an  annual  yield 
of  over  2,350  hundredweight ;  seventy  per  cent  of  this  is  grown 
from  native  seeds.  This  tobacco  is  called  makhorka;  the  ordi- 
nary peasant  smokes  it,  and  it  is  recognized  from  afar  because  of 
its  extremely  pungent  odor.  American  and  Turkish  tobacco  is 
also  raised  in  southern  Russia  and  in  the  Caucasus. 

These  are  but  a  few  items  in  Russia's  vast  storehouse.  She 
has  nearly  2,000,000  acres  in  sugar  beets,  Little  Russia,  the  south- 
western region  of  tTi^  country,  giving  the  highest  yield  and  the 
best  beet. 
/  But  she  possesses  one  especial  jewel  which  places  her  in  the 
front  rank  of  the  wealthy  nations  of  the  world,  her  mineral  re- 
sources— iron,  oil,  copper,  gold,  and  precious  stones.  In  the 
province  of  Ekaterinoslav,  north  of  the  Crimea  and  the  Sea 
of  Azov,  lies  in  the  great  Donetz  coal  basin,  the  largest  coal 
field  in  Europe,  containing  about  a  billion  tons  of  flame  and 
coking  coal  and  two  and  a  half  billion  tons  of  anthracite. 
These  are  the  best  exploited  of  the  coal  mines  of  the  Empire, 
because  of  the  facilities  of  transportation  and  because  of  their 
close  proximity  to  enormous  beds  of  iron  ore.  This  region, 
from  being  pastoral  and  agricultural,  has  become  the  "black 
country"  of  Russia.  Busy  industrial  settlements  have  sprung 
up,  and,  as  at  Pittsburgh,  the  sky  at  night  is  lurid  from  the 
flames  of  many  gigantic  blast  furnaces. 

Then  there  are  the  great  Dombrova  coal  fields  of  Poland,  said 
to  contain  855,000,000  tons ;  and  millions  of  tons  of  inferior  coal 
in  the  Moscow  region.  The  rest  of  the  coal  deposits  are  still 
almost  inaccessible.  The  Caucasus,  for  instance,  is  very  rich  in 
coal  and  is  said  to  contain  billions  of  tons,  while  the  coal  fields 
in  Asiatic  Russia,  particularly  in  the  province  of  Irkutsk,  are 
even  richer.  One  hundred  and  fifty  billion  tons  are  claimed  for 
that  one  region  alone.  The  supply  in  the  Urals  is  destined  to 
play  an  important  part  in  the  industrial  life  of  the  country,  as 
soon  as  railroads  and  labor  make  these  mines  sufficiently  acces- 
ible.  One  must  always  add  labor  to  the  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
developing  the  mines,  because,  being  primarily  agriculturists,  the 
miners  prefer  td^eave  their  work  and  go  back  to  their  farms  dur- 
ing the  harvest  time,  so  that,  while  the  grain  is  ripening  and 
being  gathered  in,  the  amount  of  labor  available  for  the  mines  is 


RUSSIA  105 

reduced  to  a  low  figure.  Nevertheless,  in  time,  the  seventy-five 
billion  tons  of  coal  in  European  Russia  and  the  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  billion  tons  of  Asiatic  Russia  are  bound  to  come  into 
exploitation  in  the  natural  course  of  events. 

This  is  also  true  of  the  iron  resources  of  Russia.  There  are 
big  iron  centers  in  southern  and  cehtraT  Russia,  Poland,  and  the 
Urals.  The  largest  deposits,  and  those  with  the  purest  ore,  lie 
along  the  southern  border  of  the  province  of  Ekaterinoslav  con- 
tiguous to  the  Donetz  coal  fields.  This  region  supplies  seventy 
per  cent  of  the  output  of  pig  iron  for  European  Russia,  and 
although  all  the  Russian  ore  is  very  easy  to  reduce,  this  ore  is 
particularly  so,  and  its  fortunate  position  in  regard  to  the  coal 
beds  nearby  will  probably  soon  make  of  the  region  one  of  the 
most  important  sections  of  Russia,  and  an  iron  famine,  such  as 
was  experienced  in  1913,  will  be  made  impossible.  Somewhat 
the  same  happy  juxtaposition  of  coal  and  iron  and  facilities  for 
transportation  obtain  in  the  Altai,  in  western  Siberia,  and  the 
temporary  dearth  of  this  valuable  material  will  soon  be  over- 
come, and  Russia  will  have  enough  and  to  spare. 

Another  of  Russia's  valuable  natural  resources  is  her  petro- 
leum. In  this,  America  is  her  successful  rival.  Her  principal  oil 
wells,  discovered  centuries  ago  by  fire  worshippers,  were  badly 
injured  by  having  water  turned  into  them  during  the  revolution 
of  1905-1906.  In  1901  the  output  of  Russian  petroleum  was  50.6 
per  cent  of  the  whole  world's  product,  while  the  American  petro- 
leum was  only  41.2  per  cent.  The  Russian  production  in  1901- 
1905  fluctuated  10  per  cent,  but  the  American  production  was  de- 
veloping more  rapidly,  and  Russia  began  to  lose,  so  that  in  1913 
Russia  had  only  18  per  cent  and  the  United  States  63  per  cent 
of  the  world's  output  of  petroleum,  but  the  export  of  naphtha 
and  naphtha  products  from  Russia  reached  $24,000,000  in  that  year. 

Russia  is  also  rich  in  copper,  an  uncomputed  wealth.  In  this 
industry,  America  is  again  her  more  than  successful  rival,  pro- 
ducing 55  per  cent  of  the  world's  total  output,  while  Russia  pro- 
duces only  3>2  per  cent.  Russia  uses  about  4,000  tons  of  Amer- 
ican copper  a  year — after  it  has  been  metamorphosed  in  Germany 
into  lamp-burners,  etc.  Nevertheless,  Russia  has  extensive 
copper  ore  in  the  Ural  Mountains,  the  Caucasus,  in  the  Altai 
Mountains,  and  in  Siberia.  In  that  part  of  the  Urals  which 
extends  into  the  Arctic  immense  beds  of  copper  have  been  dis- 
covered. 


io6  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Zinc  and  lead  are  also  among  Russia's  undeveloped  resources ; 
Poland,  now  in  German  hands,  has  the  richest  deposits,  but  the 
Caucasus  is  full  of  both  metals.  North  of  Vladikavkaz,  on  the 
northern  slope  of  the  mountains  above  Tiflis,  large  quantities 
have  been  discovered,  and  immense  deposits  of  lead  have  been 
found  in  the  sea  coast  region  of  the  extreme  east,  north  of 
Vladivostok. 

The  smelting  industry,  however,  is  still  quite  undeveloped, 
and  the  crude  ore  is  very  often  shipped  to  European  Russia  or 
western  Europe  to  be  smelted. 

Of  precious  metals  and  stones,  Russia  also  has  her  share. 
The  whole  hem  of  her  frontier  towards  the  southeast  and  China 
is  embroidered  with  gold,  silver,  platinum,  and  precious  stones. 
In  the  Altai  Mountains,  part  of  the  chain  that  closes  in  the  Em- 
pire to  the  southwest  of  Lake  Baikal,  there  are  some  of  the 
largest  gold  mines  of  the  world,  surpassed  only  by  those  of  Cali- 
fornia and  the  Transvaal,  and  all  along  the  Lena  River  and  the 
shore  of  the  Sea  of  Okhotsk,  there  are  vast  deposits  of  gold. 
The  Urals  are,  perhaps,  the  greatest  treasure  house,  for  besides 
the  enormous  quantities  of  metals,  base  and  precious,  which  they 
contain,  they  have  a  wealth  of  beautiful  semi-precious  stones, 
clear  and  colorful.  In  Perm,  a  city  in  the  Urals,  a  large  stone- 
polishing  industry  has  been  developed  on  account  of  them,  and 
here  they  are  transformed  into  the  most  delicious  and  radiant 
drops  of  color. 

Then  there  are  the  fisheries,  the  salt  works  in  the  steppes,  and 
an  infinitude  of  industries,  big  and  little,  taking  form,  most  of 
them  being  established  by  foreigners,  for  the  Russian  very 
frankly  says  that  his  industrial  gift  is  very  slight  and  languidly 
presents  the  samovar  as  the  only  Russian  invention — an  over- 
statement of  the  case  perhaps,  but  the  fact  remains  that  for  the 
understanding  of  machinery  and  business,  he  has  continued  to 
use  other  people's  brains,  so  far  mostly  English  and  German. 
But  whatever  the  tool  Russia  may  choose,  there  is  an  extraordi- 
nary unanimity  of  belief  in  the  greatness  of  her  future. 

Is  it  to  come  from  her  potential  economic  wealth,  or  from  the 
evident  genius  of  the  Slav  race?  By  virtue  of  her  national 
landscape  or  from  the  greatness  in  the  soul  of  her  peasant? 

To  us  Americans,  Russia  has  long  been  an  unknown  quantity. 
Distorted  expressions  of  her  spirit  have  come  to  us  from  time 
to  time,  but  of  the  conformation  and  content  of  her  land  we 


RUSSIA  107 

have  known  little  and  cared  less.  Of  this  one  seventh  of  the 
world's  surface  we  have  remained  in  almost  total  ignorance,  but 
now,  at  last,  we  are  trying  to  see  the  whole  figure  of  this 
youngest  child  of  Europe,  both  spirit  and  form,  and  we  find  we 
have  many  mutual  bonds.  We  both  know  the  hunting  of  game 
and  the  felling  of  trees  in  the  forests  of  the  north;  we  both  feel 
the  pulse  of  our  national  life  as  the  wind  sweeps  over  the  grain- 
fields  or  the  prairie  pastures ;  we  both  have  our  high  mountains, 
deep  mines,  and  swift-flowing,  full-flooded  rivers.  Outwardly  we 
are  much  alike.  But  there  is  a  difference — a  very  great  differ- 
ence. Russia  is  a  country  of  age-long  culture,  a  culture  which 
she  has  preserved  at  the  point  of  her  bared  sword,  in  the  presence 
of  death.  We  are  the  baby  of  golden-spoon  fame ;  all  conditions 
have  combined  to  favor  the  prosperous  economic  development  of 
our  country.  In  struggling  to  preserve  her  traditions,  she  has 
been  unified,  and  strengthened.  She  has  lived  continually  in  the 
presence  of  the  other  world.  History  has  made  Russia  into  a 
heart.  We  have  not  been  knit  together  as  a  race  in  the  face  of 
a  common  foe ;  we  have  not  had  to  suffer — history  is  making  of 
us  a  brain.  Yet,  given  the  practically  identical  geographical  con- 
ditions under  which  to  live,  it  is  only  natural  that  we  should  lean 
towards  each  other  and  on  the  basis  of  what  we  share  in  common 
perhaps  pave  the  way  to  an  exchange  of  those  things  which  we 
need  from  each  other.  Russia's  needs  are  easily  read :  she  is  an 
all-on-land  empire,  and  she  needs  railroads  and  more  railroads; 
she  needs  machinery;  she  needs  the  organization  and  puslr~m 
business  enterprises  for  which  we  have  become  famous.  All 
that  side  of  our  life  could  be  profitably  shared  by  Russia;  and 
for  us,  besides  the  material  gains  which  needs  must  result  from 
such  relations,  will  come  a  know^ledge  of  the  spirit  which  has 
made  and  kept  her  a  great  nation  and  which  promises  so  much 
for  the  future.  In  human  beings  the  balance  between  head  and 
heart  is  known  as  genius,  and  something  akin  to  genius  might 
surely  be  expected  from  such  a  bond. 


POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  PROBLEMS 


AUTOCRACY  AND  BUREAUCRACY  IN  RUSSIA" 

"We,  Nicholas  II,  by  God's  Grace  Emperor  and  Autocrat  of 
all  the  Russiao,"  etc. 

This  is  the  official  style  of  all  imperial  proclamntions,  or 
ukases,  of  the  Czar  of  Russia.  It  is  a  big  job,  this  matter  of  be- 
ing the  Little  Father  to  one  hundred  and  sixty  millions  of  peo- 
ple, of  many  diverse  nationalities,  and  spread  over  almost  one- 
sixth  of  the  landed  surface  of  the  globe. 

"You  will  find  the  burden  heavy,"  said  Nicholas  I  to  his  son 
Alexander,  as  he  lay  dying.  And,  indeed,  it  is  a  weighty  load 
that  rests  on  the  shoulders  of  the  Czar.  It  has  caused  the  un- 
timely death  of  more  than  one  of  the  predecessors  of  Nicholas 
II.  His  father,  Alexander  III,  was  strong  and  vigorous  when 
the  nihilist  bomb  brought  about  his  accession  in  1881.  Attempts 
upon  and  threats  against  his  own  life,  and  the  unceasing  efforts 
made  to  combat  the  revolutionists,  broke  him  down  after  thir- 
teen short  years.  His  death  was  doubtless  as  much  the  result 
of  his  terrible  experiences  as  if  he  had  fallen  by  the  hand  of  an 
assassin.  Nicholas  I,  who  ruled  from  1825  to  1855,  welcomed  the 
approach  of  death  while  his  country  was  almost  rent  asunder  by 
the  Crimean  War.  Alexander  I  (1801-1825)  started  out  with 
liberal  impulses,  and  did  more  than  any  one  else  to  free  Europe 
from  the  domination  of  Napoleon,  but  his  later  years  were  filled 
with  unhappiness  over  what  he  considered  the  ingratitude  of  his 
people. 

It  is  needless  to  give  more  examples  of  the  unfortunate  Auto- 
crats of  Russia.  The  five  who  have  held  that  title  within  the 
past  century  have  all  been  men  of  honest  intentions,  and  gifted 
with  a  genius  for  hard  work,  but  less  happiness  has  been  their 
lot  than  that  of  the  majority  of  peasants  within  the  empire.  Sa 
do  not  envy  the  Czar  his  autocratic  power,  for  he  himself  is  ihe 
victim  of  a  system  and  circumstances. 

*  By  N.  O.  Winter.  North  American  Review.  200:379-89.  September,  19 14. 


no  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Russian  autocracy  was  not  a  spontaneous  development,  but 
was  rather  a  growth.  A  study  of  history  clearly  shows  that  the 
Russian  autocracy  was  a  product  of  the  people  themselves. 
Furthermore,  it  may  be  said  that  in  after  years,  when  the  people 
might  have  thrown  off  this  yoke,  they  preferred  to  re-establish 
it.  In  the  early  days  of  Russian  history,  before  the  consolida- 
tion of  the  petty  principalities,  the  death  of  each  Grand  Prince 
brought  about  a  struggle  among  his  various  heirs  until  the 
strongest  came  into  control  of  all  that  his  father  had  governed. 
In  the  years  1228-1462  Russia  suffered  no  fewer  than  ninety  in- 
ternecine conflicts,  and  almost  twice  as  many  foreign  wars. 

Beggars  cannot  be  choosers,  and  a  people  who  had  endured 
so  many  troubles,  as  well  as  a  hard  alien  yoke — that  of  the 
Tartars — would  be  thankful  for  any  change  that  promised  bet- 
terment and  came  from  Moscow.  That  city  had  already  become 
the  home  of  the  head  of  the  Russian  Church,  and  the  Prince  of 
Moscow  was  looked  upon  as  the  eldest  son  of  the  Church.  Ivan 
III  married  Sofia  Paleologa,  a  niece  of  the  last  of  the  Byzantine 
emperors.  Sofia  never  gave  up  her  title  of  Byzantine  Empress, 
and  she  left  to  her  descendants  an  unquenchable  longing  to  es- 
tablish themselves  again  at  Constantinople.  In  so  far  as  it  was 
possible,  Sofia  transferred  her  prestige  to  Moscow  and  shared  it 
with  her  husband.  From  this  time  the  Byzantine  coat  of  arms, 
the  double  eagle,  appears  on  the  Russian  Imperial  seal.  At  the 
same  time  the  outward  ceremonial  and  pomp  was  increased.  His 
son,  Ivan  IV,  known  as  the  Terrible,  took  the  full  Csesarean 
title — Czar  is  a  corruption  of  Caesar — and  proceded  to  eclipse 
all  Byzantine  records  in  cruelty,  treachery,  and  superstition. 
Peter  and  Catharine,  both  called  the  Great,  the  first  real  reform- 
ers, accomplished  even  more  for  the  ultimate  benefit  of  auto- 
cracy than  for  the  profit  of  the  people. 

In  theory  autocracy,  as  represented  in  Russia,  means  that  all 
the  functions  of  power,  the  legislative,  the  administrative,  and 
the  judicial,  are  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  the  sovereign.  Jn 
other  words,  the  three  functions  of  government  into  which  our 
own  country  is  divided  are  g*^^^^<^vl  phgnniT^ly  npnn  tHa  Tvar"  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  none  of  the  Czars  have  ruled  alone,  unless  it 
was  Peter  the  Great.  They  have  always  had  the  support  of  a 
powerful  ruling  caste,  or  oligarchy]  In  addition  to  theT  func-~ 
tionsoFtHe  secular  government  the  Czar  is  also  the  official  head 
of  the  Russian  Orthodox  Church — the  Pope,  so  to  speak.    Ac- 


RUSSIA  III 

cording  to  the  school  of  sentimentalists,  who  uphold  this  form 
of  government,  the  Czar  is  mystically  commissioned  and  in- 
spired not  only  from  the  bosom  of  his  own  people,  but  even 
from  a  higher  source.  The  proclamations  from  the  throne  al- 
ways have  this  semi-religious  tone,  as  though  the  Autocrat  and 
Divinity  were  in  some  way  linked  together. 

Even  a  slight  consideration  of  the  subject  will  show  that  such 
a  government  in  reality  is  an  impossibility,  unless  the  sovereign 
should  be  gifted  with  the  omniscience  of  the  Almighty.  It 
would  be  a  physical  impossibility  for  one  man  to  decide  all  the 
details  of  government  over  the  Russian  Empire.  For  compari- 
son, consider  all  of  our  state  governments  wiped  out;  state 
governors,  who  were  merely  appointees  of  the  central  govern- 
ment; county  and  township  officials,  who  were  responsible  only 
to  the  head  government  and  not  representatives  of  the  people; 
eveiy  detail  over  our  entire  country  ruled  from  Washington  by 
a  single  executive.  And  yet  we  have  neither  so  many  people  nor 
so  many  problems  to  meet  as  Russia.  In  addition  to  the  primary 
acts  of  government,  not  a  single  charitable  institution  can  be 
founded,  a  business  corporation  formed,  a  school  established,  or 
a  bed  endowed  in  a  hospital,  without  the  solemnly  registered 
consent  of  the  Autocrat.  No  man,  even  though  he  might  be 
superhuman,  could  make  himself  even  superficially  acquainted 
with  more  than  a  small  fraction  of  the  acts  which  are  every  day 
done  in  the  name  of  the  Czar  of  all  the  Russias. 

Where  the  oversight  of  the  Autocrat  ceases,  the  power  of  the 
oligarchs,  the  men  who  have  been  able  to  captiiretHe  prestige  of 
the  AuBcrat,  begms^  and  thev  use  it  in  snchjyaWaXTtlPv^ 
necessary  or  desirable.  The  system  results  in  no  responsibility 
and  no  individual  competency.  It  strikes  where  it  would  not 
strike,  is  too  late  in  being  lenient,  and  never  forsees  what  is 
under  its  very  nose.  In  this  twentieth  century,  with  the  acces- 
sion of  immense  Asiatic  territories  and  their  many  complicated 
questions,  it  is  impossible  for  the  Autocrat  to  rule  even  as  did 
Peter  the  Great  in  his  time.  But  Peter  the  Great  himself  was 
an  unusual  man,  gifted  with  almost  superhuman  energy  and  en- 
durance, while  the  present  Czar,  Nicholas  II,  is,  according  to 
those  who  have  made  the  closest  study  of  modern  Russia,  the 
weakest  emperor  that  Russia  has  had  for  at  least  a  century.  "In 
Russia,"  says  a  writer,  "the  Emperor  is  often  officially  described 
as  the  'Supreme  Will/  but  what  is  to  happen  if  the  Supreme  Will 


112  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

ceases  to  will,  that  is,  disappears?  At  that  moment  Autocracy- 
disappears  too,  and  gives  place  to  wholesale  oligarchy." 

The  Russian  supporters  of  autocracy  would  say  that  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  various  functions  of  government  is  delegated  to 
special  departments,  whose  powers  are  rigorously  determined  by 
law.  One  less  in  love  with  the  government  would  sum  it  all  up 
in  the  one  word  Bureaucracy.  There  are  bureaus  for  this, 
bureaus  for  that,  and  bureaus  for  the  other.  The  bureaus  are 
grouped  under  departments.  At  the  head  of  each  of  the  bureaus 
is  a  chief,  and  at  the  head  of  each  department  is  a  Minister. 
Under  the  chiefs  are  subchiefs,  and  so  on  down  to  the  humblest 
clerk.  Everything  must  be  referred  to  an  upper  official;  that 
official  refers  it  to  the  one  next  higher;  this  official  passes  it  on 
to  his  bureau;  the  bureau  official  relieves  himself  by  submitting, 
it  to  the  department,  and  so  on.  It  is  little  wonder  that  every 
department  is  months  behind  with  its  work.  At  the  head  of  this 
system  there  is  generally  some  commanding  figure,  who  exer- 
cises the  real  power  of  government  through  his  ascendancy  over 
the  man  who,  by  the  accident  of  birth,  occupies  the  throne. 

With  a  man  who  is  himself  rather  weak  and  vacillating,  it  is 
much  more  easy  for  some  strong  personality  to  acquire  such  as- 
cendancy than  if  the  sovereign  himself  were  a  man  of  indomi- 
table will.  This  man — or  these  men — not  only  exercise  the 
ordinary  function  of  an  executive,  but  also  have  heretofore  done 
all  the  acts  which  are  ordinarily  left  to  a  legislative  assembly  by 
means  of  decrees  and  official  ukases.  The  Duma  has  as  yet  not 
greatly  changed  this  condition  of  affairs.  Through  their  con- 
trol of  the  Judiciary  they  also  practically  exercise  this  most  im- 
portant function  of  the  government,  which  should  dispense  jus- 
tice impartially  to  the  many  milHons  of  subjects.  Although  the 
Emperor  is  officially  regarded  as  its  head,  he  does  not  take  part 
in  judicial  decisions.  The  Senate,  however,  which  is  appointed 
and  can  be  removed  at  any  time  by  the  Autocrat,  is  now  the 
Supreme  Court.  It  is  divided  into  nine  sections,  of  which  two 
render  judgment  in  political  cases  and  charges  against  officials. 
Its  members  are  generally  men  of  rank  and  substance. 

At  the  head  of  the  Bureaucracy,  until  the  advent  of  the 
Duma,  stood  the  Council  of  the  Empire,  which  was  composed 
wholly  of  nominees  made  by  the  Emperor  and  his  Ministers. 
Some  of  the  members  are  now  elective.  The  initiative  in  all  leg- 
islation was  and  still  is  supposedly  left  to  the  Czar,  or  at  least 


ON  RUSSIA  113 

is  promulgated  in  his  name.  After  being  thus  launched,  these 
projects  are  supposed  to  be  studied  by  the  Ministry  interested, 
or  by  special  commission  appointed  for  this  purpose,  and  after- 
wards in  a  general  meeting.  After  this  formality  had  been  gone 
through  with,  under  the  old  order,  they  were  presented  to  the 
Emperor,  together  with  the  opinions  of  the  Council,  if  it  should 
be  divided  in  opinion,  and  it  was  at  this  point  that  the  strong 
will  of  the  master-mind  was  exercised.  The  decision  arrived  at 
became  the  law.  The  Emperor  might  ignore  the  opinions  of 
the  Council,  might  refuse  to  listen  to  any  suggestions,  and  pro- 
ceed to  legislate  independently.  Regardless  of  the  Duma,  and 
promises  made  to  the  people  for  it,  such  an  act  was  promulgated 
not  more  than  a  couple  of  years  ago.  There  are  a  number  of 
instances  since  the  meeting  of  the  first  Duma  in  1906. 

At  the  head  of  the  civil  administration  are  two  bodies.  One 
of  these,  the  Council  of  Ministers,  which  consists  of  all  the 
Ministers  and  any  person  whom  the  Czar  likes  to  call  to  his  aid, 
appears  only  occasionally.  The  Committee  of  Aiinisters,  a 
larger  body  with  wider  and  undefined  powers,  has  taken  its 
place.  The  Minister  of  the  Interior,  who  has  control  over  the 
police,  press  censorship,  provincial  governors,  and  the  Zemstva, 
and  the  Minister  of  Finance,  who  has  control  over  taxation,  the 
tariff,  and  the  liquor  monopoly,  together  with  the  Procurator  of 
the  Holy  Synod,  are  the  governing  chiefs.  The  other  ministers 
are  those  of  War,  Marine,  Justice,  Foreign  Affairs,  Agricul- 
ture, Commerce,  Ways  of  Communication,  Public  Instruction, 
the  Imperial  Household,  and  Imperial  Domains. 

In  local  affairs  there  are  two  important  centers  of  popular 
power — the  zemstva  and  the  mir.  In  the  central  government 
there  is  no  representative  of  the  people,  and  no  tie,  excepting 
that  which  would  bind  a  master  and  subject.  The  Autocrat  is  a 
law  unto  himself,  acknowledging  no  responsibility.  But  the  fact 
that  contradictory  decrees  have  appeared  in  recent  years,  one 
closely  following  the  other,  shows  that  either  his  own  mind  is 
very  unsettled  or  there  is  at  least  a  temporary  master  over  him. 
It  is  little  wonder  that  with  this  arbitrariness  and  vacillation, 
the  hatred  of  Bureaucracy  is  a  sentiment  that  is  rapidly  growing 
among  all  classes  of  Russians.  If  some  satisfactory  vent  is  not 
given  to  this  feeling,  or  the  Duma  made  a  freer  body,  the  same 
resentment  will  eventually  be  directed  against  the  throne.  The 
influence  of  the  Church,  and  the  natural  conservatism  of  the  ag- 


114  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

ricultural  peasants,  have  up  to  this  time  crushed  such  sentiment. 
The  laboring  classes  in  the  cities  are  not  so  conservative. 

The  central  government,  it  may  be  said,  is  an  unwieldy  body, 
with  a  hopeless  confusion  o£  functions.  .An  unfortunate  dualism 
of  control  and  overlapping  of  authority  likewise  limits  the  ef- 
ficiency in  many  instances.  The  most  noticeable  overlapping  is 
in  the  police  service.  The  local  police  are  under  the  control  of 
the  provincial  governor,  who  is  subject  to  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior.  The  political  police  receive  their  orders  direct  from  St. 
Petersburg.  The  political  police  have  the  authority  to  order  the 
local  police  to  help  them.  Hence  the  orders  of  the  governor  are 
inferior  to  those  of  the  political  police.  The  political  police 
themselves  are  divided  into  the  Defense  Section  and  the  gen- 
darmes, but  they  are  under  dual  control. 

Between  the  various  ministries  there  is  no  affection,  and  the 
officials  are  frequently  personal  enemies  as  well  as  rivals  for  the 
Imperial  favor.  The  most  noted  instance  in  recent  years  was 
during  the  incumbency  of  Witte  and  Plehve.  Both  of  these 
were  men  of  strong  will,  great  energy,  and  remarkable  ability. 
The  efficiency  of  each  was  lessened  by  the  antagonism  of  the 
other.  Add  to  the  faults  of  the  central  body  those  of  provincial 
administration,  and  the  complexity  increases.  In  most  countries 
local  government  is  self-government;  in  Russia,  it  is  the  field  of 
the  worst  tyranny. 

Along  administrative  lines  the  Empire  is  quite  artificially  di- 
vided into  many  governments;  these  are  subdivided  into  dis- 
tricts, which  are  again  parceled  out  into  "stations."  At  the  head 
of  each  of  the  governments  stands  a  governor,  who  acts  for  the 
central  government  in  general  by  promulgating  laws  and  making 
decisions  which  have  the  force  of  law  in  matters  of  public  de- 
cency and  safety.  He  also  represents  the  Ministry  of  the  In- 
terior, which  makes  him  practically  chief  of  police  of  the  prov- 
ince. It  is  a  powerful  position,  and  is  more  often  than  not  held 
by  a  soldier,  who  knows  little  about  civil  affairs,  and  is  used 
only  to  the  arbitrary  methods  of  the  army.  If  the  governor 
does  not  become  a  tyrant,  it  is  because  there  is  a  despotic  su- 
perior over  him. 

Each  Ministry  likewise  has  its  own  bureau  in  each  province, 
which  is  independent  of  the  governor,  and  these  still  further 
complicate  the  situation.  The  minor  districts  into  which  the 
government  is  divided  are  practically  ruled  by  police  colonels 


RUSSIA  115 

nominated  by  the  governor.  Each  official  is  an  autocrat  in  a 
way,  subject  only  to  the  autocrats  over  him.  The  "stations"  are 
each  under  the  control  of  a  police  captain.  These  men  receive 
small  salaries,  and  aim  to  recruit  their  finances  by  perquisites 
and  "tips"  of  many  kinds.  There  are  many  more  officials  than 
will  be  found  in  similar  offices  in  the  United  States  or  England. 
The  city  of  Moscow  has  a  Governor-General,  and  there  are  some 
other  local  variations  to  the  general  rule.  Absolute  autocracy 
might  be  expected  to  result  in  a  simple,  even  if  rigid,  form  of 
government ;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  Russia  it  is  one  of  the  most 
complicated  systems  of  government  to  be  found  anywhere. 

"There  are  thousands  of  laws  in  Russia,"  says  one  writer, 
"but  there  is  no  law.  The  country  is  cursed  with  over-legislation 
of  the  most  freakish  and  mischievous  kind,"  The  official  ukases 
of  the  Czar  and  other  officials,  which  have  the  force  of  law,  fill 
scores  of  volumes.  This  condition  would  probably  exist  even  if 
the  autocracy  was  little  less  than  divine,  as  it  is  in  theory,  be- 
cause the  Czars  themselves  differed  much  in  temperament. 
"Obedience  to  the  sovereign  power  of  the  Emperor,"  says  the 
Russian  code,  "is  commanded  by  God  himself,  not  only  by  fear, 
but  in  conscience." 

"What  does  religion  teach  us  as  our  duty  to  the  Czar  ?  "  is  a 
question  in  the  catechism  imposed  on  all  schools. 

"Worship,  fidelity,  the  payment  of  taxes,  service,  love,  and 
prayer;  the  whole  being  comprised  in  the  words  worship  and 
fidelity,"  is  the  prescribed  answer. 

Complete  freedom  of  religion  is  granted  by  the  same  code, 
but  should  a  non-Orthodox  church  admit  to  its  membership  an 
Orthodox  Russian,  it  would  not  only  submit  itself  to  reprisal, 
but  will  subject  the  Russian  himself  to  a  loss  of  all  civil  rights, 
and  even  imprisonment  or  exile.  A  recent  law  has  granted  a 
little  more  of  religious  freedom.  Permission  is  now  given  to 
erect  an  edifice  wherever  there  are  fifty  members  of  any  de- 
nomination. But  there  is  a  clause  forbidding  all  propaganda, 
and  this  clause  is  wide  and  vague.  Propaganda  is  not  defined, 
and  would  be  left  for  interpretation  to  local  authorities.  Laws 
governing  the  Press  fill  a  large  volume,  but  special  secret  cir- 
culars are  often  issued  covering  the  petty  details  of  journalism. 

For  a  considerable  period  prior  to  the  present  national  and 
international  troubles  the  matter  to  be  published  in  newspapers 
was  not  censored  before  publication,  but  the  owner  was  held  re- 


Ii6  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

sponsible  for  what  appeared.  If  the  proprietor  overstepped  the 
bounds,  he  was  punished  by  forbidding  the  publishing  of  adver- 
tisements for  a  period,  thus  taking  away  the  principal  revenue; 
by  prohibiting  the  public  sale  of  the  journal;  or  by  entirely  sus- 
pending his  publication  for  a  limited  period,  or  absolutely.  This 
method  does  not  always  prove  successful,  for  a  journal  sus- 
pended one  day  will  appear  a  day  or  two  later  under  another 
name,  and  oftentimes  in  a  still  more  virulent  tone.  The  gov- 
ernor in  any  province  can  issue  a  standing  order  forbidding  a 
newspaper  to  say  anything  abusive  of  the  government  or  publish 
any  false  news.  A  violation  will  bring  a  fine  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars.  The  decision  as  to  what  comes  under  these 
heads  lies  with  the  governor.  A  series  of  such  fines  will  soon 
ruin  the  average  newspaper.  One  can  justly  say  that  the  free- 
dom of  the  Press  is  still  only  comparative.  The  circulation  of 
written  or  printed  documents  calculated  to  create  a  disrespect 
for  the  Czar  are  subject  to  severe  penalties.  Any  disrespecting 
cartoon  or  slighting  statement  about  the  Czar  in  a  foreign  peri- 
odical will  be  blacked  out  before  it  is  forwarded  to  the  person  to 
whom  it  is  addressed. 

An  American  living  in  Russia  told  me  of  a  recent  experi- 
ence. A  certain  issue  of  Life  reached  him  with  a  paragraph 
blacked  so  that  it  could  not  be  made  out.  Curious  to  know  what 
it  was  that  aroused  the  ire  of  the  censor,  he  wrote  to  the  pub- 
lishers and  inclosed  the  page.  This  blacked  paragraph,  the  orig- 
inal article,  and  the  American's  letter  were  then  printed.  When 
this  copy  reached  the  subscriber  in  Russia,  the  whole  article,  ex- 
planation and  all,  had  been  treated  as  before.  The  original  ar- 
ticle was  simply  a  cartoon  and  harmless  joke  about  the  Czar. 

An  absolute  ignoring  Oif  the  rights  of  the  individual  is  a 
natural  development  of  such  a  bureaucracy.  They  seem  to  have 
transposed  the  common  axiom  of  a  democratic  government  to 
read  that  it  is  better  for  ten  innocent  men  to  suffer  than  one 
guilty  man  to  escape.  Conditions  have  not  changed  much  in 
spite  of  recent  official  ukases  guaranteeing  the  rights  of  in- 
dividual freedom.  On  May  i,  1912 — Labor  Day — all  men  with- 
out collars  were  chased  off  the  Nevski  Prospect  in  St.  Peters- 
burg on  to  the  side  streets,  in  order  to  prevent  a  demonstration 
of  working-men.  A  few  days  later,  while  memorial  serA'^ices 
were  being  held  in  one  of  the  cathedrals  of  that  city  for  the  vic- 
tims of  the  Titanic,  the  Cossacks,  four  abreast,  rode  down  the 


RUSSIA  117 

sidewalks  of  the  Nevski  with  their  terrible  whips  in  their  hands, 
in  an  effort  to  antevert  a  meeting  of  the  students  who  wanted  to 
hold  a  memorial  for  some  two  hundred  miners  recently  killed  in 
the  Ural  Mountains.  No  one  was  hurt,  as  they  got  out  of  the 
way.  This  whip,  called  the  nagaika,  is  heavy  and  solid,  and 
made  from  twisted  hide.  At  the  butt  is  a  loop  for  the  wrist. 
Near  the  end  is  a  jagged  lump  of  lead  firmly  tied  in  the  strands. 
When  a  Cossack  rises  in  his  stirrups  to  strike  he  can  break  a 
skull,  and  an  ordinary  blow  is  sufficient  to  slit  the  face  or  cripple 
for  life.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  people  run  when  they  hear  the 
cry  "The  Cossacks  are  coming." 

The  passport  system  has  not  been  modified.  When  in  Mos- 
cow, just  prior  to  the  Czar's  memorable  visit  in  June,  1912,  the 
police  made  a  house-to-house  search  for  persons  without  pass- 
ports, I  saw  squads  of  twenty  and  thirty  persons — men,  women, 
and  children — marched  through  the  streets  between  a  solid 
phalanx  of  soldiers — poor  peasants  without  these  important 
papers.  Most  of  them  had  come  to  the  city  in  search  of  employ- 
ment. Thousands  were  thus  placed  under  arrest — as  many  as 
three  thousand  in  one  night,  according  to  an  account  that  I  saw 
in  London  papers.  Most  of  them  were  sent  back  to  their  vil- 
lages, while  others  were  held  in  confinement  until  the  visit  had 
ended.  It  was  certainly  a  record  "round-up."  Cellars  and  at- 
tics were  searched;  the  attics  of  houses  along  the  hne  of  march 
were  locked  up,  for  fear  some  one  might  get  out  on  the  roof 
and  throw  a  bomb.  The  manager  of  one  large  establishment 
told  me  that  he  was  obliged  to  board  up  a  fire-escape  which  he 
had  built  for  the  protection  of  his  employees.  A  special  police 
officer  called  on  me  and  put  me  through  a  searching  category  of 
questions.  It  was  done  very  politely  and  considerately,  and 
even  apolegetically,  as  if  doing  an  unpleasant  duty;  and  every 
stranger  had  the  same  experience. 

"The  people  have  as  good  a  government  as  they  deserve," 
said  several  foreigners  to  me.  I  cannot  believe  it  in  the  face  of 
the  facts  set  forth  here. 

It  is  little  wonder  that  in  such  a  government  official  venality 
is  not  only  a  very  ancient  but  a  present  evil  in  the  Empire  of  the 
Czar.  It  is  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  officials  are  above  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  ordinary  courts,  and  are  only  open  to  prosecu- 
tion by  their  superiors.  As  these  officials  may  be  guilty  of  the 
same  offense,  how  can  they  be  expected    to  take  the  initiative 


ii8  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

against  the  minor  official?  The  Crimean  War  opened  the  eyes 
of  Alexander  II  to  the  corruption  which  had  pervaded  every  de- 
partment of  the  government.  That  sovereign  began  the  seem- 
ingly impossible  task  of  cleaning  his  Augean  stables.  Much  re- 
form was  undoubtedly  accomplished.  The  war  with  Turkey,  a 
little  more  than  twenty  years  later,  showed  that  the  same  abom- 
inable conditions  had  grown  up  right  under  the  eyes  of  that  as- 
tute monarch.     Officialdom  was  reeking  with  depravity. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  later  another  great  awakening  came 
to  Russia  with  the  opening  of  the  Russo-Japanese  war.  Like  a 
deadly  virus,  corruption  had  spread  throughout  the  entire  politi- 
cal anatomy  of  the  nation.  The  scandals  in  connection  with  the 
incompetency  of  the  navy  have  been  set  forth  by  many  writers. 
Some  of  the  armor  plate  on  vessels  built  in  Russian  ship-yards 
was  made  of  wood  instead  of  steel,  an  English  authority  states. 
Externally  the  fabric  of  Russian  military  and  naval  power  was 
more  imposing  than  it  had  ever  been.  The  nominal  expenditure 
had  been  increasing  at  the  rate  of  fifty  million  dollars  each  year. 
The  bugaboo  of  a  powerful  Russian  navy  and  a  nation  with  a 
million  soldiers  under  arms  had  been  frightening  many  govern- 
ments prior  to  that  time.  The  menacing  shadow  of  the  Russian 
bear  had  caused  many  a  European  monarch  to  shudder.  But 
the  corruption  reached  down  to  the  very  lowest  officials. 

The  ordinary  police  are  notably  inefficient.  "Every  police- 
man," said  more  than  one  foreigner  to  me  in  Russia,  "has  his 
price."  Their  method  was  explained  to  me  by  one  fellow-coun- 
tryman, who  represents  large  American  interests.  The  offices 
of  the  company  were  robbed  one  night,  and  the  police  were 
promptly  notified.  Everything  was  left  in  the  disorder  in  which 
it  was  found  for  their  inspection.  No  policeman  appeared  for 
two  hours  pr  more,  and  then  they  came  in  droves.  The  first 
question  the  officers  asked  was,  how  much  loss  had  occurred. 
This  the  manager  told  them  he  was  unable  to  say  until  he  bal- 
anced the  books.  The  poHce  then  began  to  look  through  every 
paper  and  envelope  that  they  could  find,  opening  up  those  which 
were  sealed  and  scattering  the  contents  about.  When  protest 
was  made  at  this  useless  annoyance,  they  said  that  the  matter 
was  now  in  their  hands  and  they  would  make  investigations  in 
their  own  way.  Other  droves  of  police  continued  to  come  in, 
and  it  was  several  hours  before  they  left  to  endeavor  to  find  the 
robbers.    The  matter  was  never  heard  of  again  officially  until 


RUSSIA  119 

protest  was  made  through  diplomatic  channels,  and  then  only  an 
assurance  that  a  proper  investigation  would  be  made. 

The  Russian  officials  are  usually  pleasant  gentlemen.  There 
is  generally  an  air  of  indolence  and  indifference  present  in  the 
office.  There  are  many  people  about,  smoking  cigarettes  and 
sipping  at  their  tea.  While  this  is  being  done,  there  may  be  a 
crowd  awaiting  their  attention  or  that  of  the  chief.  It  takes 
about  three  men  to  do  the  work  of  one.  Each  one  waits  for 
orders  from  some  one  else ;  if  orders  do  not  come,  it  is  safest  to 
do  nothing.  Initiative  will  likely  be  punished.  Each  one  feels 
that  he  is  only  bound  to  loyalty  to  his  chief.  In  the  government 
itself  he  has  no  part.  If  he  is  ambitious,  obsequiousness  is  an 
excellent  quality.  But  salaries  are  small,  money  is  necessary, 
and  opportunities  for  making  money  out  of  his  office  open  up. 
The  official  is  only  human.  Were  local  self-government  estab- 
lished, there  would  undoubtedly  be  less  corruption,  for  there 
would  be  responsible  officials  near  at  hand.  The  bureaus  in  St. 
Petersburg  would  not  have  to  be  consulted.  The  bureaus  and 
ministries  would  not  only  be  freed  of  much  detail  and  annoy- 
ance, but  blame  would  not  be  placed  on  them  for  every  fault  or 
neglect  of  a  lower  official. 


INSIDE  RUSSIA* 

I  had  heard  that  all  petty  officials  would  hold  out  their  palms ; 
I  traveled  about  Russia  and  was  impressed  by  the  fact  that,  with 
the  pleasant  smile  of  those  who  regard  the  foreigner  as  a  guest, 
my  offers,  almost  without  exception,  were  refused  by  policemen, 
gendarmes,  customs'  examiners,  and  soldiers.  I  bought  a  rail- 
road ticket  and,  wishing  to  resell  it,  I  called  one  of  the  aged 
messenger  "boys."  I  offered  to  give  him  all  above  20  rubles 
which  he  could  get  for  the  ticket.  He  came  back  with  30  rubles, 
but  would  not  take  10  of  them.  The  old  man  stood  before  me 
with  his  gray  head  bowed.  The  interpreter  said:  "He  wishes 
you  to  know  that  2  rubles  suffices — more  would  be  disproportion- 
ate to  the  service  rendered  and  unfair  to  your  generosity." 

There  is  more  of  the  heart  than  the  pocketbook  in  the  smiles 
of  the  Russian  masses. 

»By  R.  W.  Child.    Collier's.  57:10-11-}-  April  8,   1916. 
10 


120  SELECTED  ARTICLES 


RUSSIAN  MUNICIPAL  ENTERPRISES^ 

Municipal  enterprises  in  Russia  embrace  a  large  variety  of 
business.  Russian  towns  undertake  the  direct  management  of 
water-works,  sewerage,  lighting,  slaughter-houses,  scavenging, 
dispensaries  and  baths,  the  manufacture  of  bricks,  stone  quarries, 
butchers'  and  bakers'  shops,  pawnshops,  flour  mills,  the  building 
of  country  roads,  warehouses  for  wood,  oil,  fuel  and  coal,  print- 
ing offices,  cheap  restaurants,  dairies  and  night  shelters.  There 
are  municipal  banks  in  285  towns. 

The  Russian  laws  encourage  rather  than  impede  towns  from 
undertaking  municipal  enterprises,  first,  because  of  the  absence 
of  sufficient  private  capital  and  enterprise;  and,  second,  because 
of  the  necessity  for  revenue  which  the  towns  cannot  otherwise 
obtain  owing  to  the  restrictions  on  their  powers  of  taxation.  The 
charge  for  these  municipal  enterprises  is  generally  a  large  one. 
The  price  of  water  ranges  from  5  to  10  cents  per  100  gallons; 
electric  lighting  from  14  to  18  cents  per  kilowatt ;  municipal  pawn- 
shops levy  from  18  to  24  per  cent  on  loans.  The  net  profits  de- 
rived from  the  municipal  pawnshops  for  191 1  amounted  to 
$230,000,  although  their  nominal  capital  was  $5,350,000. 


ABOLITION  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  MIR' 

Communal  land-tenure,  which  has  played  such  an  immense 
part  in  the  history  of  Russia,  and  has  left  a  deep  mark  on  the 
character  of  the  Russian  people,  has  been  for  the  last  half-cen- 
tury the  subject  of  an  acute  controversy  between  its  adherents 
and  its  adversaries  in  Russian  literature,  ^ut  it  is  especially 
since  the  promulgation  of  the  edict  of  November  9-22,  1906,  by 
means  of  which  the  Prime  Minister,  M.  Stolypin,  intended  to 
abolish  the  mir,  that  the  vast  and  complicated  problem  of  com- 
munal land-tenure  has  aroused  a  particular  interest  all  over 
Russi»C  The  late  Premier  attached  great  importance  to  this 
edict;  he  used  to  say  that  under  its  influence  Russia  would  be 
entirely  changed  in  twenty  years,  and  that  the  working  of  this 
law  could  not  be  stopped  "even  with  cannon  shots. 'V^ 

1  American  City.   10:163.  February,  1914. 

2  By    Boris    Lebedeff.    Contemporary   Review.    103:81-91.  January,    1913. 


RUSSIA  121 

Whether  this  prophecy  will  prove  to  be  correct  or  not,  we 
cannot  yet  say;  but  we  must  admit  that  since  the  abolition  of 
serfdom  in  1861,  no  legislative  act  more  daring  and  revolutionary 
has  been  carried  out  in  Russia.  And  yet  a  measure  of  such  im- 
portance was  passed  first  in  a  purely  bureaucratic  way,  without 
obtaining  the  sanction  of  the  Duma,  and  became  a  proper  law, 
accepted  by  the  Duma,  only  four  years  later,  on  July  14-27,  1910. 

We  will  not  discuss  here  the  controversial  points  about  the 
advantages  and  the  drawbacks  of  the  communal  system.  To  en- 
deavour to  give  a  true  picture  of  what  has  been  occurring  lately 
in  Russia  in  connection  with  the  new  law  will  be  the  object  of 
this  article. 

V^Before  the  revolutionary  movement  of  1905-1906  the  Russian 
government  regarded  the  mir  with  entirely  different  eyes,  and 
considered  it  as  the  corner-stone  of  the  whole  political  and 
economical  fabric  in  Russia.'^It  was  recognized  to  be  an  his- 
torical institution,  characteristic  of  the  Russian  nation,  any  alter- 
ation of  which  it  would  be  dangerous  even  to  attemptl^  Only 
the  reactionaries,  like  M.  Katkoff,  held  a  different  view,  saying 
that  the  communal  land-tenure  hindered  the  peasant  masses 
from  differentiating  into  a  richer  class  and  the  proletariat,  and 
thus  blocked  the  way  for  the  development  of  a  large  industry  in 
Russia — curiously  enough  the  same  view  was  taken  later  on  by 
the  Russian  Social  Democrats.  Besides,  apart  from  its  his- 
torical value,  the  mir  was  a  valuable  asset  for  the  government 
from  the  financial  point  of  view.  It  is  known  that  when  the 
serfs  were  liberated  in  Russia  they  were  granted  land,  for  which 
they  had  to  pay  to  the  State  during  forty-nine  years  about 
£9,000,000  per  annum.  UThe  village  commune,  with  the  "joint 
responsibility"  of  all  its  members,  was  considered  then  to  be  the 
surest  means  for  collecting  this  money,  as  well  as  the  rates  and 
taxes,  from  the  peasants.  It  was  also  the  most  convenient  way 
of  keeping  them  together  as  a  separate  class.  *» 

When,  in  the  'nineties,  the  government  intended  to  enact  some 
reforms  in  the  peasant  laws,  the  Minister  of  the  Imperial  House- 
hold, Vorontzoff-Dashkoff,  advised  against  touching  the  com- 
mune. "Before  the  liberation,"  he  said,  "the  peasants  believed 
in  God,  the  Tsar,  and  the  landlord;  now  they  have  instead  of 
the  latter,  the  'mir.' "  Individual  peasants  were,  however,  per- 
mitted to  leave  the  commune,  if  they  could  pay  at  once  all  the 
money  they  owed  to  the  Exchequer  for  their  allotments.    This 


122  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

was  by  no  means  an  easy  thing  to  do,  and,  in  fact,  few  of  them 
availed  themselves  of  this  right. 

The  government  was  nevertheless  disturbed  by  the  small  but 
steadily  growing  exodus  from  the  commune,  and  by  the  transfer 
of  the  outgoers'  allotments  to  speculators.  Consequently,  in  1893, 
the  Minister  of  the  Interior  brought  before  the  Imperial  Coun- 
cil of  the  Empire  a  bill  by  which  peasants  were  forbidden  in- 
dividually to  redeem  their  lands  and  to  leave  the  commune  with- 
out its  consent.  Defending  the  bill  in  his  report  to  the  Council, 
the  Minister  said  that  the  mir  was  growing  weak,  and  that  the 
process  of  proletarisation  was  threatening  the  great  masses  of  the 
people.  He  pointed  out  that  strong  measures  were  urgently 
needed  for  protecting  the  commune,  which  was  a  most  valuable 
asset  in  the  hands  of  the  government.  The  bill  became  law  in 
the  same  year,  1893. 

At  that  time  the  government  considered  it  their  duty  to  stand 
by  the  commune  and  to  prevent  its  weakest  members  from  be- 
coming paupers.  The  general  policy  of  Alexander  III,  though 
strictly  conservative,  was  in  some  respects  intended  to  be  favour- 
able to  the  peasants.  The  Emperor  liked  to  call  himself  a  "Peas- 
ant Tsar,"  and  insisted  that  it  was  necessary  to  keep  up  the  eco- 
nomic welfare  of  the  peasant  class,  and  to  check  the  growth  of 
the  proletarian  class.  During  his  reign  the  capitation  tax  was 
abolished,  the  redemption  payments  were  reduced,  and  the  ex- 
cise on  salt  was  diminished;  while  at  the  same  time  political  re- 
action was  in  full  swing,  and  special  "land  captains"  (zemsky 
nachalnik)  were  introduced  with  a  view  of  putting  the  peasants 
under  the  strong  hand  of  the  local  administration. 

In  1906  the  Government  suddenly  took  a  diametrically  opposed 
view.  It  decided  to  protect  the  richer  peasants^he  "stronger 
elements,"  as  M.  Stolypin  said  in  the  Duma,  by  attacking  the 
commune  and  by  bringing  administrative  pressure  to  bear  on  it 
for  the  purpose  of  destroying  it.  This  was  the  means  by  which 
the  government  tried  now  to  solve  the  great  agrarian  problem, 
and  to  calm  the  uproarious  waves  of  the  peasant  riots  of  1904- 
1905.  The  position  of  affairs  requiring  rapid  measures,  the  gov- 
ernment abolished,  on  March  12-25,  1903,  the  "joint  responsibility" 
of  the  members  of  the  commune.  Then,  on  August  11-24,  1904, 
corporal  punishment  was  wiped  out  at  last  from  the  Russian, law; 
and  on  November  3-16,  1905,  when  the  Constitution  had  already 


RUSSIA  123 

been  granted,  the  government  freed  the  peasants  from  the  pay- 
ment of  what  remained  still  unpaid  of  the  redemption  money  for 
their  allotments.  However,  these  measures  came  too  late  and 
they  proved  to  be  insufficient,  the  chief  reason  of  discontent 
amongst  the  peasants  being  the  smallness  of  their  allotments. 
wn  The  Statistics  of  Landownership  in  1905,  published  officially 
by  the  Central  Statistical  Committee,  we  find  that,  in  the  fifty 
provinces  of  European  Russia  there  were  1,067  million  acres  of 
land,  out  of  which  40  per  cent  were  owned  by  the  State,  the 
Church,  and  other  institutions,  35  per  cent  bv  the  peasant  com- 
munes, and  25  per  cent  by  private  persons.^  The  population  of 
these  fifty  provinces  was  at  that  time  109,331,600  out  of  which 
77  per  cent  were  peasants,  and  1.5  per  cent  belonged  to  the  landed 
gentry^  Each  peasant  household  thus  owned  on  the  average 
about  27.5  acres  of  land,  but  at  the  same  time  there  were  about 
2,200,000  peasant  households,  which  had  no  land  at  all,  and 
2,900,000  which  owned  only  13.5  acres  each.  Altogether  about 
7,849,000  peasant  households  had  an  insufficient  quantity  of  land 
in  their  possession,  and,  as  was  stated  in  the  Second  Duma,  the 
peasants  ought  to  have  had  140  million  acres  more  than  they 
possessed  at  that  time,  to  enable  them  to  live  on  that  land  with 
their  families.  V 

There  were  two  ways  out  of  the  difficulty.  One  of  them  was, 
to  increase  the  area  of  land  owned  by  the  peasants,  by  aiding 
them  to  buy  it  from  the  landlords,  or  by  selling  or  granting  them 
allotments  from  the  large  domains  of  the  State  and  the  Crown. 
And  the  other  was,  to  come  to  the  aid  of  the  peasants  in  ren- 
dering their  agriculture  more  intensive,  so  that  they  should  ob- 
tain more  produce  from  the  same  surface  of  land. 

M.  Stolypin's  Government  endeavoured  at  first — and  quite 
rightly— to  act  in  both  these  ways;  but  unfortunately  the  im- 
provement of  agricultural  technique  was  not  understood  as  a 
change  in  the  methods  of  tilling  the  land,  but  chiefly  as  a  change 
in  the  forms  of  landownership:  communal  land-tenure  was  con- 
demned, and  individual  ownership  had  to  take  its  place.  The 
economical  aspect  of  the  problem  was  thus  eliminated,  and  its 
political  aspect  was  pushed  to  the  fore.  The  government  de- 
cided to  create  amongst  the  peasants  a  new  class  of  conservative 
and  economically  strong  individual  proprietors,  in  order  to  check 
the    SociaHstic   "tendencies   of  the   mir,"   which   were  held   re- 


124  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

sponsible  for  the  attitude  of  the  peasants'  representatives  in  the 
First  and  Second  Dumas. 

In  a  speech  deHvered  in  the  Second  Duma,  M.  Stolypin 
positively  said  "it  is  necessary  to  give  to  all  those  peasants  who 
have  not  enough  the  chance  of  getting  the  quantity  of  land  they 
require,  on  good  terms,  from  the  existing  Land  Fund."  Such 
was  the  intention  of  the  Government  at  that  time.  Accordingly, 
the  Peasant  Land  Bank  was  to  help  the  poorer  peasants  by  buy- 
ing land  from  the  landowners,  and  selling  it  to  the  peasants.  By 
the  Decrees  of  August  12th  and  28th,  1906,  about  21,600,000  acres 
of  State  and  Crown  lands  were  ordered  to  be  transferred  to  the 
Bank  for  the  same  purpose.  But,  de  facto,  this  was  never  done. 
A  much  smaller  quantity  of  land  was  transferred  to  the  Bank, 
and  out  of  it  only  856,000  acres  were  actually  sold  to  the  peasants. 

As  regards  the  promised  facilities  for  buying  private  land,  the 
Bank  had  in  1905  in  its  possession  about  4,050,000  acres  of  land 
already  bought  from  the  landowners,  and  at  the  same  time  about 
22,410,000  acres  were  offered  for  sale  to  the  Bank  by  the  land- 
owners. But  while  the  peasants,  hard  pressed  by  the  land  famine, 
were  quite  willing  to  buy  as  much  land  as  possible,  the  Bank,  on 
the  contrary,  steadily  reduced  its  operations  of  acquiring  land 
from  the  gentry:  the  more  the  peasants  wanted  to  buy,  the  less 
the  Bank  was  disposed  to  provide  land  from  its  own  funds. 
Besides,  the  Peasant  Land  Bank,  after  having  begun  by  favouring 
transactions  with  the  village  communes,  changed  its  policy,  and, 
after  1907,  began  to  deal  by  preference  with  individual  buyers. 

What  was  the  reason  of  it  all?  It  appears  that  when  the 
peasant  riots  of  the  years  1904-1906  were  suppressed,  the  govern- 
ment decided  to  give  up  the  first  item  of  their  agrarian  pro- 
gramme, which  was  to  increase  the  quantity  of  land  owned  by  the 
peasants ;  they  concentrated  their  attention  upon  the  second  item, 
namely,  the  attack  on  the  commune  and  the  creation  of  individual 
peasant-ownership. 

In  the  official  Survey  of  the  Activity  of  the  District  Land 
Commissions,  published  in  1910,  we  find  that  it  was  decided  to 
continue  "the  liquidation  of  the  State  Land  Funds  only  in  those 
cases  where  the  organisation  of  strong  peasant  households  may 
be  expected."  And  in  1910  MM.  Stolypin  and  Krivosheyin,  the 
Minister  of  Agriculture,  after  their  joint  journey  through  Siberia, 
reported  to  the  Tsar  that  "at  present  the  principal  aim  of  the 
agrarian  policy  must  be — not  to  increase  the  quantity  of  land 


RUSSIA  125 

already  in  possession  of  the  peasants,  but  to  introduce  order  in 
the  peasant  households."  The  chief  obstacle  to  the  "introduc- 
tion of  order"  was  found  in  the  system  of  communal  land-tenure, 
and  it  had  to  go. 

While  protecting  in  this  way  the  interests  of  the  richer  peas- 
ants, who  were  to  become  individual  landowners — what  was  the 
government  going  to  do  with  the  poorest  elements  of  the  commune, 
with  the  landless  proletarians,  whose  increasing  ranks  grew 
threatening,  as  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  said  in  1893?  It  was 
decided  that  they  were  to  emigrate  to  Siberia  and  to  colonize  her 
vast  and  limitless  spaces. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  organisation  of  emigration  on  a 
vast  scale  required  from  the  administration  a  very  great  amount 
of  work,  energy,  and  foresight;  otherwise  the  whole  enterprise 
could  only  end  in  a  useless  waste  of  time,  effort,  and  money.  Such 
was  really  the  case,  as  now  appears  from  recent  reports,  with  the 
emigration  to  Siberia.  The  latest  statistics  show  that  the  number 
of  emigrants  to  Siberia  is  rapidly  decreasing.  There  are  now 
far  fewer  than  there  were  in  1908,  and — what  is  still  worse — more 
than  one-half  of  last  year's  emigrants  have  already  returned, 
not  having  found  suitable  land  in  Siberia  to  settle  upon;  and 
this — after  having  lost  their  homes  and  lands  in  Russia,  and  spent 
all  the  money  they  had. 

But  perhaps  the  government  have  succeeded  better  in  their 
policy  of  abolishing  communal  land-holding?  Five  years  have 
already  passed  since  the  first  promulgation  of  the  new  law  passed 
to  this  effect,  and  it  is  interesting  to  see  how  it  works,  and  how 
far  the  abolition  of  the  mir  has  gone. 

Briefly  stated,  the  substance  of  the  new  law  is  this.  It  does 
not  really  abolish  communal  ownership  in  Russia,  but  it  grants 
great  facilities  to  those  members  of  the  mir  who  prefer  personal 
ownership  to  communal  landholding,  and  who  may  desire  to 
become  individual  proprietors.  To  begin  with,  in  those  com- 
munes where  no  general  repartition  of  land-allotments  had  taken 
place  since  the  abolition  of  serfdom  in  1861,  the  land  was  de- 
clared to  be  considered  henceforth  as  held  in  individual  owner- 
ship. Accordingly,  every  member  of  such  a  commune  acquired 
the  right  to  claim  at  any  time  the  recognition  of  his  rights  of  in- 
dividual ownership  upon  his  share  of  what  formerly  was  com- 
munal land.  He  could  sell  it  either  to  his  co-villagers  or  to 
strangers,  who  thus  acquired  rights  on  those  common  meadows 


126  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

and  pasture  grounds  which  remained  undivided.  As  to  those 
communes  where  a  general  repartition  of  land  had  taken  place 
since  the  abolition  of  serfdom,  communal  land-tenure  continued 
to  be  recognised  by  the  State  as  such;  but  every  member  of 
the  mir  also  could  claim  his  portion  of  the  communal  land 
as  personal  property.  The  mir  in  this  case  had  to  satisfy  the 
claim,  even  if  it  were  against  the  will  of  the  majority  of  its  mem- 
bers. Otherwise,  the  case  would  be  taken  in  hand  by  the  "land 
captain,"  who  would  invariably  decide  it  in  favour  of  the  mem- 
ber desirous  to  quit  the  mir.  Active  measures  were  taken,  and 
quite  a  staff  of  land-surveyors  and  "assistant  land-surveyors" 
was  created,  in  order  to  quicken  the  procedure,  as  the  govern- 
ment thought  that  their  ordinary  forces  would  not  be  sufficient 
to  cope  with  the  great  exodus  from  the  communes  which  they 
expected. 

The  peasants,  as  is  typical  of  them,  took  the  new  law  in  a 
quiet,  good-humoured  way,  but  they  showed  no  disposition  to 
break  up  the  mir.  In  many  cases  the  communes  refused  to  give 
their  consent  to  the  separation;  but  they  soon  understood  that 
they  were  helpless  against  the  "outgoers,"  who  had  on  their  side 
the  services  of  the  land-captains  and  of  the  whole  administration. 
Gradually,  the  number  of  those  who  wished  to  leave  the  mir  be- 
gan to  increase.  Of  course,  there  were  many  peasants  who  had 
long  since  severed  all  connection  with  the  village,  and  had  taken 
up  some  occupation  in  the  town  or  elsewhere.  These  people  at 
once  availed  themselves  of  the  new  law ;  they  received  their  par- 
cels of  land  as  personal  holdings  and  immediately  sold  them, 
either  to  their  co-villagers  or  to  land-speculators.  But  that  was 
not  the  real  object  of  the  law,  which  was  intended,  not  to  elimi- 
nate those  elements  of  the  commune  which  were  already  dying 
off,  but  to  create  a  new,  healthy  life  in  the  villages. 

In  many  official  documents,  like  The  Land  Settlement,  1907  to 
1910,  published  by  the  Chief  Board  of  Agriculture,  "A  Survey  of 
the  Activity  of  the  District  Land-Commissions,"  and  others,  as 
also  in  many  articles  recently  published  in  the  Russian  reviews 
and  magazines,  we  find  interesting  data  which  show  the  real 
position  of  affairs  in  the  Russian  villages  under  the  new  law. 
Thus  from  the  table  given  in  the  foot-note  we  can  see  that  up  to 
June  1st,  191 1,  nearly  one-fourth  part  (23  per  cent)  of  all  the 
heads  of  communal  households  in  Russia  (2,160,867)  had  notified 
their  desire  of  leaving  their  respective  communes;  but  of  them, 


RUSSIA  127 

only  1,531,620,  i.e.,  16  per  cent  had  adopted  as  personal  property 
the  land  they  owned  in  the  commune. 

It  appears  at  first  sight  as  if  communal  land-tenure  in  Russia 
had  sustained  a  great  blow  and  was  falling  to  pieces.  But  a 
more  careful  analysis  of  the  facts  brings  us  to  an  entirely 
different  conclusion^It  may  not  be  known  to  English  readers 
that  in  communal  land-tenure  each  householder  owns  several 
parcels  of  land  in  different  places,  so  that  there  may  be  a  fair 
distribution  of  land  of  different  qualities  between  all  the  house- 
holds. All  arable  land  is  usually  divided,  in  consideration  of  its 
quality  and  its  distance  from  the  village,  into  three  categories — 
good,  medium,  and  indifferent — and  each  sort  of  land  is  divided 
in  its  turn  into  the  usual  three  "fields"  allotted  to  winter  crops, 
spring  crops,  and  fallow  respectively,  each  member  of  the  com- 
mune having  his  strips  in  each  sort  of  land.  This  sub-division 
evidently  offers  great  inconveniences  for  the  peasants,  and  it  is 
used  as  the  chief  argument  against  the  commune,  although  the 
same  scattering  of  plots  exists  in  an  equal  degree  in  villages  under 
a  system  of  individual  ownership  of  land.  It  is  the  result  not 
of  the  commune  as  such,  but  of  the  fact  that  peasants  live  to- 
gether in  compact  villages,  and  not  in  separated  farms ;  but 
under  communal  ownership  there  is  also  this  important  compen- 
sation, that  the  fields  become  a  common  pasture-ground  for  the 
peasants'  cattle,  as  soon  as  the  crops  have  been  harvested.  With 
the  usual  want  of  meadows,  this  is  one  of  the  advantages  of 
communal  land-tenure.  However,  when  the  land  that  formerly 
belonged  to  some  members  of  the  commune  has  passed  into  their 
individual  ownership,  the  narrow  strips  scattered  in  the  different 
"fields,"  being  unfenced,  evidently  represent  an  immense  draw- 
back, and  become  a  source  of  continual  conflicts  with  the  neigh- 
bours wh^  quite  naturally  look  askance  at  those  who  have  left 
the  mir. 

The  Chief  Board  of  Agriculture  are  thus  quite  right  in  saying 
that  the  mere  fact  of  receiving  separate  plots  of  land  as  personal 
holdings  "does  not  guarantee  the  economical  independence  of 
the  peasant;  the  liberation  of  the  peasant's  work  from  the  com- 
mune can  be  reached  only  through  his  receiving  his  plots  of 
land  in  one  block  in  one  place."  The  plain  fact  of  leaving  the 
mir  certainly  does  not  yet  mean  the  constitution  of  an  independ- 
ent individual  ownership. 

The  whole  process  of  leaving  the  commune,  therefore,  con- 


snt  i 
V/T 


128  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

sists  of  four  different  stages:  (i)  the  notification  of  the  desire 
to  leave  the  mir,  made  to  the  village  community;  (2)  the  sanc- 
tion of  this  desire  by  the  authorities,  and  the  consequent  transfer 
of  the  parcels  of  land  into  personal  holdings;  (3)  a  petition  to 
the  Land  Commission  about  getting  the  separated  parcels  of  land 
in  one  block  in  one  place;  and  (4)  the  actual  receiving  of 
that  block  of  land.^And  unless  these  four  stages  are  gone 
through,  no  peasant,  who  is  anxious  to  get  rid  of  the  commune, 
can  be  really  considered  as  a  free,  independent  landowner.  But 
up  till  January  ist,  191 1,  the  number  of  peasants  who  applied  to 
the  Land  Commissions  for  the  necessary  redistribution  of  land 
was  only  729,603,  or  8  per  cent  of  all  the  communal  householders 
in  European  Russia,  and  the  number  of  those  who  actually  re- 
ceived their  lands  in  one  block  was  only  319,148,  or  2.6  per  cent 
of  the  whole. 

We  cannot  say  that  this  means  much,  when  we  remember  the 
extraordinary  energy  with  which  the  agents  of  the  government 
worked  to  obtain  the  coveted  results,  and  what  pressure  was 
brought  upon  the  village  communities  in  order  to  make  the  peas- 
ants leave  the  mir.  Besides,  it  must  be  noted  that  even  the 
numbers  of  peasants  who  merely  declare  their  desire  of  quitting 
the  commune,  without  going  through  the  further  stages,  is 
steadily  decreasing,  ^n  1908  it  was  840,059,  while  in  the  first 
five  months  of  191 1  it  was  only  114,447.  It  means  that  after  the 
first  moments  of  passivity  and  fear,  the  peasants  are  now  begin- 
ning to  resist  the  law  more  energetically;  at  any  rate,  they  are 
in  no  hurry  to  free  themselves  from  the  "communal  yoke,"  as 
was  predictedv 

At  the  risk  of  wearying  the  reader  with  statistical  quotations, 
I  will  permit  myself  to  give  a  few  more  characteristic  figures 
concerning  twenty-two  provinces  of  European  Russia,  where 
nearly  96  per  cent  of  all  the  peasants  live  under  communal  land- 
tenure.  These  provinces  represent  the  real  stronghold  of  com- 
munal life  in  Russia,  and  it  is  most  interesting  to  learn  that  in 
this  vast  region,  which  is  typical  of  Russia,  and  includes  Great 
Russia  proper,  the  percentage  of  those  peasants  who  have  made 
the  first  non-committal  step  towards  leaving  the  commune  is  even 
smaller  than  for  all  Russia.  It  is  only  16.7  per  cent,  as  against 
23  per  cent,  of  all  the  households ;  and  the  number  of  thosp  who 
have  actually  left  the  mir  is  even  less  than  2  per  cent !  It  means 
that  in  the  twenty-two  provinces,  where  the  commune  prevails, 


RUSSIA  129 

hardly  two  households  in  each  hundred  have  become  individual 
owners,  after  four  years  of  continual  pressure  exercised  by  the 
government. 

Of  course,  the  position  is  different  in  those  places  where  the 
commune  was  weak  before  the  new  law  was  passed.  Such  was 
the  case  in  those  Western  provinces  which  had  for  a  long  time 
been  under  Polish  rule  or  influence.  Taking,  for  instance,  the 
province  of  Kieff,  we  see  that  already  before  1907,  91  per  cent  of 
the  peasants  were  holding  their  lands  in  individual  ownership, 
and  only  9  per  cent  lived  under  communal  ownership.  In  this 
province  about  one-half  of  the  communal  householders  left 
the  mir  after  the  promulgation  of  the  new  law,  but  this  has 
not  materially  affected  the  state  of  affairs  which  existed  there 
before. 

Urhus  we  see  that  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  the  government, 
and  contrary  to  the  expectations  of  the  Russian  Social  Demo- 
crats, the  Russian  mir  still  exists,  and  shows  no  symptoms  of 
decay.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  now  all  ever  Russia  a  new  and 
strong  life  developing  within  the  communes :  their  members 
have  been  aroused  to  activity  by  the  new  law  which  threatened 
to  break  up  their  partnership,  and  they  are  beginning  to  practise 
more  rational  methods  of  agriculture,  grass-sowing,  the  four- 
fields  system,  improved  implements,  and  so  on.  They  are  also 
endeavouring  to  get  rid  of  the  usual  defects  of  communal  land- 
tenure,  especially  of  that  of  having  separate  holdings  situated 
in  different  places,  far  from  their  villages.  For  this  purpose  the 
so-called  "group  system"  is  now  introduced — that  is,  the  large 
communes,  and  especially  the  "compound  communes,"  consisting 
of  several  villages,  divide  into  independent  groups,  in  order  to 
avoid  the  wide  scattering  of  their  strips.  V^ 

It  appears,  however,  from  the  official  figures  that,  although 
the  Land  Commissions  were  more  frequently  asked  by  the  peas- 
ants to  help  the  "group-land-settling,"  than  to  help  the  "outgoing" 
movement,  they  did  the  opposite  and  endeavoured  to  keep  in 
check  this  new  and  natural  development  of  communal  life. 

Another  important  feature  of  the  new  law  was  that  the  Land 
Commissions  were  given  the  right  to  grant  aids  in  money  to  those 
peasants  who  had  left  the  commune  and  intended  to  settle  on 
separate  farms.  In  virtue  of  this  right  the  Commissions  dis- 
tributed, during  the  years  1907-1909,  £450,000  in  loans  between 
56,000  householders  (about  £8  per  head),  and   £32,000  as  free 


130  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

grants  to  7,000  householders  (about  £4  per  head).  This  money- 
was  intended  for  the  improvement  of  agricultural  technique ;  but 
in  reality  it  was  spent  on  the  building  of  new  houses,  acquiring 
new  implements,  cattle,  and  so  on.  The  methods  of  agriculture 
remained  the  same  as  they  had  been  before. 

Another  important  difficulty  arose  in  connection  with  the  new 
law,  when  it  had  to  be  determined  in  whom  the  property  rights 
upon  the  individual  allotments  should  be  vested.  When  the 
Duma  and  the  Council  of  the  Empire  discussed  the  new  land  bill, 
much  attention  was  given  to  the  question,  whether  the  parcels  of 
land  allotted  to  separate  householders  ought  to  belong  to  the  head 
of  the  family  or  jointly  to  the  whole  family.  In  conformity 
with  the  principle  of  individual  ownership  on  which  the  bill  was 
based,  the  question  was  finally  decided  in  favor  of  the  head  of 
the  family.  However,  this  clause  of  the  law,  so  far  as  may  be 
seen  from  the  facts  communicated  to  the  press,  became  a  source 
of  very  serious  conflicts,  and  even  dramas,  amongst  the  peasants. 
Formerly  it  was  the  custom  that  the  old  peasants  who  could  no 
longer  work  themselves  did  not  interfere,  as  a  rule,  with  the 
management  of  their  households,  leaving  it  entirely  in  the  hands 
of  their  sons.  Now,  they  felt  themselves  masters  of  the  situation, 
since  they  had  obtained  a  legal  right  of  doing  as  they  liked  with 
the  land.  The  law  thus  became  the  cause  of  many  personal  re- 
criminations, numberless  quarrels,  and  even  eventually  of  mur- 
ders. 

^^t  is  also  worth  noting  that  in  many  cases  the  peasants  who 
had  left  the  mir  expressed  after  some  time  their  desire  to  return. 
As  a  rule  they  were  received  with  friendliness  by  the  "mother- 
commune,"  sometimes,  on  the  condition  of  paying  a  certain  fine 
of  from  £3  to  £4.Kln  the  province  of  Voronesh,  all  the  234 
"outgoers"  of  three  villages  went  back  to  their  communes. 
In  one  village  the  matter  was  more  complicated:  the  mir  flatly 
refused  to  receive  back  its  seventy- four  unloyal  members,  and  the 
latter  no  longer  wished  to  be  individual  proprietors !  The  author- 
ities were  puzzled,  and  did  not  know  what  to  do.  Then,  by  a 
resolution  of  the  land-captain  the  outgoers  were  nevertheless  in- 
corporated into  the  commune,  but  without  the  right  of  using  the 
communal  lands !  In  another  village  those  peasants  who  had  left 
the  commune  under  the  influence  of  the  land-captain,  S0I4  their 
holdings,  and  soon  became  beggars;  they  then  considered  them- 
selves cheated,  and  their  indignation  against  the  new  law  was  so 


RUSSIA  131 

great  that  when  the  land-captain  came  again  to  the  village  for 
the  further  "propaganda"  of  new  separations,  he  was  received 
with  insults — the  result  being  that  eight  peasants  were  arrested 
and  deported.     Such  cases  were  not  isolated. 

1/A.ltogether,  from  the  data  now  published  by  the  Land  Com- 
missions, we  can  arrive  at  some  general  conclusions.  The  new 
law  has  undoubtedly  contributed  to  the  destruction  of  the  com- 
mune in  such  places  where  communal  ownership  was  already  in 
decay ;  and  it  has  helped  to  eliminate  from  the  mir  those  elements 
which  had  already  begun  to  fall  away.  But  in  Central  and 
Northern  Russia,  in  the  real  stronghold  of  the  commune,  the 
influence  of  the  new  law  is  comparatively  insignificant,  and  the 
antipathy  of  the  peasants  towards  it,  so  far  as  can  be  judged/' 
from  the  published  facts  and  figures,  is  undoubtedly  growing.    ^ 


MOSTLY  MOUJIK— A  GLIMPSE  OF  THE  RUS- 
SIAN ARTEL  AND  KUSTARNUP 

In  4iie  heights  above  Fersoova  we  fell  among  artelchiks. 
The  hare  track  that  skirts  the  Shilka  Ridge  was  too  narrow  at 
that  point,  and  too  slippery  for  our  ponies  and  them  to  pass  a- 
breast.  Besides,  passers-by  on  the  Shilka  Trakt  are  few — that 
is,  desirable  passers-by.  Trans-Baikalia  bears  an  unenviable  re- 
putation for  brodjagi,  the  murderous  vagrants  and  escaped  con- 
victs of  Siberia.  But  these  strangers  appeared  harmless 
enough,  despite  their  fearsome  beards. 

They  were  fully  a  dozen — stalwart,  middle-aged  men  led  by 
an  ancient  of  days  bearing  a  kit  of  carpenter's  tools.  Some  had 
bulging  sacks  slung  over  their  shoulders ;  some  tea  kettles  dang- 
ling at  their  belts.  All  were  poorly  clothed — rude  sheepskin 
tulups  or  great  coats,  gaudy  red  and  blue  work  shirts,  with 
tails  flaunting  above  trouser  tops,  knee-high  boots,  and  black 
sugarloaf  sheepskin  hats.  They  were  journeying  up  the  river 
to  Blagowestchensk  to  build  a  house,  they  said.  Yes,  we  were 
right,  they  formed  an  artel,  one  of  those  communistic  bands  of 
workmen  that  comprise  the  nucleus  of  the  Russian  peasant  in- 
dustrial system.  True  to  Russian  hospitality,  they  begged  us  to 
ride  back  to  a  clearing  in  the  wood  where  a  fire  could  be  built 

»  By  Richardson  Wright.    Catholic  World.   102:216-23.  November,   igis. 


132  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

and  tea  made.  And  there  it  was  that  we  talked  of  artels  and 
kustarnui,  and  all  those  unaccountable  socialistic  things  that 
exist  in  the  heart  of  oligarchic  Muscovy. 

"So  you  are  Americanski,"  began  the  ancient  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  peasant.     "Americanski A  great  country  yours. 

I  have  a  brother  in  Erie,  Pennsylvania.  I  have  a  picture  of 
him  at  home.  He  is  getting  very  rich.  Everyone  gets  rich  in 
America." 

"No,  only  a  few  are  rich,"  I  hastened  to  assure  him.  "The 
working  people  are  mostly  poor — and  most  everyone  works." 

"And  do  they  have  artels?" 

"They  have  unions.    .  .  ." 

"No,  artels,  like  we  are.  I  have  read  of  your  unions.  We 
can't  have  them  here.  They're  not  allowed."  He  seemed  to 
catch  the  look  of  confusion  on  my  face  and  went  on  to  explain. 
"We  work  together,  we  men.  We  are  a  carpenters'  artel. 
When  you  want  to  build  a  house,  you  hire  us.  When  you  pay, 
you  pay  us.  I  take  the  money  and  pay  the  expenses  and  then 
we  share  up.     I  am  the  starosta." 

He  went  on  further  to  explain  how  the  artel  works,  how  it 
may  be  devoted  to  one  trade  or  a  part  of  one  trade  or  to  several 
trades,  but  the  rule  holds  throughout  that  the  members  earn 
share  and  share  alike.  A  leader  known  as  the  starosta  is 
chosen,  and  upon  him  devolves  the  management  of  the  band's 
affairs.  He  arranges  for  passports,  finds  work,  provides  tools, 
materials  and  supplies,  collects  wages  and  distributes  the  profits 
equally. 

When  he  had  finished  and  was  sipping  noisily  the  hot  tea,  we 
sat  wondering  where  else  on  the  globe  was  there  such  confi- 
dence in  the  honesty  of  a  leader.  Had  we  discovered  Utopia 
here  in  the  heart  of  Siberia?  We  let  the  question  rest  for  a 
time,  and  satisfied  ourselves  with  asking  if  all  the  artels  wan- 
dered about  from  place  to  place. 

"Not  all,"  he  said  thoughtfully,  "but  you  meet  us  every- 
where." And  he  swept  the  horizon  with  an  inclusive  gesture. 
"On  every  road,  on  every  farm,  in  every  town  and  city  from 
Vilna  to  Vladivostok  you  will  find  us.  Even  in  the  baron's 
houses  the  servants  form  an  artel;  even  the  convicts  and  the 
exiles  do  the  same.  Some  stay  in  one  place,  others  just 
wander  about  from  place  to  place,  taking  the  work  where  they 
find  it.     Some  get  very  rich.    We  are  very  poor." 


RUSSIA  133 

The  last  he  had  said  not  in  any  spirit  of  discontent,  but 
just  as  a  statement  of  the  fact.  Riches  and  poverty  alike  come 
from  God,  the  faithful  Russian  believes. 

"Your  men  must  trust  you,"  we  interposed.  "Workmen  in 
America  do  not  often  trust  their  foremen  as  your  men  do." 

He  began  to  laugh  and  stroke  his  beard,  for  the  compliment 
pleased  him. 

"They  aren't  like  us,  that's  why.  We  have  learned  to  trust 
-each  other.    Whom  else  can  we  trust?" 

He  seemed  as  though  he  would  have  liked  to  pursue  the 
subject  further,  but  well  he  knew  the  proverb  that  in  Russia 
€ven  the  trees  have  ears,  and  being  a  wise  man  did  not  express 
to  strangers  his  recalcitrant  ideas.  This  much  we  were  able 
to  extract  from  him  and  his  men — a  fact  the  student  of  Russia 
and  her  history  well  knows — that  the  saving  power  of  the  Rus- 
sian peasant,  who  comprises  eighty  per  cent  of  the  population, 
lies  in  his  ability  to  cooperate  with  his  fellows,  and  his  singular 
economic  position. 

"We  have  always  been  peasants,"  the  starosta  went  on 
naively.  "And  for  four  hundred  years  we  were  serfs,  bound 
to  the  soil.  We  learned  in  those  long  years  to  help  one  an- 
other and  to  work  together.  We  could  not  trust  our  masters, 
because  they  did  us  wrong,  so  we  clung  together.  A  peasant 
is  always  a  peasant." 

"Even  to-day?" 

"Yes,  even  to-day.  Have  you  seen  the  names  of  the  Duma 
members  printed?  There  you  will  see  them  listed,  each  man 
according  to  his  rank.  Some  are  captains,  some  are  merchants, 
and  some  peasants.  We  didn't  cease  being  peasants  because 
we  were  freed.  We  ceased  being  slaves.  We  have  been  free 
now  fifty  years,  but  we  still  work  together,  because  we  still  have 
enemies.  That  is  why  we  have  artels.  You  have  unions — yes, 
I  have  read  of  them.  Instead  we  have  artels.  Unions  are  na- 
tional— all  over  the  country,  and  those  the  government  forbids 
here.    But  the  artel  is  just  a  few — like  we  are." 

He  fell  to  his  tea  again,  and  we  chatted  with  the  other  men, 
who  with  equal  naivete  described  the  simple  workings  of  their 
societies.  To  them  it  seemed  that  forming  an  artel  was  as  nat- 
ural as  their  breathing,  and  this  seemed  true  of  the  entire  or- 
thodox peasant  body.  Over  the  vodka  glasses,  for  example, 
a  project  is  discussed,  and  forthwith  an  artel   formed  and   a 


134  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

starosta  elected.  Next  to  no  funds  are  required,  some  artels 
starting  with  as  little  capital  as  fifteen  dollars.  The  work  may- 
be sweeping  the  streets,  building  houses,  or,  as  in  many  sections, 
the  development  of  the  kustarnui,  the  cottage  industries  for 
which  Russia  has  become  famous  of  late  years. 

As  we  went  on  our  way  down  the  trakt,  the  words  of  the 
starosta  began  to  arrange  themselves  in  their  proper  category. 
What  he  had  said  was  the  peasant  view  of  the  matter.  Their 
power  of  cooperation  was  due  to  the  fact  that  they  had 
been  obliged  for  four  centuries  to  cooperate  that  they  might 
defend  their  all  too-few  rights.  And  not  yet  had  they  ceased 
being  peasants,  although  they  had  been  free  men  for  half  a 
century. 

Later  in  the  journey  we  called  upon  the  president  of  the  local 
bank  at  Blagowestchensk,  the  New  York  of  Siberia,  a  thriv- 
ing town  on  the  Amur  that  is  truly  American  in  many  aspects. 
Having  been  in  America.  Gaspadrine  Gordhon  knew  our  institu- 
tions and  spoke  our  tongue.  To  him  we  applied  for  the  other 
side  of  the  peasant's  story.  Yes,  our  friends  of  the  Shilka 
Trakt  had  been  right,  cooperation  had  been  born  of  class  suf- 
fering. 

"But  you  must  make  this  distinction,"  he  said  with  emphasis. 
"Whereas  the  peasant  did  suffer  many  things  and  is  suffering 
them  to-day,  their  masters  were  not  altogether  cruel.  In  no 
country  is  so  much  being  done  for  the  furtherance  of  the  peas- 
ant's interests.  Have  you  seen  the  handicrafts  of  the  peas- 
ants?" 

We  mentioned  places  where  we  have  seen  them  for  sale, 
and  the  villages  where  they  were  being  made. 

"Well  then  you  know.  They  are  born  artists.  And  so  long 
as  they  remain  craftsmen,  their  work  will  be  artistic.  These 
cottage  industries  are  only  being  heard  of  in  the  big  world  out- 
side. London  flocks  to  an  exhibition  of  the  wares.  Paris 
goes  wild  over  them.  They  bring  large  sums  in  New  York. 
And  yet  the  cottage  industries  of  Russia  have  been  going  on 
for  generations.    You  used  to  have  them  in  America." 

"A  few  exist  to-day,"  we  assured  him.  "In  Deerfield,  an 
old  town  of  the  Connecticut  Valley,  and  at  Hingham,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  in  other  places." 

He  smiled,  though  he  tried  to  hide  the  scorn. 

"What   would  you   say  if   1   told  you  that  there  are   eight 


RUSSIA  135 

to  ten  million  people  in  Russia  employed  in  cottage  industries 
alone?" 

He  let  the  figure  settle  in  our  minds,  lit  another  cigarette,  and 
went  on  in  that  thoughtful  manner  bankers  the  world  over 
seem  to  have  when  they  discuss  economic  matters. 

"During  the  past  twenty-five  years  Russia  has  seen  an  unprec- 
edented growth  of  her  urban  industries.  The  factory  hand 
had  become  an  element  to  conjure  with.  Foreign  capital  and 
our  national  desire  to  foster  home  industries,  furthered  by  a 
high  tariff,  have  turned  many  cities  into  thriving  manufactur- 
ing centres.  Compare  Moscow  of  twenty-five  years  ago  with 
Moscow  to-day.  I  remember  it.  The  growth  has  been  wonder- 
ful!  Peasants  who  used  to  live  on  their  crops  are  flocking  to 
the  cities  in  winter.  In  summer  many  are  back  on  the  farm 
again.  The  number  of  factory  hands  totals  one  and  a  half 
million,  this  not  including  Finland  and  Poland." 

"You  mean  then  that  the  cottage  industries  are  falling  off?" 

"Quite  the  reverse,  quite.  Compare  the  figures — eight  to  ten 
million  workers  in  the  kustarnui  to  one  and  a  half  workers  in 
the  factories!  No,  the  development  of  the  kustarnui  during 
the  past  three  decades  has  been  spontaneous  and  widespread 
through  the  Empire.  Whole  villages  that  used  to  depend  on 
farming  for  their  livelihood  have  now  formed  themselves  into 
artels,  and  are  working  the  full  twelve  months  at  these  indus- 
tries. Some  farm  half  the  year  and  work  indoors  the  rest  of 
the  time.    It  is  most  astonishing." 

"But  how  do  you  account  for  such  a  contradictory  state  of 
affairs?"  we  asked.  "There  is  no  denying  that  the  peasant 
makes  only  a  meagre  living  out  of  his  crops,  and  when  his 
crops  fail  he  starves.  If  he  goes  to  the  city,  there  is  work  in 
the  factory.  He  no  longer  has  to  bother  his  head  about  agra- 
rian troubles.  It  is  human  nature  to  expect  the  factory  element 
to  overcome  the  native  industrial  element." 

"It  may  be  human  nature,  but  it  is  not  the  Slav  nature," 
Mr.  Gordhon  replied  slowly.  "When  you  sound  the  depths  of 
the  Slav  you  will  find  that  he  exercises  to  a  remarkable  degree 
what  might  be  called  spiritual  frugality.  He  is  self-contained, 
just  as  Russia  is  self-contained.  We  were  speaking  of  the  cot- 
tage industries.  They  are  worked  by  artels.  It  is  true  that 
this  power  for  cooperation  as  shown  in  the  artel,  is  due  to 
the  peasants  having  cooperated  for  their  own  benefit  through 

11 


136  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

four  centuries,  but  it  is  also  true  that  the  peasant  has  within 
himself  many  talents.  He  is  primarily  a  farmer,  a  tiller  of  the 
soil,  a  man  with  the  hoe.  But  he  has  learned  many  other 
arts.  Though  he  is  slow  to  learn  them,  years  of  training  and 
years  of  necessity  have  taught  him  to  develop  his  own  natural 
talents." 

"Then  the  knack  for  making  things  is  not  native  with  the 
peasant?" 

"Partly  yes,  partly  no.  You  must  remember  that  while  much 
has  been  written  on  the  sufferings  of  the  Russian  peasant  dur- 
ing his  days  of  serfdom,  little  mention  is  made  of  the  great 
good  rendered  him  by  his  master.  There  are  two  sides  to  every 
story,  and  there  are  two  sides  to  this.  An  honest  and  persistent 
effort  was  made  by  the  nobility  all  over  the  empire  to  furnish 
employment  for  their  serfs  during  those  long  winter  nights 
and  days  when  inclement  and  frigid  weather  prevented  their 
tilling  the  soil.  Where  else  than  Russia  could  you  find  such 
generosity  ?" 

"It  was  done  by  slave  owners  in  the  Southern  States  of 
America,"  I  proffered  the  information. 

"I  beg  pardon,  I  did  not  know  that.  Well  then  you  have 
an  analogy.  What  some  of  your  slave  owners  did,  the  serf 
owners  here  in  Russia  were  doing.  The  negro  and  the  peasant 
alike  owe  their  knowledge  of  handicraft  to  their  masters.  Of 
course,  there  was  their  own  innate  gift  for  making  things  with 
the  hands  that  all  people  of  the  soil  possess,  and  there  was  their 
mutual  endeavor  which  has  found  expression  in  the  artel.  And 
there  you  have  both  sides  of  the  story  of  the  artel." 

"The  government  is  encouraging  these  cottage  industries,  of 
course." 

"Yes,  I  was  going  to  mention  that."  He  reached  for  a  book 
behind  his  desk  and  ran  his  finger  down  a  column  of  figures. 
"The  report  of  the  Department  of  Rural  Economy  shows  that 
there  are  twelve  technical  schools  teaching  handicraft,  that 
large  sums  were  loaned  the  artels  on  long  credit,  and  that  the 
kustarnui  stores  and  workshops  were  subsidized,  the  budget 
for  this  work  amounting  to  over  half  a  million  rubles  an- 
nually." He  glanced  up  from  the  book.  "There  is,  in  addition, 
the  assistance  rendered  by  the  Zemstovs  or  local  governments. 
They  often  act  as  middle  men,  supplying  the  raw  materials  and 
handling  the  finished  product.    Here  you  can  see  on  the  map 


RUSSIA  137 

just  where  the  kustarnui  are  located."    He  unfolded  the  colored 
map  and  read  us  rapidly  figures  and  facts. 

"The  Governments  of  Moscow,  Vladimir,  Tver,  Kostroma, 
Nijni  Novgorod  and  Jaroslav  is  where  they  thrive  especially. 
Though  the  products  and  the  labor  are  widely  diversified,  the 
output  falls  into  five  groups:  wood,  metal  and  other  minerals, 
leather  and  woven  goods.  Of  these  the  largest  and  most  im- 
portant is  the  wood  industry.  One  district  supplies  two  thou- 
sand sleighs  annually  in  addition  to  carts  and  other  vehicles. 
Seven  thousand  tarantasses  come  from  Vladimir  alone  each 
year.  Kaluga  with  its  two  thousand  and  two  hundred  work- 
men and  nine  hundred  shops  turn  out  barrels.  Eighty-seven  vil- 
lages of  the  Moscow  Government  make  rude  peasant  painted 
furniture.  One  hundred  and  twenty  shops  in  the  same  district 
are  devoted  to  toys,  employing  two  thousand  peasants,  and  turn- 
ing out  each  year  a  supply  worth  a  quarter  million  dollars.  In 
the  Tver  Government  six  thousand  peasants  make  nothing  but 
pump  handles,  whilst  another  two  thousand  are  employed 
extracting  tar  from  the  trees.  It  is  reckoned  that  fully  one 
hundred  thousand  men  are  engaged  in  making  cart  wheels  in 
the  various  Great  Russia  villages.  In  the  point  of  output,  the 
wooden  spoon  is  the  largest.  These  painted  and  lacquered 
spoons  are  used  all  over  the  empire,  and  find  a  ready  market  in 
the  Far  East,  China  being  the  chief  customer,  with  Persia  as 
a  close  second.  Fully  a  hundred  million  are  made  each  year, 
most  of  them  coming  from  the  Vladimir  and  Kursk  Govern- 
ments. To  make  a  spoon  often  requires  the  labors  of  fifteen 
different  artels— think  of  it  fifteen  artels,  although  for  the 
poorer  quality  one  man  is  sufficient.  A  good  handicrafter  can 
turn  out  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  these  a  day.  The  bulk,  how- 
ever, goes  through  at  least  three  separate  processes,  employing 
three  artels.  The  profits  for  a  worker  rarely  amount  to  more 
than  twenty  dollars  a  year. 

"Bast  and  lime  wood  sandals  worn  by  the  peasantry  generally 
come  from  the  village  of  Simeonofka  and  the  city  of  Nijni 
Novgorod,  where,  during  a  season  of  five  months  a  rapid 
worker  can  finish  four  hundred  pairs.  Baskets  are  made  prin- 
cipally in  the  district  of  Zwenigorod,  and  mats  in  Kostroma. 
Linen  is  woven  at  Jaroslav,  and  in  most  villages  spinning  wheels 
and  distaffs  are  made.  Tver  is  the  main  book  country;  in 
one  town  fifty-five  per  cent  of  the  population  being  employed. 


in  vJL 

tie     ' 


138  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

At  Tver  three  hundred  and  fifty  workmen  prepare  annually 
forty  thousand  dollars  worth  of  finished  leather, 

"There,  you  see  what  staple  articles  are  made.  Those  are 
only  a  few."  He  swept  the  room  with  a  gesture.  "Look  at  the 
finer  arts.  Peasant  jewelry  is  made  in  fifty  villages  on  the 
Volga  in  the  Kostroma  Government.  Some  of  it  is  valuable  in- 
deed, much  is  cheap  and  tawdry.  A  secret  process  of  gilding 
is  employed,  a  process  learned  from  the  Tartars,  it  is  said.  The 
natives  guard  it  jealously.  In  the  same  manner  do  the  makers 
of  icons  guard  their  secret  in  the  Government  of  Vladimir, 
which  furnishes  practically  all  the  icons  in  Russia.  A  special 
process  of  mixing  and  grinding  the  paints  to  produce  a  glossy 
finish  has  been  discovered.  The  natives  draw  and  paint  the  reli- 
gious figures  after  patterns  handed  down  through  generations. 
Few  of  them  know  the  first  elements  of  drawing,  though  their 
work  lacks  nothing  in  artistic  effect.  As  in  the  making  of 
spoons,  the  manufacturing  of  icons  employs   several  artels. 

"Everywhere  in  the  bazaars  you  see  native  pottery.  To  be 
sure,  it  is  crude,  but  it  has  many  redeeming  elements,  mainly  its 
beauty  of  line  and  durability.  Poltava  and  Viatka  are  the 
centres  for  the  industry,  some  thirty  thousand  being  employed, 
making  an  output  valued  at  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
dollars.  The  workers'  wages  range  from  twenty-five  rubles 
($12.50)  to  one  hundred  a  year.  The  making  of  locks  is  practi- 
cally a  monoply  of  the  kustarnui.  Pavlovo  is  the  centre.  The 
wages  rarely  go  above  two  dollars  a  week." 

"But   do  these  kustarnui   artels  employ  only   men?" 

"Oh,  by  no  means.  The  women  play  a  great  part.  Russian 
women  of  all  classes  are  good  housewives.  They  are  constantly 
employed  in  sewing,  embroidering  and  in  some  instances,  weav- 
ing. This  is  no  less  true  of  the  peasant  housewife.  In  their 
hands  the  weaving  industry  has  become  a  business  of  first  im- 
portance. When  they  do  not  work  in  the  home,  they  meet  in 
the  community  workshop  or  svietelka.  The  best  linen  comes 
from  Jaroslav,  Kostroma,  Moscow  and  Vladimir,  where  fully 
sixty  thousand  families  find  employment.  The  wages  are  fifty 
copecks — twenty-five  cents — a  day.  The  peasant  women  of  Vla- 
dimir make  a  specialty  of  embroidering  aprons,  towels  and 
table  linen.  At  one  time  lace  making  was  a  thriving  industry, 
but  of  late  it  has  fallen  into  decay.  The  making  of  shawls  and 
scarfs,  limited  to  the  Government  of  Orenburg,  has  shown  a 


RUSSIA  139 

decided  increase.     The  output  is  valued  at  seventy -five  thousand 
dollars  annually. 

"But  you  can  see  by  these  figures  what  I  meant  in  saying  that 
the  kustarnui  thrive.  Many  of  these  peasants  live  miles  from 
the  railroad  and  centres  of  civilization,  most  of  them  are  un- 
derpaid and  exploited  by  wily  middlemen,  and  still  the  work 
is  increasing  yearly.  And  it  will  increase  so  long  as  the  peas- 
ant in  Russia  maintains  his  singular  position  in  the  social  scale. 
Once  he  has  learned  the  ways  of  what  we  term  urban  civili- 
zation, much  of  his  artistic  and  handicraft  ability  will  be  lost." 

We  rose  to  go.  We  had  long  overstayed  our  time,  even 
for  a  Russian  banker,  and  hurried  to  the  offices  of  an  American 
Harvester  Company,  whose  representative  had  invited  us  to 
luncheon.  We  found  him  in  the  yard  talking  busily  to  a  group 
of  men.  They  were  all  respectably  dressed.  Some  had  fur 
coats  and  hats,  though  all  wore  high  boots.  One  or  two  wore 
white  collars  and  cravats.  They  were  examining  a  harvester 
of  the  latest  type  with  the  name  of  an  Illinois  firm  painted  on 
its  side,  while  the  agent  was  showing  them  how  it  worked  and 
answering  their  questions. 

When  they  had  gone  he  came  in.  "Not  a  bad  morning's 
work,"  he  said,  throwing  off  his  coat.  "They  bought  two,  and 
I'll  get  *em  to  take  another  if  they  don't  look  out.  They've 
plenty  of  money." 

"Looked  prosperous  enough,"  we  rejoined. 

"Why  I  guess  that  artel  even  has  money  in  the  bank,"  he 
said. 

"Was  that  an  artel?" 

"Surely,  that's  the  way  they  get  it."  He  smiled  at  me  and 
said:  "Cooperation,  my  boy,  cooperation.     .  .  ." 


THE  RUSSIAN  AS  A  BUSINESS  MAN* 

Until  the  war  started,  the  best  Russian  business  men  were 
Germans.  For  the  extraordinary  fact  about  the  Russian  as  a 
business  man  is  that  he  is  such  a  poor  business  man — judging 
him  by  American  standards  of  business  efficiency.  The  concept 
of  public  service,  which  is  fast  becoming  the  foundation  of  all 
our    commerce    and    industry,  is  a  lesson  the  average  Russian 

»By  Richardson  Wright.    Travel.  28:35-7;  445.  April,  1917. 


140  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

merchant  has  still  to  learn.  The  principles  of  business  co-opera- 
tion, and  sometimes  even  of  personal  business  honesty,  have  still 
to  be  mastered.  In  this,  as  in  so  many  other  phases,  Russia  is  a 
gauche  adolescent. 

Much  has  been  written  of  late  about  Russian  credits  and 
commercial  hands  across  the  seas.  America,  rich  in  gold  and 
efficient  in  business  methods  at  home,  seeks  new  markets  in  the 
great  Slav  Empire.  This  is  as  it  should  be.  Russia  is  an  im- 
porting nation  rather  than  an  exporting;  she  needs  our  wares 
and  we  need  her  trade.  Doubtless  the  day  will  come  when  the 
United  States  and  Russia  will  be  the  two  great  commercial  na- 
tions of  the  world.  Meantime,  there  are  many  lessons  for  both 
peoples  to  learn  and  great  improvements  to  be  made  on  either 
side. 

While  every  effort  will  be  made  by  Berlin  and  by  London  to 
capture  Russian  credits  and  Russian  markets  after  the  war,  the 
facts  remain  that  Russia  is  old  enough  now  to  carry  her  own 
dinner  pail  and  that  America  can  both  furnish  the  pail  and  put 
something  into  it.  The  vast  resources  of  Russia's  arable  lands — 
her  wheat  lands  in  Europe  alone  are  larger  than  the  American 
fields — will  always  keep  her  an  agricultural  country,  yet  the 
growth  of  her  industries,  the  growth  of  her  mining,  petroleum 
and  railway  projects  has  already  made  her  a  power  in  industry 
worthy  of  American  consideration. 

To  the  average  American  merchant  intent  on  finding  a  new 
market  for  his  wares,  these  questions  generally  arise ; 

"Can  I  sell  him  anything?" 

"How  good  pay  is  he  ?  " 

"What  can  he  sell  me?" 

This  simple  analysis  has  formed  the  basis  of  American  com- 
merce abroad.  Because  it  lacked  another  very  important  ques- 
tion, our  markets  in  foreign  parts  are  not  as  secure  as  they 
might  be.  Time  and  again  American  exporters  find  themselves 
beaten  out  and  undersold  by  foreign  firms. 

In  doing  business  with  Russia  the  American  exporter's  first 
problem  should  not  be  about  what  he  can  persuade  the  Russian 
to  buy,  but  "What  is  the  Russian  merchant  like  ?  "  "What  sort 
of  people  does  he  sell  to  ?  "  "What  are  the  needs  of  those  people 
individually  and  collectively?  " 

The  best  way  to  settle  such  questions  is  for  the  merchant  to 
go  to  Russia  himself  and  find  out.    Certainly  he  will  not  want 


RUSSIA  141 

for  a  hearty  welcome;  no  people  under  the  sun  are  more  hos- 
pitable than  the  Russ.  In  lieu  of  that,  he  can  send  a  represent- 
ative. American  colleges  each  year  graduate  scores  of  men  who 
can  speak  French  and  German,  bright,  brisk  young  lads  with  an 
eye  to  business  who,  after  a  year  or  so  studying  the  home  plant  and 
its  output,  could  be  sent  to  Russia  to  scout  around  for  the  an- 
swer to  these  questions.  Or,  if  that  is  not  feasible,  the  manu- 
facturer can  avail  himself  of  our  Consular  Trade  Reports,  which 
are  the  most  up-to-date  and  efficient — even  the  British  concede 
this.  Finally,  the  American  exporter  may  find  it  to  his  interest 
to  communicate  with  the  American-Russian  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce in  New  York,  which  was  organized  in  1916  for  the  pur- 
pose of  encouraging  and  promoting  a  closer  union  in  industry, 
commerce  and  finance,  and  "to  create  bonds  of  mutual  sym- 
pathy between  the  two  great  nations — Russia  and  the  United 
States."  Its  motto  is,  "To  be  close  to  Russia  means  first  of  all 
to  know,  to  understand  Russia." 

Just  what  form  the  actual  exporting  might  take  can  best  be 
learned  from  the  experience  of  other  nations.  The  Germans, 
who  know  more  about  Russian  trade  than  any  other  people,  have 
given  up  the  idea  of  branch  houses  as  impractical.  The  English 
have  about  reached  the  same  conclusion.  Instead,  they  have 
lately  been  developing  the  market  through  travelers  who  carry 
large  assortments  of  samples,  quote  prices  F.  O.  B.  a  Russian 
port  and,  if  necessary,  include  the  price  of  duty  and  local  delivery 
in  their  estimate  of  the  cost.  The  American  merchant,  once  he 
has  learned  the  needs  of  the  market,  had  best  employ  a  Russian 
selHng  agent  or  avail  himself  of  the  facilities  of  an  exporting 
firm.  For  the  convenience  of  local  dealers,  he  should  see  to  it 
that  prices,  sizes,  weights,  et  cetera,  are  worked  out  in  Russian 
figures  and  that  packages  are  marked  so  that  the  native  can  read 
them. 

In  dealing  with  Russian  merchants,  Americans  must  remem- 
ber that  there  are  great  differences  in  the  methods  and  concepts 
of  business.  The  Russian  merchant  has  still  much  of  the  East 
in  his  veins.  He  is  accustomed  to  the  interminably  slow  methods 
of  the  East,  to  haggling,  to  looking  for  his  own  little  bakshish, 
to  enjoying  the  advantages  of  long  credits,  and  to  having  a  thor- 
oughly good  time.  Moreover,  this  merchant  has  to  deal  with 
hosts  of  people  who  neither  read  nor  write  and  for  whom  ocular 
proof  is  the  only  advertisement 


142  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Enter  a  Russian  bank,  for  example.  The  business  is  usually 
conducted  on  the  second  floor,  as  second-story  men  have  not  be- 
come so  expert  in  Russia  as  here.  At  the  front  door  stands  a 
soldier  in  uniform,  a  sabre  at  his  side  and  a  bayonetted  gun  over 
his  shoulder.  You  mount  the  stairs.  Another  soldier,  armed  to 
the  teeth,  stands  onjthe  landing.  You  step  on  to  the  banking 
floor.  A  third  soldier  eyes  you  from  the  corner.  You  have  a 
notion  that  you've  gotten  into  a  barracks  by  mistake.  You  are 
quite  wrong.  The  soldiers  are  there  to  assure  the  people  that 
their  funds  are  being  safely  guarded.  It  is  another  phase  of  the 
ocular  proof  that  the  native  requires. 

You  step  up  to  the  cash  window  and  present  your  checks. 
The  teller  is  playing  with  an  abacus — our  electric-run  counting 
machines  are  practically  unknown  in  Russian  banks.  Courte- 
ously, although  a  bit  languidly,  he  receives  your  papers  and  asks 
you  to  wait.  You  retire  to  a  corner.  Fifteen  minutes  pass, 
twenty,  half  an  hour.  You  step  up  to  the  window  to  see  what 
action  you  can  get.  The  teller  and  the  other  clerks  are  drinking 
tea  and  nibbling  snacks  of  luncheon.  You  go  back  to  your  seat 
wondering  what  it  is  all  about. 

Now  the  Russian  banker,  merchant,  machinist,  day  laborer — 
all  classes,  in  fact,  stop  at  eleven  and  four  for  tea.  To  drink 
unboiled  water  in  Russia  is  to  fly  in  the  face  of  Providence,  so 
tea  is  regularly  served  out  twice  a  day  and  many  times  in  be- 
tween. This,  of  course,  halts  the  wheels  of  industry  and  bank- 
ing, but  you  must  accustom  yourself  to  it. 

Finally,  when  tea  is  over,  the  matter  of  your  checks  is  taken 
up  again,  and  after  half  an  hour  or  more,  you  are  handed  over 
to  a  higher  official.  He  will  chat  with  you  pleasantly  about 
America,  about  relatives  he  has  there,  about  the  Woolworth 
tower,  the  Singer  building,  the  Grand  Canyon,  and  the  seven 
other  wonders  of  America.  He  will  be  persistent,  for  even  the 
busiest  Russian  is  courteous  enough  to  show  interest  in  you  and 
your  land.  When  you  have  satisfied  him  with  bits  of  news  from 
America,  he  will,  like  as  not,  ask  you  personal  questions — "Have 
you  been  to  Russia  before?  What  do  you  think  of  our  tea?  Our 
churches?  Our  music?  Our  cigarettes?  Our  padded  coachmen?" 

Then  about  two  hours  after  you  have  entered  the  building, 
you  begin  to  see  light  ahead.  And  when  a  good  part  of  the  day 
has  passed,  you  are  able  to  take  your  leave  of  the  banker  and 
pass  between  the  rows  of  sentries  again  to  the  street. 


RUSSIA  143 

All  this  is  very  exasperating  to  an  American  to  whom  the 
business  of  cashing  a  traveler's  check  is  only  a  matter  of  seconds, 
but  it  is  the  way  of  the  Russ  and  one  must  do  as  the  Russians 
do  so  long  as  he  deals  with  them.  There  is  no  use  trying  to  talk 
about  American  speed  and  efficiency;  it  will  be  like  speaking  in  a 
foreign  tongue.  The  Russian  is  slow,  he  likes  being  slow,  he 
has  been  slow  for  generations.  But,  despite  that,  he  manages  to 
accomplish  a  fair  amount  of  business. 

I  am  often  tempted  to  think  that  one  reason  why  the  Rus- 
sian merchant  is  such  a  poor  business  man  is  that  he  is  too  fond 
of  enjoying  himself.  Eating  and  drinking  are  the  chief  indoor 
sports  for  this  Russ.  The  proverbial  protracted  New  York  busi- 
ness luncheon  is  only  a  hasty  bite  compared  with  the  collation  to 
which  the  Russian  sits  down  in  mid-afternoon.  Business  is  such 
a  bother  and  eating  is  such  fun  that,  on  the  whole,  the  Russian 
merchant  would  rather  eat. 

There  is  another  way  of  looking  at  the  same  situation.  The 
Russian  has  learned  a  salient  truth  that  Americans  utterly  lack. 
He  believes— and  acts  accordingly — that  it  is  far  more  important 
to  make  a  life  than  to  make  a  living.  According  to  his  stand- 
ards, American  business  men  are  merely  machines,  slaves  to 
commerce,  dollar  grabbers.  The  more  I  see  of  American  busi- 
ness, the  more  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  there  is  much  to  be 
said  for  this  Russian  view. 

Despite  your  efforts  to  the  contrary,  the  Russian  merchant 
will  insist  on  bartering.  Americans  sell,  Russians  haggle.  Rus- 
sia has  not  yet  grown  out  of  the  habit  of  fairs  where  haggling  is 
a  fine  art.  Nijni  Novgorod  is  still  a  big  factor  in  her  business 
year,  and  there  are  hundreds  of  such  fairs  on  a  smaller  scale  all 
over  the  Empire  where  you  buy  everything  from  sewing  ma- 
chines to  fossil  mastodon  ivory. 

Likewise,  the  Russian  merchant  is  often  amenable  to  a  per- 
sonal financial  inducement.  Add  to  every  bid  made  in  Russia 
about  25  per  cent  for  distribution  among  worthy  traders,  and 
you  have  struck  a  safe  average  on  which  to  do  business.  This 
may  be  lamentable,  but  it  is  true,  and  one  must  adjust  himself  to 
the  situation.  He  will  find  that  in  practically  every  walk  of  Ufe 
and  in  every  sort  of  business,  there  are  Russians  capable  of  be- 
ing bribed;  more,  they  expect  to  be  bribed. 

Here,  again,  is  a  situation  an  American  merchant  may  fail  to 
comprehend.    Imagine  if  you  can,  a  New  York  merchant  being 


144  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

amenable  to  a  bribe.  .  .  .  But  possibly  you  can  imagine  it! 
The  Russian  is  out  and  out  in  his  dickering  about  such  things. 
On  the  whole,  we  are  more  honest  than  the  Russian,  but  I  am 
inclined  to  beheve  that  the  difference  is  merely  a  matter  of  terms 
and  that  no  invidious  comparisons  can  be  made.  Russia  is  young 
in  business,  her  methods  are  the  blunt,  stumbling  methods  of 
youth.  Some  day  she  may  become  polished  and  subtle  in  com- 
merce, and  then  we  shall  call  her  shrewd,  capable,  masterly ! 

The  classic  example  of  graft  in  Russia  happened  during  the 
building  of  the  Trans-Siberian  railway.  We  generally  conceive 
of  that  railroad  as  a  straight  line  cleaving  the  heart  of  the  con- 
tinent. Far  from  it.  When  the  road  was  building,  a  brilliant 
band  of  agents  traveled  ahead  of  the  construction  gangs  and 
visited  the  city  fathers  of  the  towns  on  the  proposed  route.  They 
told  what  the  proximity  of  the  railroad  would  mean  to  the  town, 
and  in  glowing  colors  painted  the  far-famed  American  "Boost." 
Then  the  agents  got  down  to  business;  for  such  and  such  con- 
siderations they  would  see  that  the  lines  came  to  the  town,  etc., 
etc.  Tomsk,  then  the  largest  city  in  Siberia,  shooed  these  agents 
away.  They  could  afford  to  shoo.  But  the  agents  made  good 
their  word.  The  tracks  were  run  south  of  Tomsk  by  48  miles, 
and  to-day  Tomsk,  the  intellectual  and  mining  center  of  Siberia, 
is  on  a  branch  line ! 

The  results  of  this  tariff  can  be  seen  all  along  the  route  to- 
day. Here  is  the  station  settlement;  yonder  on  the  horizon,  is 
the  suggestion  of  the  town.  When  the  agents  came  to  explain 
to  Petersburg  the  snaking  of  the  line,  they  offered  a  plausible 
excuse — had  the  railroad  gone  through  the  center  of  the  towns 
they  would  not  grow  so  rapidly  as  though  it  were  laid  some  dis- 
tance away;  as  it  was,  the  towns  would  now  grow  to  the  rail- 
road.   And  this,  luckily,  is  what  has  happened! 

Another  outcropping  of  the  East  can  be  seen  in  the  Russian's 
readiness  to  go  into  bankruptcy  and  his  insistence  on  long  time 
payments.  Here  are  two  situations  against  which  the  American 
exporter  must  safeguard  himself.  Until  recently,  the  money  in 
Russia  was  tied  up  in  the  hands  of  the  few ;  with  the  growth  of 
industries  consequent  on  the  war  and  just  previous  to  it,  much 
of  the  money  has  been  transferred  to  the  people.  This  distribu- 
tion will  result  in  a  more  healthy  financial  situation.  Instead  of 
spending  their  money,  as  heretofore,  for  vodka,  the  confmon 
people  have  been  saving  it,  and  with  the  increased  sense  that 


RUSSIA  145 

comes   from  abstinence   from   drink,   will  come   intelligence  in 
spending  money  and  paying  debts. 

Several  American  firms  have  met  this  situation  by  the  install- 
ment paying  plan,  and  they  have  been  successful.  The  results 
have  come  slowly,  but  they  have  come  through  this  patience  and 
belief  in  the  people.  American  sewing  machines,  American 
harvesters,  American  lamps  will  be  seen  in  every  part  of  the 
Russian  Empire.  They  are  there  to  stay,  despite  German  com- 
petition, because  in  these  instances,  American  goods  are  superior 
to  others  and  because  American  merchants  have  met  the  Russian 
consumer  on  his  own  ground. 

The  other  day  a  banker  asked  me  these  two  leading  ques- 
tions : 

"Why  is  it  so  difficult  for  us  to  float  a  Russian  loan,  whereas, 
during  the  Japanese  War,  we  had  no  trouble  in  floating  a  Jap- 
anese loan?" 

"Is  there  any  chance  of  Russia  repudiating  her  debts  accrued 
during  this  war?  " 

My  answer  took  the  following  form : 

During  the  Japanese  War,  Japanese  bonds  were  hawked  about 
America  and  they  had  the  backing  of  Jewish  banking  firms. 
Scarcely  a  Jewish  pawnbroker  in  America  but  was  approached 
to  buy  them.  Hundreds  did.  You  can  never  consider  any  finan- 
cial situation  regarding  Russia  without  taking  into  account  the 
bitter  hatred  of  the  Jew  for  the  Russian.  It  comes  out  in  a 
thousand  different  little  ways,  and  it  has  as  many  sources  of 
power  to  draw  on.  There  is  as  much  to  say  against  the  Jewish 
methods  as  there  is  against  Russia's  methods  in  handling  the 
Jewish  problem;  the  blame  is  about  equally  divided.  Meantime, 
neither  will  concede  the  other  a  point  and  the  fight  is  a  draw, 
with  the  Russians  quiescently  and  sometimes  violently  anti- 
Semitic  at  home  and  the  Jews  actively  anti-Russian  in  every 
quarter  of  the  globe. 

German  influence  has  also  to  be  counted.  As  they  used  to 
say  in  Europe,  of  all  the  colonies  Germany  possessed,  Russia  was 
the  most  profitable.  The  industries  were  almost  entirely  in  Ger- 
man hands  and  much  of  the  mining  was  maintained  by  German 
money.  German  influence  was  so  strong  that  it  could  foment 
revolutions  and  call  strikes  whenever  there  was  the  slightest 
chance  of  foreign  capital  beginning  to  endanger  German  inter- 
ests in  Russia.    When  France  began  to  be  financially  interested 


146  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

in  Russia,  Germany  made  it  clear  that  should  Russia  enter  into 
agreement  with  France,  the  act  was  tantamount  to  a  declaration 
of  war.  In  short,  Germany  has  held  Russia  in  the  hollow  of  her 
financial  hand,  and  she  will  use  every  influence  in  other  lands 
that  is  available  against  the  floating  of  Russian  loans. 

If  Russia  can  free  herself  from  the  German  industrial  and 
commercial  yoke,  if  the  German  merchants  (there  are  some 
400,000  of  them  interned  there)  are  made  to  return  to  their  own 
country,  after  the  war,  then  there  will  be  a  legitimate  chance  for 
fair  competition  for  Russian  markets.  Fortunately,  Russia  has 
had  sufficient  power  to  hold  on  "to  some  of  her  industries  and 
during  the  war  to  develop  other  industries.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  after  peace  is  declared,  she  will  hold  her  own  against  a 
repetition  of  Teutonic  commercial  subjugation. 

The  idea  of  Russia  repudiating  her  debts  is  rather  fantastic. 
A  nation  repudiates  its  debts  only  when  it  is  permitted  to  do  so. 
Were  Russia  utterly  lacking  in  natural  resources  and  were 
she  not  allied  with  powers  that  have  strong  financial  founda- 
tions and  keen  financial  understanding  one  might  fear  for 
Russia's  future  action.  But  she  has  endless  resources  and  un- 
told wealth,  and  she  is  leagued  with  nations  that  hold  her  so  in 
debt  that  they  can  both  guide  and  force  her  hand,  if  that  is 
necessary. 

France,  which  among  the  powers  has  the  clearest  understand- 
ing of  international  finance,  was  not  loath  to  loan  Russia  money. 
Should  she  permit  Russia  to  repudiate  her  debts,  thousands  of 
French  investors  would  be  wiped  out.  England  has  done  the 
same.  Russia  owes  too  much  money  to  repudiate  a  copeck  of 
her  debts. 

In  the  great  game  of  dollars  that  underlay  this  conflict,  Ger- 
many placed  her  money  on  the  wrong  horse.  She  believed  that 
she  held  sufficient  power  at  Petrograd  to  control  the  Russian 
government,  even  though  Russia  were  her  enemy.  Constant  ru- 
mors of  a  separate  peace,  drifting  out  from  Berlin  news  agencies, 
indicated  this  belief  to  be  strong  even  as  late  as  the  fall  of  1916. 
Even  at  that  hour  Germany's  horse  was  leading.  Then  came  the 
flare-up  between  the  Duma  and  the  Government,  between  the 
people  and  the  pro-German  element  at  Petrograd.  Germany  dis- 
covered that  this  was  a  people's  war  and  that  the  people  "vj^ere 
dictating  to  their  government.  In  1912,  the  war  was  a  juggling 
of  finance;  in  1914-16,  it  became  a  conflict  of  ideals,  the  struggle 


RUSSIA  147 

of  the  Russian  people  to  assert  their  own  nationaUty  in  their 
own  land. 

Upon  these  people  will  depend  the  development  of  the  re- 
sources, upon  their  wiUingness  to  work  in  legitimate  competition 
and  just  co-operation. 

A  nation  is  no  longer  great  merely  for  its  statesmen,  hut 
great  because  of  its  workers — its  farmers,  its  puddlers,  its  spin- 
ners, its  shop  keepers.  In  these  Russia  is  great  indeed.  She  has 
the  workers  and  the  raw  material  and  the  willingness.  The 
productivity  of  the  people  has  increased  40  per  cent  during  the 
war.  Russia  now  needs  only  capital  to  develop  these  vast  re- 
sources and  to  bring  them  to  the  markets  of  the  world. 

She  needs  railroads.  Even  though  the  war  has  commanded 
most  of  the  government's  attention,  there  has  been  found  suf- 
ficient time,  funds  and  energy  to  push  ahead  the  work  on  new 
lines  that  total  some  8,000  miles  through  untouched  parts  of  the 
Empire.  There  are  45,000  miles  of  railroads  in  operation  to-day. 
Two-thirds  of  them  are  operated  by  the  government,  the  other 
third  being  owned  and  operated  by  private  companies  working 
under  state  control  and  with  state  guarantee.  Plans  are  now 
made  for  the  completion  of  25,000  miles  of  tracks  by  the  end  of 
1922,  in  addition  to  thousands  of  miles  of  canals. 

The  lack  of  an  all-year  port  has  been  the  greatest  deterrent  to 
Russian  commercial  progress.  It  has  forced  her  into  playing 
into  German  hands.  On  all  sides  she  is  faced  with  alien  con- 
trol. In  the  south  the  Turk  has  maintained  his  grip  on  the  Dar- 
danelles; England  holds  the  Persian  Gulf;  Japan  holds  Dalny 
and  a  goodly  strip  of  the  Laotung  Peninsula.  Archangel  and 
Vladivostok  are  frozen  tight  as  drums  for  several  months  each 
year.  The  new  port  of  Alexandrovsk  on  the  White  Sea  is  free 
from  ice  all  the  year,  and  a  new  trunk  line  links  it  up  with  the 
main  arteries  that  radiate  from  Petrograd  and  Moscow.  While 
Alexandrovsk  will  help  the  situation  somewhat,  Russia  can  never 
grow  commercially  until  she  has  a  warm  water  outlet  for  her 
immense  stores.  That  she  would  be  awarded  this  in  Constan- 
tinople, has  been  the  dream  of  her  people  in  this  war. 

Self-contained  though  she  is,  Russia  requires  the  c(«ntact  of 
commerce  to  develop  her.  She  needs  to  rub  against  other  na- 
tions. Too  long  has  she  been  isolated  and  exploited  by  one 
power.  Her  rich  wheat  fields,  her  bountiful  oil  supplies,  her 
gold  deposits,  her  platinum  mines,  her  cattle  and  her  timber — 


148  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

all  these  she  has  to  offer  the  world.  The  continent  needs  her 
wheat,  her  butter,  her  meat.  Under  the  guise  of  Danish  butter, 
England  eats  the  Russian  product  regularly.  New  York  tasted 
Siberian  butter  in  the  winter  of  1913-14.  Russian  butter  on 
American  bread — what  a  combination  to  contemplate! 

Once  let  Russia  open  her  granaries  directly  to  the  world 
through  the  Dardanelles,  and  the  food  situation  both  on  the 
continent  and  in  America  will  be  radically  changed.  Chicago 
will  be  forced  out  of  her  wheat  pit  deals  against  the  American 
people.  But  so  long  as  this,  the  second  greatest  granary  of  the 
world,  is  closed  and  no  competition  is  permitted,  our  wheat 
kings  will  have  us  in  the  hollow  of  their  hands. 


THE  BETTER  HALF  OF  RUSSIA* 

"You  will  learn  in  America  that  this  great  war  will  have  its 
benefits,"  the  doctor  said.  "It  is  teaching  us  that  we  are  strong ; 
it  has  issued  a  call  commanding  us  to  organize  and  act  not  only  in 
war,  but  in  peace ;  it  has  taught  us  to  see  a  world  larger  than  the 
world  of  our  family  door-step.  It  has  shown  us  that  we  can  do 
all  the  necessary  old  duties  and  have  energy  and  desire  to  accept 
new  labors.  This  morning  at  breakfast  my  children  spoke  of 
Russian  victory.  I  said  to  them  that  the  great  Russian  victories 
were  in  the  new  thought  and  visions  of  the  people." 

The  doctor  did  not  speak  of  any  class  or  sex;  she  made  no 
distinction  between  different  kinds  of  Russian  hearts  and  Rus- 
sian heads.  There  are  almost  twice  as  many  men,  women,  and 
children  in  the  empire  as  in  our  States,  and  the  doctor  seemed 
to  include  them  all.  The  doctor  was  nearing  middle  age,  but 
was  still  pretty  even  in  a  severe  woolen  suit.  She  was  an  at- 
tractive  and  competent  woman. 

The  reason  for  her  disregard  of  sex  is  not  difficult  to  define. 
Russia  is  the  foremost  undeveloped  country  in  the  world.  Like 
its  own  flat,  gray  expanse  of  physical  surface,  beneath  which  un- 
touched treasures  of  resource  lie,  a  crust  of  mystery  covers  the 
human  resource  of  the  Russian  millions.  The  charm  of  Russia  is 
not  in  its  romantic,  hazardous,  youthful  past,  but  in  the  suppressed 
seething  of  human  force  beneath  the  crust.    What  will  burst 

1  By  R.  W.  Child.    Century.  92:622-32.  August,  1916. 


RUSSIA  149 

up  through  it.  What  will  this  war,  cracking  open  the  surface, 
rending  the  cover,  let  loose? 

When  I  went  to  Russia  to  put  my  ear  where  I  could  hear  be- 
neath the  crust  the  new  bubble  and  heaving  of  potentiality,  the 
volcanic  seething  which  the  war  has  filled  with  new  tremors,  I 
did  not  think  of  the  Russian  woman  at  all. 

Yet  she  is  of  extraordinary  importance,  not,  however,  as  a 
part  of  a  woman's  movement,  but  as  a  part  of  a  great  human 
movement.  •  Her  progress  and  her  potentiality  are  so  interwoven 
with  the  progress  and  potentiality  of  her  country  that  the  story 
of  the  woman  parallels  the  story  of  the  new  war-awakened  Rus- 
sian nation. 

It  is  the  women,  I  think,  who  to-day  possess  a  vision  calmer 
than  that  of  the  Russian  men.  From  a  woman  I  received  the 
coolest  and  the  wisest  analysis  of  the  politics  of  the  empire  and 
the  most  sensible  forecast  of  the  struggle  between  the  people  and 
the  bureaucracy.  Through  a  woman  I  obtained  the  greatest  fund 
of  information  about  the  future  commercial  development  of  the 
land  and  about  the  opportunities  for  American  business.  A  wo- 
man drew  for  me  the  clearest  picture  of  what  was  needed  to 
organize  for  military  victories.  It  was  the  woman  of  Russia  who, 
without  distortion  of  self-interest  or  prejudice  or  fear,  could  see 
what  the  new  human  growth  required  of  compromise  with  the 
present  form  of  the  Government  and  what  of  a  fight  to  a  finish. 
And  that  is  the  most  delicate  question  which  Russia  must  deter- 
mine in  the  decade  which  follows  the  final  peace. 

In  Russia  there  are  three  classes  of  women,  just  as  there  are 
three  classes  of  men,  that  those  who  know  little  of  the  empire 
must  distinguish  from  one  another.  The  first  is  that  of  the 
peasants. 

Perhaps  it  cannot  be  reiterated  too  often  that  Russia  is  a  land 
of  peasants.  The  first  thing  that  one  will  be  told  in  the  capital 
is  this:  "Petrograd  is  not  Russia.  Russia  has  more  than  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  million  peasants.  About  three-fourths  of 
the  people  in  the  empire  live  in  rural  communities  or  on  isolated 
farms;  three- fourths  are  engaged  in  agriculture;  two-thirds  are 
illiterate,  and  eighty-seven  per  cent  of  the  peasant  women  can- 
not read  or  write.  To  know  the  true  Russian  one  must  go  to 
the  villages." 

To  consider  the  Russian  woman  without  due  regard  for  the 
overwhelming  numbers  of  peasant  women  varying  in  types  and 


ISO  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

customs  according  to  the  districts  from  which  they  come  is  to 
exclude  the  mass. 

The  women  of  the  nobility  and  the  small  merchant  class  make 
up  the  second  group ;  but  there  is  only  one  of  these  to  about  130 
of  the  class  of  peasants. 

But  there  is  a  third  class.  Among  Russian  women,  as  among 
Russian  men,  this  third  class  is  characterized  not  by  its  exclusion 
from  the  other  two  classes,  which  are  classes  of  high  birth  or 
wealth  or  lack  of  wealth  and  birth,  but  by  intellectual  charac- 
teristics. This  class  is  called  the  intelligentsia,  and  an  individual 
member  of  it  is  called  an  intelligent. 

"Define  an  intelligent,"  suggested  a  war  correspondent  from 
the  United  States  who  had  a  distaste  for  generalities. 

The  Englishman  who  writes  articles  upon  Russian  manners 
and  customs  slid  down  into  his  chair,  the  French  diplomatic 
attache  scowled,  an  American  who  for  seven  years  has  done 
business  in  Kieff,  Moscow,  and  Warsaw  coughed,  and  the  two 
Russians,  one  a  journalist  and  the  other  a  member  of  the  Duma, 
smiled  sourly. 

The  Petrograd  editor,  running  his  long  forefinger  about  his 
collar  as  if  seeking  relief  from  asphyxiation,  said: 

"An  intelligent  is  an  educated  person,  from  a  university,  per- 
haps engaged  in  a  profession,  and  perhaps  with  ideas  of  reform 
for  Russia." 

"And  yet  there  is  Leonid  H ,"  said  the  Frenchman,  dream- 
ily, looking  across  the  tables,  at  which  well-gowned  and  smiling 
ladies,  vastly  different  from  the  women  of  London  and  Paris, 
sat  just  as  if  war  was  not  going  on.  "He  never  saw  a  university; 
his  hobby  is  individual  study.  He  is  in  no  learned  profession, 
has  no  idea  of  reforming  Russia,  and  is  a  bureaucrat." 

"But  he,  too,  is  an  intelligent,"  the  Englishman  said,  and  the 
others  nodded. 

"Ah,  there  it  is  as  always — an  intelligent  is  an  intelligent," 
the  journalist  cried  out  in  despair. 

The  member  of  the  Duma  said : 

"Let  us  say  that  an  intelligent  is  one  who  thinks." 

"Who  thinks — "  repeated  the  Englishman,  waiting  for  more. 

"Who  thinks  or  talks  or  writes  of  change,"  finished  the  Rus- 
sian.   "An  intelligent  is  an  intelligent." 

"It  will  do,"  they  all  said. 

The  Russian  intelligentsia,  however,  has  in  its  vague  mem- 


RUSSIA  ISI 

bership  a  startlingly  large  proportion  of  women.  The  last  two 
I  heard  conversing  together  were  a  countess  of  immense  wealth 
and  the  daughter  of  a  peasant  of  the  Tver  district  who  speaks 
six  languages  and  at  the  age  of  nineteen  has  pubHshed  two 
pamphlets.  It  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  two  profes- 
sors in  the  university  were  present;  but  it  was  I,  an  American, 
who  first  felt  that  it  was  necessary  to  go.  The  zealous  intelli- 
gent will  sit  up  until  dawn,  apparently  believing  that  this,  the 
latest  discussion,  may  summon  the  destiny  of  the  country.  There 
is  a  taste  for  debate,  an  apppetite  for  the  last  dregs  at  the  bottom 
of  the  world's  barrel  of  intellectuality;  and  among  all  the  eager 
Russian  minds,  most  of  which,  as  an  incident,  suffer  from  the 
inevitable  pains  of  theories  and  pretenses  which  cannot  be  made 
realities,  I  found  none  so  eager  as  those  of  Russian  women. 

But  the  women  of  these  groups  are  touched  by  this  fact: 
the  war  has  served  to  bring  into  higher  light  the  character  of  the 
Russian  people  as  a  people.  Something  of  the  veil  behind  which 
the  Slav  finds  a  complacent  content  has  been  torn  aside  by  the 
emergencies  of  belligerent  days.  A  titled  Englishwoman,  pour- 
ing soup  for  the  miserable  refugee  stream  near  the  Warsaw  sta- 
tion in  Petrograd,  said  to  me : 

"You  know  by  this  time  how  baffling  is  Russia.  It  is  a  coun- 
try of  extremes  and  contradictions.  It  accepts  life  as  life  comes, 
saying,  'What  does  it  matter?'  but  in  meditation  it  builds  a  new 
world  for  itself.  It  flares  up  in  emotional  tests  of  its  power  and 
sinks  back  into  philosophic  lethargy.  It  is  cheerful  four-fifths  of 
the  time  and  contemplates  suicide  for  a  contrast.  It  is  aware  of 
autocratic  suppression,  but  maintains  the  strongest  kind  of  in- 
dividualism. It  is  irreverent,  but  none  the  less  religious  feeling 
and  religious  forms  grip  the  daily  life  of  it.  It  is  without  con- 
ceit, admits  its  shortcomings  with  excellent  good  nature,  and  yet 
has  profound  faith  in  its  own  irresistible  destiny.  And  will  you 
believe  that  it  is  the  women  of  all  classes  who  have  shown  the 
largest  response?" 

The  position  of  women  is  a  reasonably  accurate  barometer 
of  the  civilization  of  men,  and  from  their  history  in  Russia 
there  is  evidence  that  the  empire  is  not  badly  named  "back- 
ward Russia." 

As  to  the  woman  of  the  first  class,  the  peasant  woman,  she  has 
been  the  victim  of  endless  labor.  She  is  expected  to  care  for  the 
house,  provide  clothing,  and  prepare  all  food.    She  often  tills  a 

n 


152  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

plot  of  ground  on  her  own  account,  and  labors  in  the  planting 
and  the  harvest. 

"And  education  has  barely  touched  our  peasant  woman,"  said 
my  friend,  leaning  over  the  wall  of  the  River  Neva  in  a  thought- 
ful mood.  "Those  who  go  away  from  the  villages  to  the  cities 
and  the  gymnasia?  Ah,  yes;  but  I  refer  to  the  education  which 
reaches  out  to  the  country.  And  yet  it  is  education  which  has 
already  done  something  to  help  the  position  of  the  peasant  wo- 
man. It  is  badly  needed,  for  not  only  does  it  give  the  woman  a 
sense  of  being  more  than  a  beast  of  burden,  but  it  will  raise  her 
in  the  respect  of  our  men.  You  see,  we  think  women  who  are 
beasts  of  burden  are  much  nearer  emancipation  than  they  would 
be  if  they  were  uncreative  parasites.  That  is  the  strength  of  the 
peasant  woman  of  Russia.  Here  is  a  bit  of  paper.  I  have  gone 
to  a  bureau  for  these  figures,  and  you  must  show  them  to  Amer- 
icans." 

She  had  taken  her  statistics  from  compilations  made  over  ten 
years  ago,  but  the  figures  of  the  Russian  census  showed  that  in 
rural  economy  and  in  industry  and  manufactures  more  women 
were  employed  than  men! 

"You  may  be  sure  that  education  is  needed  by  the  peasant  wo- 
man," she  went  on.  "You  see  what  a  part  she  plays  in  our  farm 
life,  which  is  the  life  of  the  nation.  Well,  she  as  well  as  the  man 
must  be  prepared  to  receive  instructions  in  modem  methods 
of  farming.  With  our  great  resource  in  soil  and  our  tremend- 
our  production,   we   are   still   primitive   farmers." 

I  remembered  that  the  average  yield  of  wheat  per  acre  in 
England  and  Germany  was  over  twenty  bushels  and  in  Russia 
less  than  eight. 

"And  we  are  backward  even  in  the  fight  to  live,"  she  added. 
"Russia,  particularly  peasant  Russia,  has  the  highest  death-rate 
in  the  world,  and  the  infant-mortality  in  the  country  districts  is 
beyond  belief,  increasing  despite  all  the  work  of  the  zemstvo 
doctors.  Russia  has  a  vast  resource  of  healthy  human  beings, 
but  she  may  lose  it. 

"The  point,  however,  is  this:  the  woman  of  Russia  is  wholly 
different  from  the  woman  of  America.  I  understand  that  in 
America  a  party  of  women  seeks  to  have  a  right  to  other  oc- 
cupations than  motherhood;  they  call  that  their  woman's  move- 
ment. Ah,  what  a  cruel  jest  it  appears  to  the  women  of  Russia! 
Our  peasant  women  have  almost  an  equality  with  men  in  pro- 


RUSSIA  IS3 

ductive  labors.  While  this  is  labor  of  the  hands  and  is  done  in 
detached  communities  and  there  is  no  education,  the  position  of 
our  women  will  be  very  bad.  Fundamentally  the  question  of 
right  and  wrong  is  settled  by  the  fact  that  the  man  can  strike 
harder  with  the  fist  than  can  the  woman. 

"So  the  problem  of  our  peasant  women  is  different  from  the 
problem  of  the  women  of  America.  But  industry  has  been 
coming  in,  and  it  makes  a  change.  First  of  all,  men  go  to  the 
centers.  Women  follow,  and  even  displace  the  men.  And  chil- 
dren follow  the  women.  But  in  this  way  the  peasant  woman 
becomes   freer,   no  matter  what  the  cost." 

She  had  touched  upon  a  great  problem  of  Russia,  that  of 
underpaid  female  and  child  labor.  Cotton  and  hardware  manu- 
facturers had  already  told  me  something  of  the  fearful  competi- 
tion of  men,  women,  and  children  for  employment  in  industrial 
centers.  Recently  Russia's  industry  has  shown  a  marked  tend- 
ency to  centralize  in  a  few  industrial  cities  of  mushroom  growth. 
The  peasants  leave  the  country,  and  the  ancient  communal  idea 
of  the  agricultural  class  shows  signs  of  fading  away.  At  first 
the  peasant,  always  land-mad,  but  whose  land-holdings  grow 
smaller  because  the  population  is  increasing  faster  than  acreage 
is  acquired,  plans  to  earn  money  in  the  cities  to  buy  new  fields. 
But  the  drift  is  really  in  the  other  direction.  The  women  follow 
the  men  to  the  gregariousness  of  the  centers.  The  war  has  aug- 
mented the  movement,  and  the  cities  are  molding  the  new  social 
life  of  Russia  despite  the  fact  that  probably  even  with  the  refu- 
gees and  the  congregating  movement  which  the  war  has  brought 
not  more  than  sixteen  per  cent  of  the  population  is  in  them. 

The  factory  wage-earner  is  the  new  type  of  lower-class  Rus- 
sian woman,  and  her  influence  spreads  back  into  the  agricultural 
class. 

"For  the  moment  we  see  some  horrible  things,"  I  was  told  by 
a  settlement  worker.  "We  see  the  peasantry  furnishing  vast 
numbers  of  prostitutes,  most  of  them  very  young.  We  see  the 
great  supply  of  female  labor  driving  itself  into  starvation  wages 
through  its  willingness  to  work  in  industries.  But,  after  all,  it 
is  promising  of  a  better  position  for  women.  On  the  farm  the 
woman  has  been  too  often  a  beast  of  burden.  Once  she  or  her 
relatives  have  a  taste  of  the  outer  world,  there  will  be  a  new  life 
of  the  intellect  and  a  new  and  better  relation  between  husband 
and  wife.    The  independent  earnings   of  women   will  tend  to 


154  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

create  new  property  laws  fairer  to  women.  The  Slav  woman  will 
find  herself.  Put  education  within  her  reach,  and  she  responds  in 
a  way  that  surprises  us  all." 

To  this  settlement  society,  which,  like  others  in  Petrograd, 
exists  through  the  gifts  and  energy  of  advanced  Russian  wo- 
men and  despite  the  misgivings  of  some  authorities,  there  come 
on  Sundays  hundreds  of  peasant  girls  who  are  now  industrial 
workers.  The  contrast  between  their  faces  and  those  of  girls  in 
the  villages  is  astonishing.  The  girl  who  has  stayed  on  the  soil 
has  a  happier  expression,  but  the  film  of  an  inactive  mind  often 
covers  her  countenance.  These  settlement  visitors,  whose  clothes 
are  much  uglier  and  whose  faces  are  much  harder,  look  into  one's 
eyes  without  the  rural  shyness,  and  send  forth  a  friendly  chal- 
lenge. They  have  tasted  of  thinking  life.  And  this  fact  lifts 
their  heads  and  perhaps  their  spirits  out  of  the  mire  into  which 
they  may  have  had  to  put  their  feet.  I  do  not  believe  that  this 
new  thinking  life  comes  to  them  with  any  consciousness  of  sex- 
differences.  Women  who  for  generations  have  shared  in  produc- 
tive manual  labor,  and  now  have  not  been  behind  the  men  of  their 
class  in  finding  a  way  through  the  muck  of  Russia's  industrial 
growth  toward  larger  expressions  of  self,  look  upon  themselves 
as  Russians  and  human  beings  before  the  idea  occurs  to  them 
that  they  wear  long  hair  and  by  its  symbol  are  set  apart  in  a 
class  to  fight  with  self-interest  some  kind  of  class  battle.  I  have 
seen  evidence  enough  that  when  they  are  aware  of  fighting  a 
battle  at  all  they  are  aware  only  of  fighting  the  battle  of  all  the 
people,  men  and  women,  for  new  freedom. 

In  the  industrial  communities  the  men,  too,  slide  into  the  point 
of  view  that  regards  a  woman  first  as  a  co-worker.  She  is 
capable  of  bearing  children,  but  that  is  not  against  her;  she  is  a 
co-worker.  The  whole  drift  is  toward  this  recognition.  Women 
are  not  only  accepted  as  members  of  political  parties,  but  they  are 
accepted  in  the  labor  organizations,  which,  by  the  way,  the  gov- 
ernment prohibits,  and  are  admitted  to  the  cooperative  societies 
that  came  to  perform  the  "harmless"  function  of  the  unions. 

"The  industrial  labor  class  is  our  great  menace,"  I  was  in- 
formed by  a  Reactionary  bureaucrat.  "The  rural  peasantry  is 
controllable;  it  does  not  seek  innovations.  But  the  working- 
class  is  dangerous.  It  organizes  for  revolt,  furnishes  the, terror- 
ists, and  seeks  to  become  intelligent.  And  the  women  you  men- 
tion are  in  the  forefront." 


RUSSIA  155 

I  confess  that  I  found  some  sympathy  with  the  bureaucratic 
fear  of  revoU.  The  autocratic  government  of  Russia  is  at  least 
a  government.  At  times^  it' takes  terrible  and  often  stupid  meas- 
ures to  suppress  the  people.  A  censorship,  whether  in  war  or 
peace,  that  aims  to  deceive  is  in  the  eyes  of  awakening  intelli- 
gence a  fact  more  irritating  than  those  truths  which  the  censor- 
ship can  conceal.  The  fact  that  only  half-truths  go  about  in 
rumors  leads  to  exaggerations.  Secret  police  activities  have 
stimulated  rather  than  restrained  the  spirit  of  revolt. .  But  were 
revolt  to  come  successfully,  the  people  of  Russia  could  not  to-day 
supply  a  government  which  would  last.  The  intelligent  class 
might  set  one  up ;  but  it  would  be  too  idealistic  to  be  firm,  and 
the  unintelligent  mass  and  mob  would  tear  it  down.  It  would  be 
a  Mexico  raised  to  the  nth  power ;  and  it  is  fortunate  that  the  war 
and  other  influences  have  come  to  give  the  people  a  national 
spirit  and  a  sense  of  restraint  and,  in  the  end,  a  more  deliberate 
manner  of  seeking  reform. 

"And  yet  even  if  the  radical  women  are  too  eager  for  action, 
they  must  be  credited  with  a  large  contribution  of  singleness  of 
purpose,"  said  a  woman  professor  in  one  of  the  institutes.  "I 
believe  they  wait  with  more  restraint  than  the  men.  You  must 
not  forget  the  pain  that  comes  to  those  men  and  women  who 
acquire  the  education  to  see  clearly,  to  think  theories  out,  and 
then  are  utterly  incapable  of  doing  anything.  This  explains  why 
reforms  have  appeared  almost  hysterical.  I  am  an  old  woman,  and 
I  have  seen  the  gloom  and  cynicism  and  the  bitterness  which 
have  come  to  men  of  the  intelligentsia  when  reaction  has  surged 
back,  sweeping  the  people  off  their  feet  because  they  were  ex- 
hausted by  their  own  march  of  protest.  Nothing  is  so  unwhole- 
some as  the  desire  to  put  thoughts  into  action  without  the  ability 
to  do  so.  This  produces  diseased  minds  and  accounts  for  waves 
of  suicide  and  for  the  Russian  trait  which  you  have  named  badly 
'Oriental  sullenness.' " 

She  had  turned  the  subject  from  the  uneducated  Russian  wo- 
man to  the  educated  Russian  woman,  the  nobility  and  the  intelli- 
gentsia. Unconsciously,  however,  she  had  expressed  her  pri- 
mary interest,  which  lay  in  the  "intelligent"  Russian  woman, 
whether  she  be  countess  or  schoolmistress.  And,  after  all,  when 
one  speaks  of  advanced  Russian  women,  one  is  speaking  of  that 
class.    Though  it  is  numerically  slight  compared  with  the  unedu- 


156  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

cated  peasants,  it  is  the  significant  class.  Every  new  day  of  the 
many  I  spent  in  Russia  added  to  my  admiration  for  it. 

The  conception  of  Russian  women  to  which  many  Americans 
cling,  reluctant  to  let  it  go,  as  if  it  were  a  sacred  tradition,  is 
that  of  sabled,  cooing,  powdered,  lithe,  and  languorous  ladies 
who  are  irresistible,  and  invite  from  hearthside  to  suicide.  Any 
one  who  has  seen  Russian  gentlemen  in  Moscow  or  Petrograd, 
with  opera-glasses,  lost  in  admiration  for  cabaret  singers  and 
dancers  who  would  disgrace  the  management  of  a  patent-medi- 
cine show  could  be  convinced  that  the  American  notion  of  Rus- 
sian beauty  must  be  in  some  particulars  faulty.  There  are  wo- 
men of  too  much  weight  of  body  and  features  whom  one  sees 
about  in  the  cities,  and  there  is  a  large  class  of  most  refined  and 
hospitable  ladies  who  represent  society  and  whose  many  titles 
mean  little,  because  titles  in  Russia  descend  on  the  all-inclusive 
principle.  It  is  nice  to  say,  "I  have  just  been  at  the  princess's  to 
lunch,"  or,  "The  countess  dropped  me  a  note,"  but  it  means  little. 
One  day  a  maid  in  a  Russian  home  in  which  I  was  having  tea 
announced  that  the  prince  had  come  back  from  the  front  with  a 
little  wound,  and  was  again  at  the  door  offering  to  buy  rags.  The 
ragman  was  in  fact  a  prince ;  but  I  have  ceased  to  give  my  word 
for  it,  because  many  Americans,  even  in  Russia,  refuse  to  take 
the  fact  seriously.  One  who  wishes  to  be  gallant  will  mark  the 
charm  of  the  minds  and  the  graciousness  of  the  manner  of  many 
in  the  class  of  society  women,  which  includes  many  titled  per- 
sons. Many  are  fascinating  women  whose  minds  are  better 
trained  and  whose  manners,  though  more  direct,  are  more  con- 
siderate and  whole-hearted  than  those  of  our  own  "best  people." 
But  the  "intelligent"  woman  in  Russia  looks  without  admiration 
upon  the  woman  who  is  living  as  a  respectable  ornament.  One 
of  them,  who  has  wealth  and  yet  works  eight  hours  a  day  in 
social  service,  spoke  of  the  charming  idlers  as  "the  mewing  wo- 
men." 

"I  do  have  affection  for  some  of  them,"  she  said,  "but  they 
mew  so !  This  war  is  helping  them  to  find  out  that  they  may  stop 
mewing  and  do  something;  I  have  seen  many  of  the  young 
daughters  of  their  kind  plunged  in  work  in  our  hospitals  for  the 
wounded.  I  have  two  nieces  who  are  going  every  day  and  really 
working.  Ah,  a  good  taste  of  usefulness  will  change  them  so 
that  they  will  never  be  content  to  be  dolls  again.  They  will 
cease  to  mew.    The  flatness  is  truly  leaving  their  faces." 


RUSSIA  i5^ 

The  active,  educated,  self-expressive  women  of  Russia  who 
from  whatever  cause  owe  their  stimulus  to  gymnasia,  institute, 
or  university  do  not  have  flat  faces.  Russian  women  are  not 
pretty;  many  are  ugly,  but  they  have  that  beauty  of  active  minds 
and  excellent  hearts.  The  modern  Russian  woman  has  not  much 
art  in  dress;  there  is  little  between  the  furbelows  of  those  who 
pay  much  attention  to  styles  and  the  dowdiness  of  the  woman 
who  is  dowdy  by  nature  or  merely  too  busy  to  pay  attention  to 
clothes  or  too  restricted  in  means.  There  is  more  modesty  in 
Petrograd  or  Moscow  than  in  New  York  or  Chicago ;  in  Russian 
cities  the  adventuress  imitates  the  woman  of  society  rather  than 
the  woman  of  society  the  adventuress. 

"Education  has  produced  this  type  of  woman,"  I  said  to  a 
young  American  girl  who  had  come  to  Russia  in  war-time  to 
study  the  Russian  women. 

"There  must  be  something  else,"  she  answered.  "The  women 
of  Russia  have  fought  for  their  education  for  over  sixty  years. 
And  more  than  that,  the  Russian  woman  seeks  her  education  for 
reasons  in  the  main  different  from  those  of  the  American.  Many 
of  us  at  home  go  to  schools  and  universities  with  a  general  idea 
of  absorbing  culture  and  preparing  ourselves  to  make  a  good 
intellectual  appearance;  but  to-day  I  have  been  at  the  woman's 
college,  and  through  one  of  the  teachers  I  have  talked  to  a  great 
number  of  the  students,  and  it  began  to  dawn  upon  me  that  in 
Russia  most  women  seek  education  as  means  to  actual  service  in 
life,  as  a  pathway  to  real  productive  labor.  They,  like  ambitious 
Russian  boys,  have  a  desire  to  join  in  the  actual  fight  for  prog- 
ress." 

The  impression  that  the  bureaucracy  has  constantly  opposed 
elementary  education  is  not  correct.  Scattered  responsibility, 
clumsy  plans,  and  financial  limitations  have  been  the  real  enemies 
of  general  and  compulsory  education.  The  population  of  Rus- 
sia is  rural,  and  to  bring  schools  to  all  at  once  is  nearly  im- 
possible. Furthermore,  the  schools  maintained  by  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  orthodox  religion  under  the  Holy  Synod  are  suspected 
by  the  intelligent  Russian  of  being  seats  of  reaction.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  liberal  teachers  of  the  city  and  district,  the  mu- 
nicipal and  zemstvo  schools,  are  suspected  by  conservatives  of 
being  the  sources  of  radical  and  heretic  doctrines.  The  zemstvos, 
or  local  self-governments,  have  done  more  practical  work  in  ex- 
tending the  system  of  education  than  any  other  agency.     Their 


IS8  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

schools,  of  which  there  are  more  than  twenty  thousand,  are 
usually  open  to  both  boys  and  girls  and  give  a  four-year  course. 
The  city  schools  usually  require  a  longer  training.  But  toward 
these  two  classes  of  schools  even  the  most  reactionary  supporters 
of  the  autocracy  are  forced  to  take  an  indulgent  attitude.  Why? 
Because  if  any  educational  system  is  to  be  set  up,  and  no  one 
dares  to  oppose  it,  then  it  is  better  for  the  bureaucracy  that 
the  system  be  in  charge  of  authorities  rather  than  a  system 
which  exists  by  private  or  cooperative  management  of  the  peo- 
ple and  beyond  government  control. 

Above  the  elementary  schools  which  are  beginning  to  lift  the 
mass  of  Russian  women  from  a  wretched  illiteracy  there  are 
gymnasia  and  institutes.  The  latter  are  mainly  for  the  daughters 
of  landed  gentry,  bureaucrats,  and  the  nobility,  and  correspond, 
except  in  tuition  fees,  to  our  expensive  boarding-schools  for  girls 
of  affluent  families.  The  members  of  the  court  have  founded 
many  such  institutes,  and  these  turn  out  the  cultivated,  unproduc- 
tively  brilliant  "mewing  women."  They  furnish  opportunities 
for  the  girl  not  a  member  of  the  upper  class  who  is  striving  to 
find  a  career  of  usefulness  and  ambition. 

"Into  higher  education  the  Russian  woman  has  pushed  her 
way,"  I  was  told  by  the  secretary  of  one  of  the  institutions  for 
women  on  the  Vassily  Ostrov.  "To  be  sure,  there  has  been  no 
marked  resistance  on  the  part  of  men  as  men.  Keeping  women 
out  of  institutions  would  appear  to  the  average  Russian  intelli- 
gent as  sensible  as  keeping  out  men  with  light  hair  and  admitting 
those  with  dark  complexions,  or  distinguishing  between  fat  and 
thin  persons.  I  believe  we  have  less  sense  of  sex  difference  than 
even  you  American  men,  who  are  said  to  look  with  indulgent 
good  nature  upon  women's  desire  to  be  your  mental  equals.  And 
yet  our  women  had  to  assert  their  right  to  the  fullness  of  in- 
tellectual development  and  to  their  right  to  enter  the  learned  pro- 
fessions." 

The  college  in  which  these  words  were  spoken  is  a  vast  rec- 
tangular, gloomy  structure  filled  with  endless  classrooms  and 
laboratories.  As  the  president  took  us  about,  introducing  us  to 
both  men  and  women  professors  and  instructors,  I  noticed  that 
the  curriculum  had  in  it  much  of  the  exact  sciences  and  little  of 
history,  sociology,  or  political  economy;  the  thumb  of  govern- 
ment authority  had  left  its  mark.  But  six  thousand  girls  are  en- 
rolled in  this  one  institution  in  Petrograd,  and  there  is  in  the 


RUSSIA  159 

direct,  cheerful,  active  manner  of  these  girls  a  promise  which 
it  would  be  hard  to  find  among  any  other  group  of  women  in  the 
world.  Those  students  to  whom  I  was  introduced  looked 
squarely  into  my  eyes  without  self-consciousness,  and  though 
hand-shaking  is  much  more  of  a  custom  in  Russia  than  in  the 
United  States,  there  was  something  in  the  thrust  and  grip  of 
these  girls  which  spoke  of  better  partnership  between  the  sexes 
than  yet  has  reached  full  development. 

"The  higher  education  for  women  began  early  in  Russia,"  said 
the  president.  "You  will  hear  of  the  young  woman  who  in  1861 
walked  into  a  medical-school  lecture  in  one  of  the  provinces,  and, 
with  note-book  opened,  but  without  comment,  took  up  the  course. 
The  faculty  had  never  thought  of  such  a  situation,  and  there 
being  no  good  reason  to  refuse,  they  admitted  her.  But  it  was 
before  that  year  that  this  college  was  founded  with  an  endow- 
ment of  not  more  than  fifty  English  pounds." 

From  the  middle  of  the  last  century  the  women  of  Russia 
have  asserted  their  eagerness  for  professional  training.  Teach- 
ing, surgery,  medicine,  and  government  service  have  attracted 
the  greatest  number.  When  the  medical  schools  were  closed  to 
them,  they  went  to  Switzerland  and  other  foreign  countries.  A 
Russian  girl  took  a  doctor's  degree  at  Zurich  in  1867.  In  the 
early  seventies  the  admission  of  women  to  medical  courses  be- 
came a  settled  practice  in  Russia.  In  1876,  women  surgeons  in 
numbers  distinguished  themselves  at  the  front  in  the  Servian-Tur- 
kish War ;  the  same  distinguished  service  has  been  given  by  them 
in  the  Russo-Japanese  War  and  in  the  present  conflict.  To-day 
women  physicians  are  as  prominent  as  men,  and  in  some  cities 
there  are  many  more  female  than  male  dentists.  More  than 
sixty-two  per  cent  of  the  teachers  in  the  zemstvo  schools  are 
women,  and  the  census  of  1897  showed  that  there  were  four  wo- 
men to  every  five  men  in  the  state  and  public  services. 

I  went  to  a  Sunday-night  musicale  at  the  home  of  a  Petrograd 
merchant.  The  hostess  has  five  children.  The  eldest  daughter 
has  left  school  to  enter  the  relief  work  of  the  war;  the  wife  has 
to  manage  the  household,  and  at  present  is  taking  care  of  two 
refugees  from  Poland.  She  belongs  to  many  organizations  of 
women,  but  despite  her  outside  interests,  her  children— if  one  is 
tolerant  of  the  unaffected  self-assurance  of  Russian  children — are 
attractive  young  persons,  and  her  hospitality  is  of  the  constant, 
all-hours,  and  informal  kind. 


i6o  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

"Will  you  have  a  cigarette?"  a  guest  asked  her. 

"Oh,  no,"  she  said.  "I  have  my  work  to  do  this  evening. 
Cigarettes  are  bad  for  one's  efficiency." 

I  asked  about  her  work. 

"Why,  she  is  a  distinguished  mathematician,"  I  was  told 
"She  has  been  engaged  for  several  years  in  work  the  govern- 
ment is  doing — charting  the  Northern  seas.  She  is  a  government 
hydrographer." 

The  women  of  Russia  are  not  self-conscious  concerning  their 
abilities.  If  one  expresses  surprise  at  their  work,  they  express 
wonder  at  the  surprise.    "Why  not?"  they  ask. 

The  Russian  monthly  for  women,  patterned  after  our  own 
women's  magazines  of  "fashion,  fiction,  and  fact,"  and  many 
other  periodicals,  are  edited  by  women,  and  women  are  often  in 
charge  of  the  business  management  as  well. 

One  of  my  acquaintances  in  Petrograd  was  an  active,  diminu- 
tive widow  whose  son  asked  eternally,  and  to  my  embarrassment, 
questions  concerning  the  fighting  strength  of  the  United  States. 
His  mother  does  not  regard  it  as  remarkable  that  she  is  a  politi- 
cal reporter  and  an  international  correspondent,  sending  daily 
telegrams  to  a  London  publication  about  the  fortunes  of  war  on 
the  Russian  front.  In  her  study  she  has  covered  the  walls  with 
military  maps  and  her  book-shelves  with  manuals  of  military  sci- 
ence, and  it  is  impossible  to  convince  her  that  there  is  anything 
extraordinary  in  her  attempt  to  master  strategy. 

"I  have  a  mind.  It  can  grasp  these  things  or  it  cannot,"  she 
says.  "If  it  can,  well  and  good.  It  will  not  be  because  I  am  a 
woman  that  it  can.  If  it  cannot,  it  will  not  be  because  I  am  a 
a  woman  that  it  cannot.    And  so — " 

Women  in  Russia  have  not  advanced  to  the  degree  that  they 
do  not  foster  women's  organizations.  No  people  are  fonder  of 
societies  and  associations  than  Russians.  There  are  associations 
of  arts,  technical  associations,  musical  clubs,  and  endless  societies, 
but  efficiency  in  joint  action  is  not  yet  a  virtue  of  the  Russians. 
They  are  too  individualistic.  The  government  frowns  upon  any 
cooperative  body  which  aims  to  do  anything,  and  the  Russians 
lack  practice  in  acting  together.  Assembly  is  always  dangerous 
even  when  it  is  not  clear  that  there  is  any  political  significance  in 
it.  Not  many  months  ago  members  of  the  American  and  Eng- 
lish colonies  in  Petrograd  went  out  into  the  country  for  a  picnic. 
The  affair  was  conducted  in  a  somewhat  stately  fashion,  and 


RUSSIA  i6i 

proud  men  and  elegant  dames  joined  in  the  celebration.  They 
were  all  put  under  arrest  by  the  local  police  for  conducting  an 
unlawful  assembly. 

Russian  women,  however,  have  shown  skill  in  making  their 
organizations  effective.  I  went  to  t)rpical  settlements  which  are 
maintained  by  women's  societies.  Unlike  our  own  settlements, 
they  rely  upon  the  cooperative  labors  of  members  more  than  upon 
their  endowments.  When  the  national  relief  committee  under 
Prince  Oldenburg  called  upon  districts  of  cities  and  upon  towns 
for  the  establishment  of  hospitals,  the  "intelligent"  women  of 
Russia  came  to  the  forefront  in  the  business  administration  in 
these. 

"The  movement  for  woman  suffrage  in  Russia  occupies  a 
peculiar  position,"  I  was  told  by  one  of  the  women  reporters  who 
had  been  attached  to  daily  papers  in  Moscow  and  Petrograd. 
"We  feel  the  influence  of  Finland,  where  women  vote  and  hold 
office  just  as  men  do,"  she  went  on.  "There  are  many  reasons 
why  women  in  Russia  would  want  to  vote,  and  occasionally  they 
are  granted  the  privilege.  For  instance,  when  long  ago,  before 
the  war,  the  first  steps  were  taken  against  drunkenness  and  local 
option  was  tried,  the  women  were  allowed  to  cast  ballots  because 
it  served  the  purpose  of  the  imperial  council  to  allow  them  to  do 
so.  But  you  must  not  forget  that  even  male  suffrage  in  Russia 
is  not  what  it  seems  under  our  so-called  constitutional  rights. 
The  first  desire  of  the  people  is  for  any  extension  of  suffrage, 
but  whether  to  men  or  women  is  not  for  the  moment  vital.  The 
question  of  women  suffrage  is  somewhat  lost  in  that  larger  ques- 
tion." 

None  the  less  there  are  active  suffrage  societies.  They  are 
forbidden  to  maintain  an  existence,  but  under  various  guises  they 
persist.  The  presiding  officer  of  one  of  them  in  Petrograd  talked 
freely  enough  about  their  work. 

"We  increase  our  membership-list  constantly,  and  some  promi- 
nent members  of  the  government  who  are  considered  reactionary 
would  be  surprised  to  find  their  wives  and  daughters  secretly  in- 
terested in  our  movement,"  said  she.  "Russian  women  are  sent 
abroad  to  attend  international  conferences  of  the  suffrage  move- 
ment. We  keep  ourselves  informed  as  to  what  other  countries 
are  doing,  but  we  are  very  different  from  your  woman-suffrage 
societies.  We  spend  much  of  our  energy  trying  to  show  that 
women  can  be  practical  and  efficient  in  government.    For  in- 


i62  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

stance,  I  understand  that  in  America  if  one  goes  to  a  woman- 
suffrage  society  and  says,  'We  need  better  education;  therefore 
draw  a  bill  for  the  assembly,'  your  women  say:  *We  do  not 
understand  education.  If  we  did,  we  would  draw  no  bill.  We 
bother  with  no  political  questions  but  woman  suffrage.' " 
I  smiled. 

"Well,  how  can  they  say  so?"  she  exclaimed.  "They  must 
convince  by  showing  in  deeds  how  worthy  they  are  in  politics. 
They  must  seize  all  opportunities  for  political  expression.  How 
can  any  one  know  their  worth  until  they  do  so  ?  So  we  are  busy 
working  for  good  measures.  I  have  helped  to  draw  a  bill  for 
compulsory  education  to  be  put  before  the  new  Duma.  We  wo- 
men must  practise  for  political  fitness." 

When  I  left  Petrograd  for  Mohileff  in  an  army-train,  a  young 
soldier  who  shared  my  compartment,  on  his  way  to  the  front, 
leaned  out  of  the  window  to  say  good-by  to  a  young  girl.  An 
old  artillery  officer  explained  to  me  in  French  that  they  were 
married,  but  both  had  been  attending  universities,  and  both  ex- 
pected  to  be  doctors.  The  young  Slav  giant,  with  his  flaxen  hair 
and  clear  skin,  roared  with  laughter,  though  somewhat  nervously, 
and  the  girl,  tall,  well-poised,  rested  her  large  hands  on  the  win- 
dow-sill and  chatted  with  a  smiling  countenance.  They  were 
Spartans. 

The  train  started.  The  girl  ran  behind  a  post,  where  he  could 
not  see  her,  but  I  could,  and  buried  her  face  in  her  arm,  shaking 
with  emotion.  The  young  blond  giant  turned  to  me,  and  with 
tears  in  the  comers  of  his  eyes  gripped  my  knees  and  poured 
forth  in  a  low,  thick  voice  a  flood  of  Russian  words. 

"Ah,  he  desires  to  communicate  to  you,"  the  old  artillery 
officer  said  in  French — "he  desires  to  communicate  to  you  that 
it  is  not  difficult  to  say  good-by  to  an  ordinary  pretty  woman  to 
whom  one  is  married  and  whom  one  loves,  but  that  it  is  much 
more  difficult  if  she  is  also  one's  best  friend." 

Perhaps  there  is  in  this  a  deserved  tribute  to  the  best  of 
the  better  half  of  Russia. 


RUSSIA  163 


NEW  FREEDOM  FOR  THE  RUSSIAN  WOMAN* 

A  new  law  revolutionizing  the  position  of  married  women 
in  Russia  received  the  assent  of  the  Czar  early  in  April.  Some 
interesting  and  significant  facts  about  this  new  law  are  given 
by  Dr.  Sofia  Gordon,  of  Moscow,  in  a  recent  issue  of  The  New 
Statesman,  the  London  weekly.  She  says,  speaking  of  the  for- 
mer status  of  Russian  wives: 

The  Russian  wife  was  not  in  such  a  humiliating  position  as  the  German 
wife — for  the  Russian  law  (outside  Poland  and  the  Baltic  Provinces)  has 
long  recognized  a  married  woman's  separate  estate,  which  the  well-to-do 
woman  can  dispose  of  without  asking  her  husband's  permission,  thus  being 
able  to  transact  business  and  engage  in  trade  on  her  own  account.  Yet  the 
millions  of  wives  without  separate  estate  had  but  scanty  economic  inde- 
pendence. A  wife  could  not  even  obtain  a  passport  without  her  husband's 
sanction,  and  was  consequently  unable  to  travel,  or  to  take  a  lodging,  with- 
out his  permission,  or  even  to  dwell  apart  from  him.  A  separated  wife  was 
always  liable  to  be  brought  back  to  her  husband's  house  by  the  police.  For 
a  whole  generation  the  Holy  Synod  has  successfully  opposed  any  legal  sep- 
aration of  husband  and  wife.  Divorce  was  (and  still  remains)  a  difficult 
and  costly  business,  out  of  the  question  for  ninety-nine  per  cent  of  Russian 
households.  Where  husband  and  wife  chose  to  live  apart,  the  wife  without 
separate  estate  was  unable  legally  to  acquire  property,  to  set  up  her  own 
business,  or  even  to  enter  into  a  wage  contract. 

By  the  new  law,  the  "separated  wife"  is  set  free. 

It  gives  her  full  liberty  to  travel  and  enjoyment  of  property,  even  if 
she  is  under  age.  She  will  apply  for  her  own  passport.  There  will  be  no 
judicial  order  for  a  restitution  of  conjugal  rights  and  no  summary  bringing 
back  by  the  police.  An  aggrieved  wife  may  obtain  a  judicial  separation  for 
rudeness,  violence,  dishonesty,  immorality,  dangerous  illness  or  loathsome 
disease  in  her  husband;  with  the  right,  if  she  is  the  aggrieved  party,  to  the 
custody  of  her  children,  and,  where  possible,  to  an  order  on  the  husband 
for  alimony. 

Formerly,  Dr.  Gordon  reminds  us,  Russian  women  had  many 
rights  and  freedom  to  work. 

For  a  whole  generation  the  women's  fight  for  political  freedom  was  but 
part  of  the  general  revolutionary  movement.  It  is  unnecessary  to  describe 
the  zeal  and  devotion  with  which  thousands  of  women  sacrificed  themselves, 
slaving  away  at  the  work  of  propaganda  and  organization,  going  to  the  jail 
and  the  gallows,  or  enduring  the  horrors  of  the  long  march  to  Siberia,  like 
the  men.  The  Russian  movement  specifically  for  woman  suffrage  begins 
only  with  the  present  century. 


*  Review  of  Reviews.  49:741-2.  June,  1914. 


i64  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  reaction,  after  the  revolution  of  1905  and  1906  had  been 
put  down,  swept  all  this  away.  However,  the  Russian  woman 
has  patiently  begun  all  over  again. 

In  1909  a  new  "League  for  Woman  Suffrage"  was  formed  at  St.  Peters- 
burg on  a  non-party  basis,  and  this  spread  to  Moscow  in  1910,  and  to  Char- 
cow  in  19 1 3.  Its  membership  is  small  and  its  task  difficult;  but  it  makes 
progress,  and  is  influencing  opinion.  Women's  claim  to  vote  is  also  sup- 
ported by  the  more  powerful  "Association  for  Defense  of  the  Rights  of 
Women"  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  by  many  philanthropic  and  social  organiza- 
tions of  women  all  over  the  country. 

It  is  some  evidence,  says  Dr.  Gordon  further,  that  the  long- 
continued  educational  campaign,  the  women's  devotion  to  the 
revolutionary  cause,  and  the  more  recent  suffrage  agitation 
have  not  been  in  vain  that  practically  all  the  "progressive" 
parties  of  Russia  include  in  their  programs  complete  equality  of 
rights  for  men  and  women. 

Motions  for  redressing  the  special  legal  grievances  of  women  are  fre- 
quently discussed  in  the  Duma.  The  new  law  which  accords  personal  free- 
dom to  the  married  woman  is  one  outcome  of  these  discussions.  The  Labor 
Party  has  boldly  demanded  adult  suffrage.  Even  the  "Center"  Party,  the 
so-called  "Octobrists,"  has  supported  equality  of  sons  and  daughters  in  inheri- 
tance, admission  of  women  to  practise  as  lawyers,  to  the  State  examinations 
entitling  to  degrees,  and  even  woman's  franchise  (but  only  for  female  heads 
of  households)  for  the  local  committees  for  regulating  the  sale  of  alcoholic 
liquor.  Women  heads  of  households  already  possess  an  indirect  vote  at 
municipal  and  communal  elections,  in  that  they  may  depute  a  male  member 
of  their  family  to  vote  for  them.  During  the  past  few  months  great  meet- 
ings have  been  held  in  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  to  urge  women  to  take 
part  in  these  elections.  A  widespread  agitation  is  being  set  on  foot  by  the 
League  for  Woman  Suffrage  to  obtain  votes  for  women  in  the  forthcoming 
revision  of  the  electoral  system  by  the  Duma. 


ELEMENTARY  EDUCATION  IN  RUSSIA^ 

Since  the  outbreak  of  the  war  in  Europe  much  has  been  said 
and  written  about  the  many  factors  that  are  working  for  the 
regeneration  of  Russia.  The  social,  financial,  industrial  and 
political  phases  of  Russian  life  have  received  considerable  atten- 
tion in  the  press,  but  practically  nothing  has  been  said  about 
the  progress  of  elementary  education,  the  greatest  of  all  factors 
in  modern  civilization,  in  the  Russian  empire.    In  a  recent'issue 

*  Review  of  Reviews.  54:104-5.  July,  1916. 


RUSSIA  i6s 

of  the  Russkia  Vedomosti  (Moscow)  there  appeared  extracts 
from  a  report  issued  by  the  Ministry  of  Popular  Education  in 
February  of  this  year.  This  report  was  the  result  of  five  years 
of  work  of  investigation  conducted  by  the  Ministry  of  Educa- 
tion among  the  schools  of  the  empire  under  its  control,  for 
there  are  also  in  Russia  parochial  and  private  elementary 
schools,  though  their  numbers  are  not  large.  In  the  report  are 
also  not  included  the  schools  of  Finland  and  the  Province  of 
Kamtchatka.  The  report  "covers"  a  period  of  four  years,  from 
January  ii,  191 1,  when  the  first  general  school  census  was  taken 
in  Russia,  to  January  i,  1915. 

On  January  i,  1915,  there  were  in  the  empire  80,801  elemen- 
tary schools  (with  the  above  exceptions),  9,006  of  which  were 
in  cities  and  towns  and  71,795  in  villages  and  hamlets.  In  the 
four  years  that  passed  since  January  11,  191 1,  the  number  of 
schools  increased  by  19,764,  or  32.3  per  cent,  which  is  several 
times  more  than  the  corresponding  increase  in  population.  In 
this  connection  it  is  of  interest  to  note  that  in  the  last  twenty 
years  the  number  of  schools  grew  from  29,000,  in  1895,  to 
81,000,  in  1915.  From  the  year  when  the  plan  for  universal  ele- 
mentary education  had  been  first  drafted,  1907,  the  number  of 
schools  grew  from  46,000  to  81,000,  i.  e.,  an  increase  of  35,000, 
or  74.6  per  cent  in  seven  years.  These  figures  speak  eloquently 
for  the  strides  Russia  has  been  making  of  late  in  her  elemen- 
tary education. 

The  statistics  as  to  the  numbers  of  pupils,  teachers,  and 
their  sexes  are  also  not  void  of  significance.  Thus  the  number 
of  pupils  increased  from  4,411,000  on  January  11,  191 1,  to  5,942,- 
000,  on  January  i,  1915,  an  increase  of  1,531,000,  or  34.7  per 
cent.  The  growth  in  the  number  of  female  pupils  was  marked 
everywhere,  but  especially  so  in  the  rural  districts,  where  the 
increase  in  female  scholars  amounted  to  47  per  cent  in  the 
period  of  four  years.  The  percentage  of  female  pupils  in  the 
entire  student  body  of  the  elementary  schools  increased  from 
32.5  to  34.5  within  the  four  years. 

The  total  teaching  force  in  the  Russian  elementary  schools 
consisted  of  146,000  instructors  on  January  i,  1915 — an  increase 
in  the  four  years  of  41,000,  or  38.6  per  cent.  As  the  increase 
in  the  student  body  was  for  the  same  time  only  34.7  per  cent, 
it  follows  that  the  number  of  pupils  to  each  teacher  has  de- 


i66  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

creased  in  the  same  period.    On  January  i,   1915,  there  were 
40.7  pupils  for  every  instructor. 

Another  interesting  phenomenon  is  the  constant  increase  in 
the  number  of  female  teachers  at  the  expense  of  the  male.  Thus, 
in  191 1,  the  percentage  of  male  teachers  in  the  entire  force  was 
43.5.  But  in  the  beginning  of  1915  the  percentage  of  male 
teachers  decreased  to  37.1,  while  that  of  the  female  force  rose 
correspondingly  to  62.9.  However,  these  statistics  are  not  equal 
for  all  the  provinces  of  the  empire.  In  the  forty-three  Zemstvo 
provinces  (the  more  advanced  and  civilized  parts  of  the  country) 
the  percentage  for  the  male  teachers  was  only  30.2,  while  in  the 
forty-nine  remaining  provinces  there  were  as  many  as  fifty-six 
male  teachers  in  every  hundred. 

CHRISTMAS  IN  RUSSIA  AND  HER  PROVINCES^ 

Russia  is  a  large  body  and  correspondingly  slow  moving,  so 
she  has  not  yet  made  up  her  mind  to  submit  to  the  changes  Pope 
Gregory  made  in  the  calendar  centuries  ago,  and  the  25th  of 
December  still  comes  according  to  the  calculations  made  by 
Julius  Caesar,  on  what  the  rest  of  the  world  calls  January  6. 
Soon  it  will  come  on  January  7,  for  the  empire  is  steadily  losing 
a  minute  or  two  every  year.  Russia  doesn't  mind — time  is  not 
so  important  there  that  they  can't  spare  that  much — and  they 
have  just  as  good  a  time  on  Christmas,  even  if  they  do  have  to 
wait  for  it,  as  anywhere  else. 

Such  home-festivals  are  especially  delightful  in  that  country 
of  the  snows,  when  all  Nature  is  frozen  outdoors  and  the  pit- 
iless winds  of  the  great  plains  sweep  to  the  cities  with  force 
sufficient  to  penetrate  sometimes  even  the  double  and  triple  win- 
dows behind  which  the  Russians  barricade  themselves.  The 
length  of  the  winter  makes  this  people  so  fond  of  green  things 
that  they  turn  their  houses  into  veritable  bowers  whenever  they 
can.  Lovely  plants  grow  everywhere  and  even  between  the 
double  windows  (sealed  and  never  raised  during  the  winter) 
artificial  flowers  are  put,  so  that  one  looks  out  not  on  a  desola- 
tion of  snow,  but  at  a  mass  of  climbing  vines.  All  these  prepa- 
rations have  just  been  completed  when  Christmas  comes  round, 
for  it  is  December  that  brings  the  great  freeze  that  will  last 
all  winter,  the  "frost  of  St.  Nicholas." 

1  Travel.  13:130-1.  December,  1907. 


RUSSIA  167 

The  orthodox  church  has  ordered  many  fasts,  and  the  rule 
is  that  the  whole  of  Advent  shall  be  kept  by  abstinence  from 
meat  eating.  Even  fish  is  only  occasionally  to  be  indulged  in, 
so  when  Christmas  day  comes  round  everybody  is  in  a  mood 
for  a  general  rejoicing.  Customs  vary  in  different  parts  of 
the  vast  empire  as  well  as  in  different  classes  of  society,  and 
many  of  the  old  ways  are  passing  fast,  but  the  day  is  still  marked 
by  some  curious  customs,  especially  in  the  remote  country  dis- 
tricts, where  the  new  ideas  have  not  much  of  a  foothold.  In  St 
Petersburg  and  other  centers,  the  Christmas  is  kept  much  as 
it  is  with  us,  giving  presents,  lighting  gayly-decked  trees  at 
family  reunions.  A  few  old  games  are  played  still  in  the  houses 
of  the  aristocracy,  but  not  as  they  used  to  be.  To  see  a  genuine 
Russian  Christmas  party  of  the  old  style  one  must  go  into  the 
provinces. 

In  far  country  districts  it  is  still  the  custom  to  give  a  great 
celebration  lasting  several  days  in  honor  chiefly  of  young  girls. 
A  messenger  is  sent  to  bid  all  the  families  of  consequence  to 
this  Homeric  entertainment  and  the  guests  arrive  a  day  or  two 
before  Christmas.  Russians  are  a  ceremonious  people  and 
hours  pass  in  compliments  and  assurances  of  esteem.  The 
young  girls  are  to  remain  several  days,  each  accompanied  by 
a  maid,  and  the  parents  are  careful  to  express  their  pleasure  at 
leaving  their  daughters  under  the  honorable  care  of  the  host 
and  hostess.  All  the  girls  call  one  another  "little  playmate," 
although  they  may  never  have  met  before,  and  all  sleep  in  one 
large  room. 

The  peasants  of  southern  Russia  have  a  pretty  custom  of 
welcoming  the  "Christmas  guest."  A  young  man  chosen  by  the 
village  for  the  purpose  calls  at  the  door  of  all  the  houses  and 
says,  "Christ  is  born,"  throwing  a  handful  of  corn  over  the 
threshold.  The  housewife  responds,  "In  truth  he  is  born!"  and 
throws  corn  over  the  guest.  The  young  man  walks  to  the  fire, 
takes  up  the  largest  log  and  strikes  it  until  the  sparks  fly. 
Then  he  says,  "Even  so  may  blessings  come  to  this  house,"  and 
puts  on  the  end  of  the  log  an  orange,  stuck  with  a  small  coin. 
The  housewife  gives  him  knitted  leggings  and  he  takes  his 
leave,  turning,  however,  to  say  at  the  door,  "How  did  Christ- 
mas come  to  you?"  The  housewife  replies,  "As  a  welcome 
guest.  All  have  enough  and  are  merry."  In  other  districts  peas- 
ant boys  dress  themselves  as  animals  and  knock  at  the  doors  of 

13 


i68  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

the  houses.  It  is  etiquette  to  express  great  fear  at  their  terrible 
appearance.  Then  they  are  invited  in,  the  host  expressing  his 
relief  at  the  gentle  manner  of  these  bloodthirsty  beasts.  The 
boys  dance  and  sing  and  are  given  pennies  and  cakes. 

In  the  capital  the  Christmas  ceremonies  have  from  almost 
time  immemorial  ended  with  the  solemnity  of  the  blessing  of 
the  Neva.  The  river  is  always  frozen  over  at  this  season  and 
a  little  temple  is  erected  on  the  ice  adorned  with  pictures  of  the 
Saints.  The  dignitaries  of  the  church  and  the  court,  headed  by 
the  emperor,  wind  in  stately  procession  over  the  ice  to  the  queer 
little  structure,  which  surrounds  a  large  hole  bored  through  to 
the  water.  Here  the  river  is  blessed  with  great  pomp  and  cir- 
cumstances. It  is  a  really  beautiful  ceremony,  with  splendid 
symbolism  and  exquisite  prayers.  The  popular  ways  of  cele- 
bration may  be  abandoned,  but  this  ceremony  of  the  blessing  of 
the  Neva  is  one  that  will  last,  as  long  as  the  mighty  church 
and  the  mysticisms  of  the  nation  endure. 


TWO  YEARS'  SOBRIETY  IN  RUSSIA' 

Drawing  sober  breaths  of  rejoicing,  Russia  does  not  forget 
the  time  when  "there  were  entire  drunken  villages,  drunken 
cities,  a  drunken  army,  a  drunken  Russia,"  So  the  Petrograd 
correspondent  of  the  Neue  Ziiricher  Zeitung  presents  a  survey  of 
the  results  of  the  prohibition  ukase  of  July  29,  1914.  "What 
would  have  become  of  Russia  without  the  revolutionary  proc- 
lamation?" is  a  question  put  by  many.  A  representative  of  the 
Duma  has  said  that  "the  very  thought  of  the  fateful  conse- 
quences on  the  battlefields  and  in  the  country  itself  of  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  inveterate  alcohol  regime  makes  every  patriot 
shudder."     The  writer  continues  : 

We  are,  therefore,  more  than  overjoyed  to  know  that  it  has  been  statis- 
tically proved  that  the  daily  producing  capacity  of  the  workingman,  since 
the  promulgation  of  that  message  of  salvation,  has  been  increased  by  fifteen 
per  cent,  and  that  Monday,  the  day  when  millions  of  muzhik  (farmers)  were 
found  in  the  gutters,  has  become  a  normal  work-day  in  Russia.  But  not 
only  the  mir  (village  community)  felt  the  consequences;  the  life  also  in  the 
city  was  as  if  of  a  sudden  transformed.  The  population  rushed  to  the 
schools  and  savings-banks,  cooperative  societies  opened  their  counters  by  the 
hundred.     The  whole  aspect  of  the  family  life,  the  very  looks  of  the  people 

*  Literary  Digest.  54:822.  March  24,  19 17. 


RUSSIA  169 

on  the  street  were  changed.  How  quickly  the  population  grasped  the  pros- 
pective benefits  of  the  great  reform  is  best  shown  by  the  fact  that  when  it 
became  known  that  the  Imperial  ukase,  in  order  to  become  legally  valid,  will 
need  the  express  consent  of  the  majority  of  the  mirs,  only  an  exceedingly 
low  percentage  refused  the  indorsement.  To-day  there  is  hardly  a  village 
in  the  vast  Empire  where  the  blessings  of  heaven  are  not  called  down  on 
the  Little  Father  in  Petrograd. 

January  last  (1916)  the  Zemstvo  (County  Assembly)  of  Moscow  circu- 
larized the  peasants  in  order  to  ascertain  in  the  most  direct  possible  way 
the  impression  of  the  population.  A  few  of  the  replies  made  by  the  village 
elders,  most  of  them  as  illiterate  as  their  charges,  have  a  great  economic 
and  psychological  value: 

"The  men  feel  stronger.  Their  treatment  of  their  women  folk  and  atti- 
tude toward  their  neighbors  is  not  the  same  as  before." 

"The  children  are  now  nicely  drest  and  have  even  shoes  on  their  feet. 
One  hears  no  more  quarreling  in  the  izbas  (farmhouses)." 

"I  was  amazed  to  find  among  our  farmers  some  who  subscribe  to  news- 
papers." 

"The  people  have  become  more  honest." 

There  are,  however,  some  who  do  not  give  up  all  hope  to  see  again  the 
vodka  bottle  in  its  ancient  glory:  "The  war  will  end  with  our  victory;  our 
heroes  will  return,  and  then,  of  course,  moderately,  one  will  have  to  drink 
again." 

Our  authority  states  that  the  malcontents  are  mostly  found  among  the 
lazy  farm-hands  and  the  city  loafers,  who  try  to  replace  the  old  wine  and 
alcohol  by  all  possible  substitutes.  The  substitutes  offered  by  the  govern- 
ment and  the  municipalities  are  theatres,  moving  pictures,  reading-rooms, 
clubs,  tea-houses,  and  similar  institutions. 

Nobody  has  so  quickly  and  completely  grasped  the  import  of  the  social 
revolution  as  woman,  the  greatest  sufferer  from  the  old  alcohol  curse.  We 
are,  therefore,  not  astonished  to  learn  that  as  soon  as  the  saloons  were 
definitely  closed  the  peasant  women  marched  to  the  churches  in  Indian  file 
to  burn  a  candle  each,  thanking  the  Lord  for  the  great  delivery. 

When,  last  spring,  the  question  of  repermitting  the  sale  of  beer  and  red 
wine  came  up  in  the  Duma,  Tarasov,  a  farmer-deputy,  exclaimed:  "If  the 
women  could  hear  you,  they  would  pull  you  down  from  this  platform." 


RELIGION 


RELIGION  IN  RUSSIA  TO-DAY* 

The  Oriental  orthodox  church — for  the  designation  "Greek 
church"  is  really  a  misnomer — has  a  history  which  perhaps 
means  more  to  it  in  its  actual  consciousness  of  to-day,  and  par- 
ticularly to  that  branch  known  as  the  Russian  Church,  than  is 
the  case  with  any  other  branch  of  Christendom.  To  Jerusalem, 
the  cradle  of  Christianity,  there  succeeded  in  ecclesiastical  im- 
portance Constantinople,  the  centre  from  which  Northern  Europe 
was  evangelised.  When  Constantinople  fell  to  the  Turks  in 
1453,  the  deposit  of  the  Oriental  orthodox  church  was  committed 
to  a  country  that  had  been  Christian  since  the  tenth  century, 
where  it  has  since  been  preserved  with  an  affection  and  in  a 
purity  that  are  both  vivid  elements  in  the  modern  Russian  re- 
ligious consciousness.  Perhaps  it  is  in  the  Oriental  orthodox 
church  that  we  can  see  the  best  contemporaneous  representative 
of  the  Early  Christian  church  of  the  first  three  centuries.  At 
any  rate,  it  has  conserved  without  alteration  the  teaching  of  the 
Apostles  and  the  decrees  of  the  seven  Ecumenical  Councils. 

The  greatest  event  in  the  history  of  this  Oriental  orthodox 
church  was  tlie  schism  with  Rome  under  the  Patriarch  Photius 
in  the  ninth  century.  Hereby,  in  the  thought  of  the  cultured 
orthodox  Russian,  it  was  saved  from  the  spiritual  despotism 
and  the  dogmatic  and  disciplinary  innovations  of  its  rival,  from 
those  alterations  of  doctrine  and  waywardness  in  morals  that 
produced  the  fruitful  protest  of  the  sixteenth  century,  from 
celibacy  of  the  priesthood  with  its  attendant  evils,  from  the  sacri- 
legious commerce  in  indulgences,  from  the  horrors  of  an  Inquisi- 
tion, from  the  baneful  might  of  excommunication.  The  Oriental 
orthodox  church  has  never  monopolised  the  Holy  Scriptures  for 
its  profit,  nor  proclaimed  that  to  it  alone  belonged  the  right  to 
present  them  to  the  faith  of  its  people.    It  places  their  authority 

*  By  J.  Y.  Simpson.  Hibbert  Journal.   14:393-408.  January,   1916. 


172  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

above  all  else;  it  calls  upon  its  members  to  find  within  those 
pages  their  daily  food  and  sustenance.  "To  be  the  pure  reflec- 
tion of  the  Word  of  God" — says  Boissard,  attempting  to  show 
the  standpoint  of  the  Russian  church — "that  is,  for  every  church, 
to  participate  in  its  infallibility."  Broken  up  to-day  into  more 
than  a  dozen  different  bodies  and  transformed  in  a  certain 
measure,  it  still  stands  firmly  upon  its  ancient  foundations,  and 
will  stand.  To  traverse  afresh  the  course  of  the  ages,  fixing 
our  attentive  gaze  upon  ancient  Kiev,  mother  of  all  the  towns  of 
Russia,  or  on  the  Holy  City  of  Moscow,  the  principal  centre  of 
orthodoxy;  to  contemplate  with  admiration  mingled  with  respect 
the  noble  traits  of  pastors  such  as  Cyril,  Nikon,  Philip  Martyr, 
Hermogenes,  and  Philaret,  or  of  pious  ascetics  such  as  were 
Anthony,  Theodosius,  Sergius,  and  Sozimus,  or  of  princes  like 
Vladimir  Monomachus,  Alexander  Nevsky,  and  Michael  Ro- 
manov; or  yet  of  countless  martyrs  and  confessors,  both  men 
and  women,  of  every  age  and  condition — to  do  all  this  provides 
not  merely  an  entrancing  story,  but  is  necessary  to  the  complete 
understanding  of  what  one  sees  in  the  Russian  church  of  to-day. 
But  that,  after  all,  the  actual  expression  of  the  rehgious  con- 
sciousness, is  the  principal  thing  to  understand;  for  religious 
Russia,  direct  though  her  contact  be  with  the  past,  and  proud 
of  it  as  she  always  will  be,  does  not  altogether  live  there,  as  so 
many  seem  to  think.  "There  is  no  book  on  the  Russian  church," 
wrote  one  of  her  most  distinguished  sons  to  me  in  answer  to  an 
inquiry;  "there  is  no  book  on  the  Russian  church,  because  our 
church  cannot  be  discussed  in  a  book.  Better  than  from  any 
book  will  you  understand  it  if  you  go  to  such  a  religious  centre 
as  to  the  Troizko-Sergievskaya  Lavra  (a  famous  pilgrim-fre- 
quented monastery  near  Moscow)  or  the  Kiev  Petcherskaya  (the 
oldest  and  most  highly  revered  monastery  in  Russia)  and  others, 
especially  on  the  great  festivals,  or  even  if  you  go  to  our 
churches,  particularly  in  Lent." 

In  endeavouring  to  bring  out  that  which  the  Russian  church 
means  to  the  best  of  her  people  and  what  they  hope  for  from 
her,  I  do  not  know  that  it  is  possible  to  do  better  than  attempt  to 
reproduce  parts  of  conversations  to  which  I  certainly  owe  much. 
The  speaker  is  now  an  old  man,  and  a  layman  holding  high  office 
in  connection  with  the  Holy  Synod.  He  began  by  correcting 
wrong  impressions.  "You  must  know,"  he  said,  "that  the 'Em- 
peror is  the  protector,  but  not  the  head,  of  the  Russian  Greek 


RUSSIA  173 

church.  The  head  of  the  Church  is  our  Lord."  In  his  develop- 
ment of  this  point  I  came  to  see  that  the  views  of  the  Oriental 
orthodox  church  and  of  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland 
were  practically  one,  and  that  the  opinion  ordinarily  held  in  this 
country  of  the  relation  of  the  Emperor  to  the  Russian  Church 
would  be  blasphemy  to  the  true  orthodox  believer.  "That  is 
the  great  distinction  between  us  and  the  Romans,"  continued  my 
friend.  "There  is  no  necessity  to  have  a  head  of  the  church 
upon  earth  when  we  have  such  a  Head  in  heaven.  Again,  the 
Greek  church  is  the  dominating  church,  but  it  is  not  the  state 
church.  We  do  not  use  the  term  'state  church,'  because  we  have 
not  the  thing.  We  speak  about  the  'Gospodstvoyustchaya  Tzer- 
kov' — the  'dominating,'  the  predominant  church.  But  in  that 
description  there  is  nothing  juridical,  simply  a  statement  of  fact." 

Of  these  talks,  of  which  I  had  two  or  three,  what  lingers 
chiefly  in  my  memory  were  animated  passages  in  which  he  strove 
to  show  what  in  great  measure  we  had  lost.  And  it  is  just  here 
that  the  Russian  church  has  most  to  teach  us,  owing  to  the  deep 
mysticism  of  her  most  devoted  sons,  the  ingrained  certainty  in 
practically  every  Russian  mind  that  there  is  a  great  deal  more  in 
the  world  than  shall  ever  be  compassed  by  measuring  rod  or 
test  tube,  the  unremitting  sureness  that  we  are  wrapped  about 
by  a  spiritual  world  which  is  the  real  world.  "Ah,  the  Com- 
munion of  Saints,"  said  my  friend;  "how  real  and  precious  that 
is  to  us,  to-day  more  than  ever!  I  think  that  you  have  just  a 
little  lost  the  sense  of  it  in  Protestantism,  and  that  the  spiritual 
world  perhaps  seems  more  remote  to  you  than  it  is  to  us.  The 
living  and  most  patent  example  and  proof  of  the  vitality  amongst 
us  of  this  feeling  of  the  nearness  of  the  spiritual  world  are  the 
periodical  beatification  and  canonisation  of  new  saints."  On  in- 
quiry as  to  who  were  the  most  remarkable  of  those  to  whom 
the  hearts  of  believers  had  thus  gone  out,  the  following  names 
were  given  amongst  others : — St.  Mitrophane  of  Voronesh,  who 
lived  under  Peter  the  Great  and  was  canonised  in  the  reign  of 
Nicholas  I  in  the  fifth  decade  of  last  century;  St.  Tikhon  of 
Zadonsk  in  the  province  of  Voronesh,  who  lived  under  Catherine 
in  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  was  canonised 
fifty  years  ago ;  and  more  recently,  during  the  present  Emperor's 
reign  in  1903,  St.  Seraphim  of  Sarov,  in  the  government  of  Tam- 
boff  (died  1833),  who  is  said  to  have  foretold  the  present  war. 

It  is  probable  that  to  many  Western  minds  all  this  represents 


174  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

but  so  much  superstition.     Such  a  hasty  judgment  would  be  of 
the   same  quahtative  value  as   superstition.    It  was  impossible 
not  to  proceed  further  in  inquiry  as  to  process.    "The  rules," 
continued  my  informant,  "under  which  such  canonisations  take 
place  are  severe.    A  register  is  made  of  any  cures  and  miracles : 
they  are  written  down  and  kept  by  the  local  clergy.    If  these 
occur  in  striking  numbers  or  in  an  unusual  degree,  the  local 
clergy  apply  to  the  Holy  Synod  for  canonisation.    But  parallel  to 
this  outward  working  of  miracles  an  inward  movement  is  going 
on.     People    who  hold    those  saints    in  veneration  go  to  their 
tombs  and  pray  for  the  soul  of  the  saint,  asking  our  Lord  that 
his  soul  should  be  blessed.    This  is  done  during  many  years: 
the  believers  continue  to  hold  those  requiems.    The  fact  that  so 
many  come  and  do  this  through  long  years  assures  the  higher 
clergy  of  the  veneration  in  which  this  man  is  held.    These  two 
circumstances  eventually  determine  the  Holy  Synod  to  make  a 
.strict  examination  on  their  own  account.    A  commission  is  then 
appointed  whose  business  is  to  make  thorough  investigation  and 
ascertain  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  way  of  fraud.    An  advo- 
catus  diaboli  is  given  the  fullest  rein,  and  only  after  the  most 
critical  investigation  and   full  discussion  is  the  decision  made. 
Thus  we  ensure  that  there  is  no  fabrication  of  saints.    It  is  quite 
possible  that  one  day  Father  John  of  Kronstadt  will  be  canon- 
ised: men  and  women  never  cease  to  pray  at  his  tomb."     So  he 
spoke.     I    do    know    if    St.    Mitrophaen    actually    did    this    or 
that,  or  whether  any  proportion  of  the  stories  of  St.  Seraphim  are 
true,  but  I  do  know  that  in  the  Russia  of  to-day  there  is  a  great 
belief  that  God    is  working    in  the    world    both    through    His 
servants  who  still  remain  and  through  those  whom  He  has  taken 
to  Himself.     There    is  an   attitude    of  expectancy,  a  sense   of 
wonder,  in  the  Russian  mind.     He  believes  in  God  with  a  work- 
ing belief,  and  looks  for  signs  of  His  activity  in  the  world;  and 
just  as  the  expectant  shepherds  watching  by  their  flocks  angels 
appeared,  so    to   the  humble,    believing  Russian  peasant  come 
great  certainties  of  God.    We  do  not  expect,  and  so  we  do  not 
receive.    We  are  too  sure  that  we  know  exactly  what  kind  of  a 
world  it  is  in  which  we  find  ourselves,  and  vision  dies  amongst 
us.    It  is  just  here  that  our  Ally  has  a  message  and  a  mission 
to  the  world. 

Further,  they  realise  how  close  they  are  to  Protestant  Britain 
even  with  that  long  history  of  separation.    "Have  you  not  often 


RUSSIA  175 

considered,"  continued  my  friend,  "that  what  is  common  to  all 
forms  of  the  Christian  faith  is  ninety-nine  per  cent,  and  what  is 
different  is  but  one  per  cent?  Is  it  not" — and  here  he  leaned 
forward  earnestly, — "you  will  excuse  me,  but  I  feel  it  so — is  it 
not  the  hand  of  the  Devil  himself  that  makes  trifles  appear  in 
our  eyes  as  important  matters,  and  puts  serious  differences  be- 
tween us  and  Rome,  when  the  importance  of  union  is  so  much 
greater  than  any  or  all  of  our  differences?  We  understand  the 
Protestant  opposition  to  Rome:  Rome  has  deserved  it.  We 
only  feel  our  regret  that  Protestants  as  a  whole  in  the  time  of 
Hus  did  not  renew  their  memory  of  the  fact  that  there  exists  an- 
other old  church.  Hus,  indeed,  tried  to  bring  about  such  a  re- 
union, sending  his  friend  Jeronym  of  Prague  to  Russia  with  a 
view  to  bringing  his  own  people  back  to  the  Greek  church. 
Rome  seceded  from  us.  Protestantism  stands  on  the  basis  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  has  lost  the  tradition,  whereas  we  have 
both.  We  are  descended  from  the  Church  of  the  Ecumenical 
Councils." 

Then  he  continued:  "Inter-ecclesiastical  history  is  much 
more  important  than  international  history,  because  the  life  of 
nations  is  limited  to  this  earth,  whereas  a  church  is  a  body  con- 
stituted both  on  earth  and  in  heaven.  I  often  think  about  the 
question  of  reunion.  It  will  come  first  between  the  Greek 
church  and  the  Protestantism,  not  between  Rome  and  the  Greek 
church.  Churches  like  the  Anglican  church  and  the  Greek 
church  have  more  psychological  affinity  with  one  another  than 
with  Rome.  Rome  is  based  on  subordination,  whereas  the 
Eastern  church  is  based  on  co-ordination.  The  Church  of  Rome 
is  a  monarchy  and  a  despotism,  whereas  the  Greek  church  is  a 
federation  of  fourteen  different  churches,  a  sort  of  ecclesiastical 
republic.  In  this  matter  of  union  no  church  should  be  asked  to 
cede  something  to  the  other.  They  must  endeavour  to  recognise 
one  another  as  perfectly  orthodox,  as  true,  i.e.,  to  Scripture  and 
to  the  spirit  of  the  teachings  of  the  seven  Ecumenical  Councils. 

"Humanity  has  been — is — going  through  awful  experiences. 
Is  not  this  a  miracle,  that  the  German  philosophy  and  the  whole 
German  spirit  have  brought  that  country  under  the  sway  of 
Beelzebub?  Yet  in  our  land  there  is  a  great  revival  of  religious 
interest  to-day.  Russia  was  under  the  French  infleunce  of  Vol- 
taire till  1812:  then  in  a  struggle  Napoleon  was  vanquished  and 
the   result  was  a  widespread    religious    movement    We  were 


176  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

again  becoming  materialistic  when  the  Japanese  war  and  the 
revolution  after  the  war  shook  us  from  our  spiritual  torpor,  and 
the  religious  life  of  the  nation  was  quickened.  The  same  is 
happening  at  the  present  moment.  From  the  court  to  the  peas- 
ant's hut  a  spiritual  movement  is  in  progress." 

If  now  the  question  be  asked,  How  is  this  religious  conscious- 
ness expressing  itself  in  Russia  to-day?  I  do  not  think  that  the 
answer  will  be  found  to  differ  so  very  much  from  the  kind  of  an- 
swer that  could  be  truly  given  in  connection  with  our  own  coun- 
try. The  religious  life  of  Russia  has  assuredly  been  deepened 
by  the  war.  Men  are  face  to  face  with  the  realities  of  life  and 
death  in  a  degree  that  compels  them  to  think.  The  needs  of  the 
hour  are  driving  men  and  women  to  pray.  Far  more  people  are 
seen  in  the  churches.  I  recollect  in  particular  a  service  in  the 
Temple  of  the  Redeemer  in  Moscow,  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
churches  in  all  Russia.  It  is  a  church  of  the  people,  and  was 
crowded.  What  impressed  me  was  the  very  large  number  of 
men,  particularly  of  wounded  soldiers.  They  must  have  out- 
numbered the  women  worshippers  by  nearly  ten  to  one,  and  it 
was  just  an  ordinary  service.  Then  again  there  has  been  a  re- 
markable development  of  interest  in  the  consideration  of  re- 
ligious questions.  Public  lectures  have  been  given  by  men  like 
Professor  Prince  Eugene  Trubetzkoy,  Professor  Bulgakoff,  and 
Nikolai  Berdyaev  dealing  with  various  aspects  of  the  political 
and  spiritual  present  and  future  of  Russia:  for  the  two  are  one 
there  in  a  degree  in  which  that  is  true  of  no  other  country  in  the 
world.  These  lectures  have  been  attended  by  crowded  audi- 
ences, and  listened  to  with  an  almost  strained  interest.  The  de- 
mand for  religious  literature  has  also  greatly  increased,  although 
it  is  mainly  satisfied  by  the  sale  of  the  older  Russian  classics. 
Yet  in  one  quarter  I  learned  that  "the  translation  of  a  book 
called  The  Ideal  Life,  by  a  Mr.  Henry  Drummond,"  was  espe- 
cially treasured  by  those  who  knew  it.  Religious  conversation 
has  also  become  much  more  frequent  and  natural  in  drawing- 
room  and  trench  alike.  Such  subjects  were  never  very  far  at 
any  time  from  the  speculative,  questing  Russian  mind:  to-day  it 
is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  they  dominate  it.  Have  we  a 
minister -of  state  who,  in  discussing  the  future  of  a  city  which 
was  the  cradle  of  Christianity  to  his  people,  and  therefore  re- 
garded with  quite  a  peculiar  longing  by  them,  would  or  could 
say,  "We  are  a  religious  people,  and  I  believe  that  in  our  branch 


RUSSIA  177 

of  the  Greek  church  there  has  been  preserved  a  real  religious 
life,  whereas  the  other  branches  of  the  Greek  church  have  be- 
come somewhat  barren  and  dogmatic,  content  with  that  external 
crust  of  things  which  has  been  very  much  for  the  Greek  church 
what  the  Latin  theology  has  been  for  the  Church  of  the  West"; 
or  in  discussing  the  future  of  a  country  would  say,  as  part  of 
his  political  point  of  view,  "Russia  does  not  want  Palestine  for 
herself.  Such  an  attitude  is  really  distinctive  of  Russia.  She 
could  not  be  imagined  as  wanting  it  for  herself.  Christ's  re- 
demption is  for  all  the  world"  ?  Similarly,  at  the  other  end  of 
the  social  scale,  religious  and  political  thought  blend  in  the  peas- 
ant mind,  with  the  former  element  as  the  determinative  one,  nor 
do  I  know  any  more  exquisite  expression  of  the  fact  than  in  an 
incident  related  by  Prince  Trubetzkoy  in  one  of  the  lectures  re- 
ferred to  above.  It  opens  avowedly  with  a  discussion  of  what 
Constantinople  as  expressed  in  the  Church  of  St.  Sophia  has 
meant  and  means  to  Russia,  but  passes  quickly  into  the  larger 
thought  of  what  Sophia,  the  wisdom  of  God  in  His  purpose  of 
the  redemption  of  humanity,  has  meant  to  the  world.  The 
whole  theme  is  developed  with  the  haunting  mysticism  of  the 
Russian  mind,  and  his  endeavour  is  to  show  how  this  thought  of 
the  salvation  of  the  world  through  the  power  of  Christ  is,  as  it 
always  has  been,  close  to  the  heart  of  the  Russian  people.  "It 
is  no  matter  for  surprise,"  he  says — and  this  poor  translation  can 
give  little  impression  of  the  beauty  of  the  original — "it  is  no 
matter  for  surprise  that  the  soul  of  our  people  was  from  the 
earliest  times  united  to  the  idea  of  St.  Sophia  with  the  greatest 
hope  and  with  the  greatest  joy,  and  it  would  be  vain  to  think 
that  the  deepest  sense  of  this  idea  can  be  understood  only  by  in- 
telligent and  educated  people.  On  the  contrary,  for  the  very 
highly  educated  this  idea  is  especially  hard  to  understand:  it  is 
much  nearer  to  the  life-understanding  of  our  people.  As  proof 
of  this  take  the  following  personal  reminiscence.  Four  years 
ago  I  returned  to  Russia  from  a  long  foreign  journey  through 
Constantinople.  In  the  morning  in  the  mosque  of  St.  Sophia 
they  showed  me  on  the  wall  the  imprint  of  the  bloody  hand  of 
the  Sultan  who  spilled  the  Christian  blood  in  this  greatest  of  the 
orthodox  cathedrals  on  the  very  day  of  the  taking  of  Constan- 
tinople. Having  killed  the  worshippers  who  came  there  for 
safety,  he  wiped  his  hand  on  the  column,  and  this  bloody  imprint 
is  shown  there  still.    Immediately    after    this  visit  I  went    on 


178  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

board  a  Russian  steamer  going  to  Odessa  from  Palestine,  and 
at  once  found  myself  in  a  familiar  atmosphere.  On  the  deck 
there  was  gathered  a  very  large  group  of  Russian  peasants — ^pil- 
grims returning  from  the  Holy  Land  to  their  homes.  Tired 
with  the  long  journey,  badly  dressed  and  hungry,  they  were 
drinking  water  with  hard  bread,  they  were  finishing  their  simple 
everyday  toilet,  they  were  listening,  reclining,  to  tales  about 
Constantinople.  They  were  listening  to  tales  about  its  churches 
and,  of  course,  about  the  bloody  Sultan  and  about  the  streams 
of  Christian  blood  which,  during  more  than  five  centuries,  peri- 
odically were  spilled  in  this  once  Christian  kingdom.  I  cannot 
convey  to  you  how  deeply  I  was  moved  by  what  I  saw.  I  saw 
my  own  country  in  Constantinople.  There  on  the  mountain  had 
just  disappeared  the  Holy  Sophia  lighted  by  the  sun,  and  here 
before  me  on  the  deck  was  a  real  Russian  village;  and  at  the 
moment  when  our  boat  gently  moved  along  the  Bosphorus  with 
its  mosques  and  minarets,  the  whole  crowd  firmly  and  solemnly 
but,  I  do  not  know  why,  in  a  subdued  voice,  sang  'Christ  is 
Risen'  (i.e.  the  Easter  hymn  of  the  Greek  church).  How  deep 
and  long-developed  was  the  instinct  which  I  heard  in  this  sing- 
ing, and  how  much  of  soul  understanding  there  was  in  it !  What 
other  answer  could  they  find  in  their  souls  but  this  to  what  they 
heard  about  the  cathedral,  about  the  Turks  who  defiled  it,  and 
of  the  long-continued  persecutions  of  the  nation  over  whom  they 
ruled?  What  other  answer  could  they  find  in  their  souls  in  such 
a  country,  except  this,  except  their  joy  in  the  thought  of  a  com- 
mon resurrection  for  all  people  and  for  all  nations?  I  do  not 
know  whether  they  understood  their  answer.  For  me  it  is  un- 
important v/hether  the  peasants  thought  or  not  about  the  cathe- 
dral itself — it  is  of  Holy  Sophia  that  they  were  singing.  It  is 
important  that  in  their  singing  the  real  Sophia  was  understood 
so  as  no  single  philosopher  or  theologian  could  express  it.  The 
peasants  who  sang  'Christ  is  Risen'  could  scarcely  interpret  very 
well  what  they  understood.  But  in  their  religious  feeling  there 
was  far  more  than  any  deep  understanding.  They  understood 
the  ferocious  Turkish  power  under  which  the  blood  of  perse- 
cuted peoples  flowed:  they  saw  (in  their  soul)  the  whole  human- 
ity joined  in  the  joy  of  the  Holy  Resurrection,  but  at  the  same 
time  they  felt  that  they  could  not  express  this  joy,  this  hope, 
which  always  lives  in  the  soul  of  the  people,  now,  in  the  centre 
of  the  Turkish  power,  except  with  a  subdued  voice,  because  so 


RUSSIA  179 

long  as  this  power  exists  and  the  temper  produced  by  it,  Sophia 
is  still  far  from  us;  she  is  in  a  different  sphere.  But  the  time 
will  come  when  heaven  will  descend  to  earth,  and  the  eternal 
idea  of  humanity  will  be  realised;  then  this  hymfi  will  sound 
loud  and  powerful — this  hymn  which  now  you  hear  in  a  subdued 
tone.  I  think  no  other  proof  seems  necessary  that  Sophia  lives 
in  the  soul  of  our  people.  But  in  order  to  see  and  to  feel  her 
reality,  it  is  necessary  to  experience  that  which  these  peasants 
on  the  steamer  felt,  and  about  which  they  sang." 

Is  it  at  all  remarkable  that  amongst  such  a  people  there 
should  be  signs  of  a  great  religious  awakening,  none  the  less 
wonderful  that  it  is  going  on  so  quietly  that  perhaps  as  yet  the 
mass  of  the  people  know  little  about  it?  One  of  the  foreign 
Bible  societies  has  distributed  over  three  and  a  half  million  por- 
tions and  gospels  amongst  the  soldiers  since  the  beginning  of 
the  war.  They  were  sent  by  the  Imperial  supply  trains  to  the 
front,  and  on  the  opening  page  may  be  found  the  following  in- 
scription:  "This  book  is  given  by  His  Imperial  Highness  the 
Tzarevitch  Alexei  Nikolaevitch,  presented  by  a  Sunday  school 
scholar  in  America."  Already  those  who  have  concerned  them- 
selves with  the  organisation  and  direction  of  this  distribution 
have  become  aware  of  its  issue  in  a  movement  which  is  ul- 
timately due,  as  one  of  them  said  to  me,  "to  no  human  means: 
it  is ,  nothing  less  than  the  Spirit  of  God  moving  amongst  the 
people."  Through  letters  from  the  soldiers  they  learn  how  in  a 
hospital  one  has  taught  his  fellows  to  sing  a  grace  before  meals, 
whilst  in  a  trench  the  others  have  gathered  round  the  only  mem- 
ber of  their  company  who  happened  to  get  an  Evangile,  and  he 
reads  aloud  to  them.  Yet  I  do  not  wish  to  give  any  one-sided 
impression.  There  is  no  assemblage  in  any  country  to-day, 
whether  camp  or  commune,  where  the  words  of  the  prophet  are 
not  as  true  as  when  they  were  written:  "Many  shall  purify 
themselves,  and  make  themselves  white,  and  be  refined :  but  the 
wicked  shall  do  wickedly:  and  none  of  the  wicked  shall  under- 
stand: but  they  that  be  wise  shall  understand." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  a  movement  is  going  on  amongst 
the  Greek  clergy  themselves  which,  if  it  continues  to  progress, 
will  provide  a  very  sympathetic  atmosphere  for  the  furtherance 
of  the  awakening  already  described.  The  movement  is  not  new, 
and  it  is  confined  as  yet  to  very  few  comparatively,  but  it  is  the 
beginning  of  a  line  of  advance  that  history  shows  cannot  be  ul- 


l8o  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

timately  checked.  Already  in  1905  there  had  come  into  existence 
a  group  of  priests  who  were  called  Priest  Renewers.  They  also 
published  a  project  for  a  reformed  parish  life.  In  those  times 
the  universal  cry  of  the  clergy  was  that  the  parish  life  should  be 
renewed.  The  Holy  Synod  worked  out  a  scheme  for  the  Duma 
on  this  matter.  But  the  project  was  not  considered  to  be  satis- 
factory either  for  the  government  or  for  the  clergy,  and  it  did 
not  pass.  Briefly  put,  the  parish  was  to  be  converted  into  a 
church — the  parish,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  sense  of  a  certain  con- 
gregation of  the  people  who  have  no  right  to  manage  the  affairs 
of  their  own  congregation,  the  minister  (priest)  doing  all  this 
for  the  bishop,  while  the  people  did  not  discuss  their  own  needs 
or  conditions.  A  church,  on  the  other  hand,  would  be  a  group 
of  people  who  elect  their  own  minister  and  manage  their  own 
affairs  by  their  own  discussion  and  vote. 

The  most  distinguished  representative  of  this  reforming  and 
regenerating  movement  in  the  orthodox  church  to-day  is  An- 
dreas, Bishop  of  Ufa.  He  wants  the  church  free  from  official- 
dom. Svoboda,  freedom,  the  rallying  call  of  the  revolutionaries 
of  1905,  is  his  catchword.  He  is  especially  anxious  about  the 
reform  of  the  parochial  system,  considering  that  it  must  be  car- 
ried out  under  any  circumstances.  In  Russia  the  parish  priests 
are  elected  by  the  bishops,  and  the  election  is  confirmed  by  the 
Holy  Synod.  The  local  clergy,  that  is  to  say,  are  appointed 
without  any  reference  or  regard  to  the  wishes  of  the  people.  To 
Andreas'  mind,  such  a  system  is  obsolete.  The  parishes,  he 
says,  must  be  reformed  on  the  principle  of  election  of  the 
priests  by  the  people,  and  with  a  certain  autonomy  granted  to 
every  parish  in  relation  to  national  interests  like  education,  etc. 
"We  bishops  must  surrender  this  right  of  election  to  the 
churches."  Again,  in  the  activities  of  the  Holy  Synod  the  de- 
termining voice  is  that  of  the  Procurator,  the  lay  member,  and 
he  is  really  there  to  give  expression  to  the  wishes  of  the  Im- 
perial Protector  of  the  Church.  "Now,"  say  Andreas  and  his 
co-thinkers,  amongst  whom  may  be  numbered  Bishop  Nikon  of 
Krasnoyarsk  and  Demetrius  of  Tauria  (Crimea),  "this  is  not 
canonical.  In  the  early  days  of  the  reign  of  Peter  the  Great  and 
previously,  the  Patriarch  was  free  from  the  bureaucracy,  but 
that  great  Emperor  established  the  collegium  of  bishops,  and 
abolished  the  Patriarchate,  replacing  it  by  the  Synod,  and  in- 
stituting the  office  of  Procurator.   We  must  return  to  the  older 


RUSSIA  i8i 

arrangement."  When  to  this  we  can  add  that  he  speaks  against 
the  exercise  of  any  kind  of  intolerance,  we  can  surely  look 
forward  to  a  day  of  great  things  in  the  Greek  church. 

The  religious  condition  of  the  Greek  orthodox  church  is, 
then,  indeed  promising.  Amongst  her  priests  are  many  in  whom 
there  is  a  longing  for  the  revival  and  redemption  of  religious 
life  generally.  Amongst  her  people  there  are  brotherhoods  or 
unions  of  zealous  orthodox  souls  who  gather  in  special  houses, 
listen  to  the  preaching  of  particular  priests,  and  sing  evangelical 
hymns.  And  when  we  further  consider  the  definite  situation 
produced  by  such  a  step  as  the  prohibition  of  vodka,  we  see  how, 
taken  in  conjunction  with  this  religious  temper  of  her  people, 
yet  greater  and  farther-reaching  results  may  be  achieved  in  this 
already  admirable  land.  The  liquor-traffic  reform  has  left  the 
Russian  government  with  a  concrete  yet  difficult  problem.  Vodka 
and  the  public-houses  have  been  taken  from  the  people,  but  little 
has  been  done  to  provide  them  with  good  pastimes  and  reason- 
able and  useful  entertainment.  The  Ministry  of  the  Interior 
attempted  to  supply  the  lack  by  a  project  to  build  People's  Pal- 
aces in  eveiy  city.  The  scheme  was  submitted  to  the  Council  of 
Ministers  by  Mons.  MaklakoflF,  a  recent  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
but  the  Council  framed  a  remarkable  resolution  to  the  effect  that 
this  question  cannot  be  settled  merely  by  building  special  Peo- 
ple's Palaces  with  cheap  entertainments,  but  that  there  must  also 
be  educational  and  religious  means  applied  to  this  end.  Under 
the  former  are  envisaged  lecture-halls,  libraries,  and  special 
evening  classes  for  the  village  people.  With  regard  to  religious 
means,  the  Council  in  a  delicate  way  indicated  to  the  Holy  Synod 
that  they  are  bound  to  bring  certain  spiritual  influences  to  bear 
upon  the  people,  and  to  provide  them  with  a  high  religious  in- 
fluence that  will  fill  their  Hves.  It  is  quite  certain  that  after 
the  war  all  these  questions  will  be  raised  and  discussed,  and  a 
new  movement  inaugurated  amongst  the  orthodox  Greek  church 
and  the  people  generally. 

Hitherto  we  have  dealt  with  the  orthodox  church.  But  ras- 
kol,  or  dissent,  and  religious  fragmentation  generally,  has  been 
as  characteristic  of  Russia  as  of  our  own  country.  It  testifies 
indeed  to  a  certain  vitality  of  religious  life,  but  we  believe  that 
we  are  entering  a  period  when  the  centrifugal  tendencies  of  the 
past  will  be  replaced  by  movements  that  are  centripetal.  It  is  so 
in  Russia  to-day.    Of  the  various  dissenting  bodies,  the  Old  Be- 


i82  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Jievers  are  the  most  important,  of  whom  there  are  more  than 
twelve  millions,  living  mostly  on  the  Volga  and  in  Central  Rus- 
sia generally.  Their  origin  goes  back  to  the  second  half  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  was  in  part  a  protest  against  the  issue 
of  corrected  texts  of  the  religious  books  initiated  by  the  Patri- 
arch Nikon.  The  most  aggressive  points  of  difference  between 
them  and  the  orthodox  church  lie,  however,  in  such  futilities  of 
ritual  as  making  the  sign  of  the  Cross  with  two  fingers  instead 
of  with  three,  or  leading  the  church  processions  of  their  clergy 
"according  to  the  sun"  instead  of  "against  the  sun."  They  are 
intensely  literalistic — practically  fetichists — in  their  attitude  to 
the  Scriptures,  and  there  is  a  great  development  of  ritual  in 
their  services.  On  the  other  hand,  their  communities  choose 
their  own  priests,  and  they  have  their  own  bishops,  archbishops, 
and  metropolitan  uninterfered  with  by  the  Holy  Synod;  that  is 
to  say,  they  have  already  secured  many  of  the  conditions  which 
Andreas  of  Ufa  desiderates  for  the  orthodox  church.  There  is 
little  doubt  that  a  reunion  of  the  Old  Believers  with  the  orthodox 
church  will  come.  Already  some  who  look  for  a  great  future 
for  their  beloved  church,  regenerated  and  transformed,  are 
planning  in  their  minds  a  local  council  at  which  the  first  steps 
of  this  movement  will  be  inaugurated.  If  the  men  to  whom  will 
be  given  the  direction  of  such  a  work  include  those  who  have 
the  penetration  to  say,  as  one  of  them  said  to  me,  "It  is  easier  to 
fight  with  our  national  enemies  than  with  our  prejudices,"  we 
can  be  certain  that  the  thing  will  be  done.  And  when  this  is 
done  and  as  the  movement  grows,  we  may  see  things  even  yet 
more  wonderful.  Such  at  any  rate  are  the  dreams  of  those  who 
love  their  church  in  Russia.  "I  am  very  pravoslavny  (ortho- 
dox) myself,"  writes  one  of  the  most  devoted  of  her  sons  to 
me,  "and  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  universal  importance  of  the 
Russian  church,  but  you  will  see  this  better  in  the  future.  The 
immediacy  of  her  influence  on  Russian  life  depends  largely  upon 
our  'intelligent'  society;  the  more  quickly  they  give  up  their  re- 
ligious indifference,  the  sooner  will  that  influence  be  felt.  If 
her  spiritual  resurrection  shall  be  as  fully  accomplished  as  we 
expect  it  after  such  a  world-convulsion,  then  the  power  of  the 
Russian  Church  will  show  itself  visibly  even  on  the  surface  of 
Russian  life." 

It  will  have  been  observed  that  throughout  this  description 
of  religion  in  Russia  to-day  there  have  been  expressions  of  hope 


RUSSIA  183 

and  belief  in  a  regenerated  and  revitalised  church  on  the  part  of 
those  who  have  supplied  us  with  our  subject-matter;  nor  are 
they  unaware  of  how  all  this  alone  can  come.  When,  however, 
we  still  consider  such  a  movement  on  its  purely  human  side,  we 
cannot  altogether  refuse  to  recognise  what  may  be  done,  and  in- 
deed for  that  matter  has  been  done,  for  Russia  by  other  bodies, 
dissenters  also,  who  have  no  historical  connection  with  the 
Eastern  orthodox  church.  Under  the  ukase  of  17th  April  1905 
the  right  was  given  to  all  subjects  who  so  desired  to  separate 
from  the  orthodox  church.  Of  this  "Charter  of  Tolerance" 
great  advantage  was  taken.  Again,  the  ukase  of  17th  October 
1906  gave  the  right  to  all  dissenters  to  form  their  own  religious 
associations,  and  have  their  own  churches  and  ministers.  It  also 
gave  them  important  personal  rights :  under  it  they  became  in- 
dividuals before  the  law.  A  church  could  now  found  chapels, 
schools,  and  other  institutions,  and  own  its  property.  Protected 
by  these  laws,  dissenters  were  able  to  spread  their  activities 
throughout  Russia.  Further,  under  the  political  manifesto  of 
October  1905 — "The  Charter  of  the  Constitution"' — con- 
cerned with  the  constitution  of  Russian  life  generally  and  grant- 
ing the  Duma,  etc.,  dissenters  along  with  the  Russian  population 
as  a  whole  acquired  a  certain  liberty  of  the  press :  they  had  now 
the  right  to  publish  their  own  books  and  periodicals.  How 
great  the  contrast  was  with  the  condition  of  affairs  previous  to 
1905  can  only  be  appreciated  by  those  who  knew  the  country  be- 
fore and  after.  Previous  to  that  year  dissenters  could  not  sep- 
arate officially  from  the  orthodox  church :  such  separation  was 
considered  to  be  a  crime.  The  dissenter  in  this  narrower  sense 
of  the  term,  whatever  he  was,  was  described  in  his  passport  as 
belonging  to  the  orthodox  church.  The  man  who  announced  his 
separation  was  tried  and  sent  to  Siberia  or  to  Transcaucasia. 
Any  kind  of  propaganda — preaching,  speaking  about  evangelical 
religion — was  considered  a  crime.  There  were  no  meeting- 
houses or  institutions;  no  periodicals  might  be  published.  All 
sacred  songs  were  written  out  on  paper,  with  the  exception  of 
certain  editions  which  were  issued  in  the  time  of  Pashkoff  in 
the  closing  year  of  the  reign  of  Alexander  II.  Meetings  were 
arranged  in  a  secret  way  in  Petrograd,  with  small  numbers,  and 
held  in  private  homes  and  lodgings. 

From   1905  onwards,  accordingly,    there    has    been    a  great 
change.    One  immediate  result  was  that  a  great  many  people 

14 


i84  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

who  had  separated  from  the  orthodox  church,  though  described 
as  orthodox  upon  their  passports,  appHed  for  separation.  In 
some  cases  they  tried  to  gather  into  communities  and  associations 
and  obtain  recognition  from  the  government  as  a  new  associa- 
tion. Some  of  these  bodies  have  founded  their  own  schools  and 
philanthropic  institutions,  hold  their  own  conferences,  publish 
their  own  periodicals,  tracts,  and  hymn-books.  Now  these 
bodies,  although  small,  cannot  have  failed  to  exert  some  influ- 
ence upon  the  activities  of  the  orthodox  church.  Till  1890,  for 
example,  there  was  hardly  any  preaching  in  the  orthodox 
church:  since  then,  preaching  has  greatly  increased,  due  to  the 
influence  exerted  on  the  people  by  the  preaching  of  Stundists 
and  other  dissenters.  There  is  a  law  of  spiritual  induction 
whereby  energetic  conditions  prevalent  in  one  body  can  influ- 
ence other  bodies  in  the  vicinity  without  actual  contact.  It  is 
impossible  to  estimate  how  far  these  other  bodies  may  thus  react 
on  the  "predominant"  body,  but  it  is  certain  that  by  the  Charter 
of  Tolerance  Russia  permitted*  the  development  of  a  spirit  that 
will  eventually  work  throughout  the  country  for  good. 

HOLY  RUSSIA' 

From  the  literature  of  Russia  we  learn  that  this  patient, 
persisting,  and  absorbing  people  is  conscious  above  everything 
else  of  the  existence  of  God.  Nothing  else  really  interests  the 
Russian.  He  looks  at  politics,  he  takes  a  hand  in  trade,  and 
he  does  what  he  can  for  art :  but  the  supreme  obsession  of  his 
mind,  his  heart,  and  his  soul  is  the  thought  of  God.  But  mark 
well,  the  Russian's  obsessing  thought  of  God  is  concerned  with 
only  one  attribute  of  the  Divine  Father.  He  can  think  of  nothing 
but  God's  love.  I  should  say  there  has  never  been  in  the  whole 
world  a  nation  less  influenced  by  the  thought  of  Jehovah.  .A 
Russian  does  not  understand  what  you  mean  when  you  speak  to 
him  of  Odin  or  Jove  or  Jehovah.  He  smiles  and  shakes  his 
head.  It  is  something  he  cannot  conceive — this  God  of  unbend- 
ing justice  and  black-frowning  wrath.  His  Russian  soul  has 
been  stunned  centuries  ago  by  the  tremendous  thought  that  God 
is  Love.  It  can  receive  no  other  impression.  To  this  hour  he 
is  absorbed  in  contemplation  of  this  single  aspect  of  the  Ever- 
lasting God — that  He  loves,  that  He  is  Love  itself. 

1  By   Harold   Begbie,   Atlantic  Monthly.    118:768-77.   December,    1916. 


THE  JEWS 


THE  MARTYRDOM  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  JEW* 

/  Few  persons  beyond  the  borders  of  Russia  have  any  con- 
ception of  the  actual  conditions  that  prevail  among  the  Jewish 
subjects  of  the  Czar^  The  Russian  government  has  seen  to 
that.  Press  censorship  and  "influence"  are  fairly  effective  in 
minimizing  the  publication  of  damnatory  truths,  while  press  sub- 
sidies and  again  "influence"  are  very  useful  aids  in  neutraliz- 
ing the  effect  of  such  truths  as  have  crept  into  the  light,  and 
in  spreading  the  impression  that  the  devil  is  not  so  black  as 
he  is  painted  and  that  Russian  bureaucracy  can  be  tender- 
hearted. 

/'  As  a  cold  matter  of  fact,  the  policy  of  the  Russian  govern- 
hient  toward  the  Jews  is  brutal,  tyrannical,  and  cruel.  In  three 
decades  one  and  a  half  million  Jews  were  forced  to  leave  the 
Empire.  )  In  a  series  of  terrible  pogroms,  or  anti-Jewish  riots 
— outbreaks  stimulated  and  countenanced  by  subtle  govern- 
mental policy — thousands  of  helpless  Jews  have  been  murdered, 
many  more  thousands  crippled  or  wounded,  and  robbery  or  de- 
struction of  the  property  of  the  victims  has  left  their  widows 
and  children  destitute. 

There  are,  of  course,  a  few  wealthy  Jews  who  buy  complete 
immunity — everything  is  for  sale  in  Russia — and  these  few  live 
in  peace.  But  the  masses  of  the  Russian  Jewish  population  of 
over  five  millions  are  very  poor.  For  the  most  part  the  Jews 
are  herded  together  in  the  cities  of  the  provinces  known  as 
the  Pale.  They  may  not  live  in  the  country  districts,  nor  buy, 
lease,  or  manage  real  estate  therein.  Those  who  because  of 
their  occupations  have  under  the  law  been  privileged  to  reside  in 
cities  outside  the  Pale  now,  after  years  of  legal  residence, 
find  the  privilege  withdrawn  through  some  arbitrary  distortion 
of  the  law,  and  are  suddenly  driven  from  their  homes.    The 

>By  Herman  Rosenthal.  Outlook.  97:109-17.  January  21,  1911. 


i86  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

*^Jew  is  almost  excluded  from  state  service.  Legally  the  calling 
of  judge  is  not  barred  to  the  Jew;  yet,  in  spite  of  the  great 
number  of  Jewish  jurists,  there  is  in  the  whole  empire  only 
one  Jewish  judge,  a  relic  of  former  years,  while  the  few 
Jews  who  were  formerly  employed  as  state  attorneys  or  court 
justices  now  belong  to  the  history  of  the  past.     Similar  is  the 

Relation  of  Jews  to  public  instruction.  Excepting  the  teachers 
in  Jewish  schools  and  teachers  of  Jewish  reHgion,  there  are 
no  Jewish  teachers  in  the  primary,  secondary,  or  high  schools. 
Equally  "free  from  Jews"  are  the  various  professorships;  and 
of  the  Jewish  lecturers  who  succeeded  in  establishing  them- 
selves during  the  more  liberal  era,  but  few  remain.  Jews  are 
taxed,  and  heavily  taxed,  for  education,  but  only  a  small  per- 

*^ntage  of  their  children  may  enter  the  Russian  schools.    No 

fc^Jew  may  enter  the  navy,  the  frontier  or  quarantine  service,  or 
the  gendarmerie.  Jews  may  serve  in  the  army — in  fact,  they 
furnish  from  thirty  to  forty  per  cent  more  soldiers  than  their 

, proper  allotment — but  no  Jew  may  become  an  officer.  The  Jew 
may  die  for  "Holy  Russia,"  but  he  need  look  for  no  reward. 
Sixty  thousand  Jews  served  in  the  war  with  Japan.  A  ukase  of 
1904  promised  a  general  right  of  residence  within  and  without 
the  Pale  to  all  of  these  who  should  be  found  to  have  served 
worthily.  But  the  Russian  government  is  bound  by  no  prom- 
ises. This  privilege  was  denied  even  the  Jewish  volunteers 
who  endured  privations  and  sustained  wounds  in  the  defense 
of  Port  Arthur. 

The  Jew  is  the  daily  sport  of  oppressive  special  laws  so 
constantly  distorted  by  conflicting  "interpretations"  that  he 
knows  not  what  "common  right  of  man"  may  be  withdrawn 
from  him  to-morrow.  It  seems  that  the  Jew  has  no  right  that 
the  Russian  Government  is  bound  to  respect.  He  is,  more- 
over, at  the  mercy  of  a  rapacious  police.  It  is  estimated  that 
every  year  the  Jews  pay  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  million 
rubles  blackmail.  Bribery  is  their  sole,  humiliating  defense. 

But  from  the  Jewish  point  of  view  it  is  not  robbery,  de- 
privation of  rights,  or  even  murder  itself  that  is  most  to  be 
deplored.  More  terrible  than  all  these  is  the  inevitable  conse- 
quence of  ever-present  fear  and  persecution — the  moral  degra- 
dation of  a  race.  For  this  crime  Russia  will  be  responsible,  but 
not  Russia  alone.  Civilization  cannot  escape  the  penalty  for 
the  deeds  that  civilization  has  permitted. 


/; 


RUSSIA  187 

Russians  Jewish  Policy 

Russia's  present  unpardonable  policy,  appealing  as  it  does 
to  the  brutal  instincts  of  the  ignorant  masses,  has  been  followed 
ever  since  the  accession  of  Alexander  III  in  1881,  when  the  first 
pogroms  shocked  the  civilized  world. 

Since  that  time  the  persecution  of  the  Jews  has  been  unre- 
mitting, with  periodical  massacres  and  wholesale  expulsions. 
The  atrocities  of  the  Romanov  dynasty  have  finally  culminated 
in  a  tendency  toward  the  complete  extinction  of  the  Jewish  race 
in  Russia.  The  originator  of  this  policy  was  Pobyedonostzev, 
called  the  Grand  Inquisitor  of  Russia.  His  plan  aimed  at  the 
expulsion  or  forced  emigration  of  one-third  of  the  Jews,  the*r 
absorption  of  another  third  into  the  fold  of  the  orthodox  Ar 
church,  and  the  complete  annihilation  of  the  remaining  third  by  ^ 
the  gentle  expedient  of  depriving  it  of  the  means  of  subsistence. 
This  apparently  impossible  and  suicidal  policy  was  not  taken 
seriously  abroad.  But  the  brutal  treatment  of  the  Jews  during 
the  past  two  years  shows  that  the  Russian  bureaucracy  "that 
make  their  wills  their  law"  are  attempting  to  realize  even  the 
impossible.  Jews  are  hunted  from  place  to  place  like  common  v^ 
criminals.  Expulsions,  persecutions,  and  the  inevitable  black-  ^ 
mail  create  an  economic  distress  and  an  industrial  confusion 
which  compel  vast  numbers  to  seek  safety  in  emigration,  and 
wreck  the  careers  of  many  who  cannot  even  take  refuge  in 
flight.  From  time  to  time  short  cable  items  appear  in  our  daily 
papers  under  such  headings  as  "Russian  Pale  Enlarged,"  and 
we  read  that  "the  Emperor  Nicholas  to-day  approved  the  Cab- 
inet resolution  opening  up  new  sections  for  the  residence  of 
Jews."  Then  follows  a  list  of  the  supposedly  new  localities. 
To  non-Russians  this  list  is  slightly  misleading.  How  many 
American  readers  would  be  likely  to  know  that  the  provinces 
mentioned  in  the  cable — Vitebsk,  Volhynia,  Mohilev,  Poltava, 
and  Kherson — always  belonged  to  the  Pale  of  Settlement?  It 
is^^^ecret  to  the  initiated  that  before  launching  a  new  loan 
the  iJlj^ authorities  expel  Jews  from  villages,  so  that  the  cen- 
tral government  may  later  allow  them  to  return  to  their  places, 
and  thus  blazon  its  liberality  to  the  world!  This  pleasant  ex- 
pedient has  been  employed  so  frequently  of  late,  and  has  caused 
so  much  misery,  that  last  summer  one  hundred  and  sixty  dele- 
gates, in  spite  of  the  triumphs  of  the  reactionaries,  were  moyed 


i88  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

to  introduce  in  the  Duma  a  bill  aiming  to  make  an  end  to  the 
greatest  calamity  of  the  Russian  Jews — the  unceasing  struggle 
for  the  right  of  domicile.  Thirty  other  members  of  the  Duma 
have  promised  to  support  the  bill.  Whatever  the  fate  of  the 
proposed  act,  its  discussion  may  at  least  reveal  the  true  situa- 
tion of  the  Russian  Jews.  Recent,  and  evidently  inspired,  arti- 
cles in  Russian  reactionary  periodicals  show  clearly  that  the 
government  is  attempting  to  counteract  the  impression  that  will 
be  created  by  the  debates  on  the  measure. 

/  The  Pogroms 

It  is  now  nearly  thirty  years  since  the  existence  of  the  Rus- 
sian Jewish  masses  was  first  made  unbearable  by  pogroms  and 
legislative  oppression;  In  the  years  1881-1883,  the  records  show, 
there  were  two  hundred  and  twenty-six  pogroms  in  various 
cities  and  towns  of  South  Russia  and  Poland.  In  these  riots, 
with  all  their  murders  and  unspeakable  cruelties,  more  than 
seventy  thousand  Jews,  mostly  from  among  the  poorest  classes, 
were  despoiled  of  their  possessions  to  the  amount  of  ten  or 
eleven  million  rubles.  Yet  the  pogroms  and  atrocities  of  these 
years  were  greatly  surpassed  by  those  of  the  epoch  of  Kishenev- 
Syedletz.  In  the  October  days  of  1905  alone,  seven  hundred 
and  twenty-five  places  were  disgraced  by  riots  whereby  over 
two  thousand  Jews  suffered  a  direct  loss  of  nearly  sixty-three 
million  rubles.  In  two  governments,  Chernigov  and  Yekaterino- 
slav,  every  fifth  Jew  was  among  the  sufferers,  while  in  a  great 
number  of  other  places  almost  the  entire  population  was  directly 
affected  by  the  pogroms.  In  the  riots  covered  by  the  period 
October,  1905,  to  September,  1906,  more  than  a  thousand  Jews 
were  killed  and  many  thousands  were  wounded  or  crippled. 
The  murdered  men  left  386  widows  and  1,641  orphans.  The 
direct  loss  sustained  by  the  Russian  Jewry  in  this  era  of  po- 
groms exceeded  one  l^undredjiiillion^  rubles.  But  even  this  is  a 
small  fraction  of  the  vastly  greater  lois  occasioned  by  general 
economic  demoralization.  The  actual  losses  that  have,  .been 
thus  inflicted  may  be  safely  estimated  at  hundreds  of  millions. 

The  Restrictive  Laivs 

The  system  of  special  enactments  concerning  Jews  and  the 
arbitrary  interpretation  of  these  laws  have  reached  into  the 
most  vital  economic  relations  and  have  created  a  mass  of  legal 


RUSSIA  189 

ambiguity  that  invites  extortion  by  major  and  minor  officials. 
The  Jewish  masses  have  always  served  as  a  rich  source  of  graft 
for  the  insatiable  chiriQvniks.  or  officials,  for  the  interpretation 
of  the  law  has  been  largely  left  to  these  gentry,  and  they  do  not 
neglect  their  opportunities.  According  to  a  calculation  of 
Prince  Urussov  in  his  "Memoirs  of  a  Russian  Governor," 
the  "extra  income"  of  the  police  in  his  government  of  Bes- 
sarabia alone  amounted  to  over  a  million  rubles  annually.  Most 
of  this  sum  was  exacted  from  Jews.  On  the  basis  of  this  state- 
ment it  may  be  estimated  that  the  Jews  in  the  whole  country 
pay  annually  for  protection  to  the  police  officials  amounts  of 
from  twenty  to  twenty-five  million  rubles.  The  Russian  bureau- 
cracy will  certainly  oppose  with  all  its  might  the  emanicipation 
of  the  Jews,  since  with  the  repeal  of  exceptional  laws  all  the 
special  income  of  the  police  would  be  abolished. 

The  extent  to  which  the  exceptional  laws  are  interpreted 
according  to  the  pleasure  of  the  bureaucracy  is  evident  from 
the  fact  that  more  than  three  thousat^d  Senate  interpretations 
since  1881  deal  with  the  Jewish  question.  In  these  interpre- 
tations the  Senate — the  highest  tribunal  of  justice  in  Russia — 
has  exhibited  the  most  shameful  inconsistency  and  subservience, 
at  different  times  construing  the  same  laws  in  various  ways 
to  suit  the  changing  moods  of  the  government. 

State  Service  and  Professions 

The  restrictions  as  to  the  employment  of  Jews  in  State  ser- 
vice are  most  sweeping,  extending  down  to  the  position  of  scribe 
in  the  police  court,  and  even  to  police  guard.  The  great  Rus- 
sian police  machine  employs  Jews  as  stool-pigeons  only,  thus 
demorahzing  those  among  them  who  are  inclined  toward  police 
activities,  in  order  to  heap  upon  them  the  greatest  odium. 
While  there  are  in  the  various  Russian  Ministries  individual 
Jews  who,  on  account  of  their  special  knowledge  of  affairs,  are 
made  use  of  in  certain  departments,  these  few  officials  are  glar- 
ing exceptions.  Theoretically  the  only  requisite  for  state  ser- 
vice is  a  high  school  diploma.  The  law  merely  stipulates  that 
preference  be  given  to  a  Christian  over  a  Jew.  In  practice, 
however,  a  Jew  can  enter  state  service  only  after  baptism. 

A  notable  exception  was  made  in  the  more  liberal  era  in  the 
case  of  Jewish  physicians,  who,  especially  in  the  Russo-Turkish 
War,  distinguished  themselves  and  reached  the  grade  of  superior 


190  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

officers— even  of  generals.  But  the  pressure  of  anti-Semitic 
tendencies  in  1882  led  to  the  establishment  of  a  military  regu- 
lation whereby  the  appointment  of  Jewish  physicians  in  the 
army  was  limited  to  five  per  cent.  In  consequence  of  this  regu- 
lation and  of  the  discriminations  in  other  directions,  the  Jewish 
physicians  have  been  almost  eliminated  from  the  army.  How- 
ever, at  the  outbreak  of  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  the  Russian 
military  administration  tore  away  without  any  regard  hundreds 
of  Jewish  physicians  from  their  civil  professions  and  drove 
them  to  the  most  dangerous  points  of  the  theater  of  war,  dis- 
missing them  immediately  after  the  conclusion  of  peace. 

Military  Service 

But  if  the  rejection  of  the  Jews  from  state  service  in  Rus- 
sia is  generally  only  an  administrative  practice,  their  exclusion 
from  the   rank  of   commissioned   officers  is   a  matter   of  law. 
Since  1887  the  Jewish  volunteers  have  not  even  been  allowed  to 
take   examinations   for  promotion.    Additional    restrictions   are 
also  in  force  in  the  army.    As  I  have  said,  no  Jew  may  serve  *^ 
in  the  navy,   in  the   frontier  or  quarantine   service,   or  in  the  t^ 
gendarmerie ;  and  since  1889  no  Jewish  soldier  serving  in  a  mili- 
tary orchestra   may   occupy  the   position   of   leader,   while   the 
proportion  of  Jewish  musicians  in  a  military  orchestra  is  limited     •^ 
to  one-third. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  statistically  demonstrated  that 
the  oft-repeated  assertion  that  the  Jews  do  not  furnish  enough 
soldiers  is  a  malicious  invention.  The  truth  is  precisely  the 
contrary.  In  consequence  of  special  regulations  and  of  adminis- 
trative quibblings,  the  annual  levy  of  recruits  from  among  the 
Jewish  population  of  Russia  is  proportionately  far  greater  than 
that  drawn  from  any  other  class  of  subjects.  The  Russian 
Jews  furnish  every  year  from  thirty  to  forty  per  cent  more 
soldiers  than  their  legal  quota.  Thus  it  happened  that  the 
Jewish  soldiers  who  fought  in  the  war  against  Japan  amounted 
to  the  enormous  number  of  nearly  sixty  thousand. 

Yet,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  census  of  1897  has  indis- 
putably proved  that  the  Jews  bear  the  heaviest  burden  of  mili- 
tary service,  the  Russian  administration  always  manages  to  as- 
cribe to  them  a  deficit — and  for  two  good  reasons.  In  the 
first  place,  the  anti-Semitic  press  is  supplied  with  more  material 
for  the  calumny  that  the  Jews  evade  their  military  duties.     In 


RUSSIA  191 

the  second  place,  here  is  another  pretext  through  which  mil- 
lions are  extorted  from  the  already  burdened  and  impoverished 
Jewish  masses.  There  is  a  regulation  of  1886,  applicable  to 
Jews  only,  establishing  "family  responsibility"  for  recruits.  The 
effect  of  this  provision  is  that  should  any  Jew  whose  name  has 
been  drawn  as  a  recruit  fail  to  report  for  service  at  the  proper 
time,  even  though  he  may  delay  but  a  few  hours,  his  relatives 
must  pay  a  fine  of  300  rubles.  It  makes  no  difference  if  the 
name  of  the  "recruit"  is  that  of  one  who  emigrated  years  ago, 
or  died,  even  in  infancy;  no  matter  what  proofs  may  be  offered, 
the  penalty  still  remains.  This  oppression  hovers  like  a  ter- 
rifying ghost  over  the  Ghetto,  descending  on  those  who  have 
least  reason  to  anticipate  it.  Suddenly  the  poor  Jew  is  in- 
formed that  he  must  pay  the  government  the  unattainable  sum 
of  300  rubles  because  some  relative  over  whom  he  had  no  con- 
trol has  emigrated  or  has  died.  Thousands,  already  poor,  are 
thus  made  still  poorer;  while  many,  their  last  belongings  sold 
to  pay  the  fine,  are  driven  to  beggary. 

Civic  Disabilities 

In  municipal  affairs  the  Jew  must  bear  the  heaviest  burdens 
of  taxation  without  receiving  the  ordinary  rights  of  citizenship. 
Under  a  degrading  law  of  1892,  no  Jew  can  either  vote  for,  or 
be  elected,  alderman.  The  governors  of  the  provinces  compris- 
ing the  Pale  of  Jewish  Settlement  are  empowered  to  select  from 
among  the  Jewish  inhabitants  of  each  city  several  representa- 
tives for  the  municipal  assembly.  Their  number  must  not  ex- 
ceed one-tenth  of  the  whole  body,  and  is  usually  fixed  by  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior.  Even  in  cities  where  the  Jews  consti- 
tute three-fourths  of  the  population  they  have  in  reality  neither 
a  direct  nor  an  indirect  voice  in  the  regulation  of  municipal 
affairs.  In  such  places  illiterates  and  drunkards,  in  virtue  of  the 
fact  that  they  are  not  Jews,  often  rule  over  an  intellectual  and 
well-conducted  populace.  Those  Jews  who  are  appointed  to  the 
assembly  by  the  governor,  far  from  being  representative,  are 
likely  to  be  men  of  inferior  character,  out  of  all  sympathy  with 
the  governed. 

Educational  Restrictions 

From  the  American  standpoint,  every  child  is  entitled  to  an 
education;  but  even  education  is  denied  to  a  great  proportion 


192  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

of  the  Jewish  youth.  Under  Nicholas  I  and  Alexander  II  the 
Russian  government  wisely  made  great  efforts  to  induce  the 
Jews  to  renounce  their  traditional  Talmudic  studies  and  to  enter 
the  State  schools,  offering  concessions  and  privileges  to  students. 
This  far-sighted  policy  was  productive  of  results  advantageous 
both  to  the  Jews  and  to  the  Empire.  But  times  have  changed. 
Since  1886  the  Ministry  of  Education  has  adopted  regulations 
limiting  the  proportion  of  Jews  to  be  admitted  to  secondary  in- 
/  stitutions,  high  schools,  and  colleges — in  the  capital  cities  to 
/  three  per  cent  of  the  total  admissions,  in  other  towns  to  five  per 
cent,  and  in  the  cities  of  the  Pale  to  ten  per  cent.  Moreover,  a 
number  of  secondary  institutions  and  high  schools  are  entirely 
closed  to  Jews.  It  is  only  in  the  commercial  schools  that  the 
regulations  have  been  relatively  mild,  but  the  present  Ministry 
of  Education  is  endeavoring  to  shut  out  Jewish  children  even 
from  these  schools. 

Such  cruel  limitations  bring  about  a  condition  that  is  simply 
barbarous.  Only  a  small  proportion  of  the  Jewish  children  can 
be  admitted  to  the  schools,  and  which  shall  be  the  favored  ones 
is  supposedly  determined  by  competitive  examinations.  There- 
fore the  Jewish  youths  for  years  are  drilled,  tutored,  and 
crammed  in  order  that  they  may  pass  brilliantly,  while  the 
parents  zealously  seek  all  means  to  further  the  chances  of  their 
offspring,  naturally  in  the  Russian  atmosphere  of  corruption 
often  resorting  to  bribery  of  teachers  and  directors.  Nothing 
could  be  more  demoralizing  to  both  parents  and  children.  What 
with  the  fierce  struggle  for  the  privilege  of  schooling,  and  the 
struggle  to  retain  that  privilege  when  secured,  it  is  small  wonder 
that  so  many  brilliant  Jewish  youths  are  exhausted  in  body  and 
broken  in  spirit  at  the  threshold  of  the  university.  And  there 
the  same  struggle  must  be  repeated.  Jewish  applicants  for 
vacancies  in  the  university  wait  year  after  year  for  the  oppor- 
tunity of  matriculation.  Thousands,  at  length  grown  hopeless, 
give  up  the  fight  or  emigrate  to  complete  their  education  abroad ; 
/nd  the  Russian  government  refuses  the  privilege  of  general 
^residence  to  Jews  who  hold  the  diplomas  of  foreign  universi- 
ties. Even  the  Jew  who  obtains  the  coveted  Russian  university 
diploma  finds  his  progress  in  his  profession  hampered  by 
numberless  restrictions. 


RUSSIA  193 

Landholding  and  Farming 

A  Jew  may  not  buy,  lease,  or  manage  real  property  except  in  / 
the  towns  and  cities  in  the  Pale  of  Settlement.  This  prohibition 
has  altogether  paralyzed  the  developments  of  a  Jewish  peasantry 
in  Russia.  At  the  beginning  of  the  eighties  there  was  a  strong 
"back  to  the  land"  movement  among  the  Russian  Jews.  A  sub- 
stantial fund  to  promote  this  agricultural  enterprise  had  already 
been  subscribed,  when  the  enactment  of  the  May  Laws  put  an 
end  to  all  efforts  in  this  direction  by  rendering  it  impossible  for 
Jews  to  develop  the  established  agricultural  colonies,  or  to  found 
new  ones  within  the  limits  of  the  Russian  empire.-  The  200,000 
Jews  now  engaged  in  agriculture  in  Russia  are  mostly  the  de- 
cendants  of  farmers  of  earlier  times,  or  are  engaged  in  garden- 
ing within  the  limits  of  towns  and  boroughs. 

Under  the  law  Jewish  artisans  are  privileged  to  reside  in 
almost  all  parts  of  Russia,  but  they  may  not  acquire  real  estate 
in  the  cities  outside  of  the  Pale,  for  the  Senate  has  pointed  out 
in  an  interpretation  that  the  Jewish  artisan  enjoys  the  common 
right  of  residence  only  so  long  as  he  exercises  his  handicraft; 
should  he  give  up  his  trade  he  would  lose  this  right;  therefore 
every  Jewish  artisan  dwelling  outside  the  Pale  must  be  con- 
sidered a  temporary  resident  who  cannot  acquire  property  for 
life. 

The  Right  of  Residence 

The  greatest  affliction  of  the  Russian  Jews,  and  the  cause  of 
the  recent  exhibition  of  Governmental  violence  against  hun- 
dreds of  these  unfortunate  people,  is  the  limitation  of  the  right 
of  residence.  The  great  majority  of  the  Russian  Jews  are 
rigorously  herded  in  the  large  cities  of  Poland  and  the  so-called 
Pale  of  Jewish  Settlement,  for  only  in  these  cities  may  -they 
reside.  Comparatively  small  numbers  have  been  able  to  pre- 
serve old  residential  rights  in  the  villages  or  country  districts  of 
the  Pale.  Scattered  through  the  rest  of  the  Empire  are  about 
a  quarter  of  a  million  Jews,  some  of  whom  have  retained  old 
rights  of  residence  in  their  localities,  others  belonging  to  cer- 
tain privileged  classes  to  whom  the  right  of  general  residence  is 
accorded  by  law.  But  the  whole  policy  of  the  Russian  govern- 
ment is  to  withdraw  all  rights  of  external  residence,  and  to 
pack  the  Jews  closer  and  closer  in  the  great  cities  of  the  Pale. 


194  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  Pale  of  Settlement  consists  of  fifteen  provinces,  compris- 
ing a  twenty-third  part  of  the  empire,  namely:  Bessarabia, 
Wilna,  Vitebsk,  Volhynia,  Grodno,  Yekaterinoslav,  Kovno, 
Minsk,  Moghilev,  Podolia,  Poltava,  Taurida,  Kherson,  Cher- 
nigov, and  Kiev.  Russian  Poland  is  not  in  the  Pale,  but  there 
also  Jews  may  live.  The  other  thirty-five  governments  of  Euro- 
pean Russia,  the  Caucasus  with  its  eleven  governments,  Siberia 
with  its  nine  provinces,  and  the  provinces  of  Middle  Asia,  are 
generally  closed  to  the  Jews. 

Rights  of  Jewish  Artisans 

Under  the  law  the  privilege  of  residence  in  any  part  of  the 
empire  is  supposedly  accorded  to  Jewish  old  soldiers,  merchants 
of  the  first  guild,  members  of  certain  professions,  and  artisans 
pursuing  their  calling.  But  while  even  members  of  the  higher 
"privileged  classes"  are  deprived  of  their  rights  on  many  pre- 
texts, their  condition  is  idyllic  in  comparison  with  that  of  the 
artisans  and  skilled  laborers.  These  are  subject  to  a  degrading 
and  costly  espionage,  and  are  in  continual  fear  of  sudden  ex- 
pulsion. Should  an  artisan  give  a  night's  lodging  to  a  relative 
who  has  no  right  of  residence,  he  forfeits  his  rights.  For  a 
Jewish  artisan  to  have  some  side  line  besides  his  handicraft  is 
also  fatal.  Watchmakers  have  been  expelled  because  they  sold 
watches  and  chains;  bakers  because  they  sold  coffee;  ritual 
butchers  because  they  sold  meat  to  non-Jews.  Such  "crimes" 
as  these,  moreover,  afford  the  inventive  police  enviable  oppor- 
tunities for  making  money. 

As  soon  as  the  sons  of  a  Jewish  artisan  become  of  age,  if 
they  have  not  themselves  acquired  the  right  of  residence,  they 
must  abandon  the  paternal  home  and  return  to  the  Ghetto., 
Similarly,  married  daughters  whose  husbands  do  not  belong  to 
the  privileged  classes  cannot  remain  even  temporarily  in  the 
house  of  their  parents.  Should  the  Jewish  artisan  become  in- 
capacitated by  old  age,  he  must  wage  a  long  fight  with  the  police 
administration  over  his  right  of  residence  in  a  place  where  he 
has  lived  and  worked  for  years.  Moreover,  the  Senate  has 
repeatedly  declared  non-privileged  many  callings  that  formerly 
conferred  the  general  residential  right.  Thus  tobacco  workers, 
piano-tuners,  fish  salters,  butchers,  rubber-menders,  bricklayers, 
diggers,  and  others  have  been  declared  not  to  be  artisans  and 
have  been  sent  back  to  the  Ghetto.    Considering  these  oppressive 


RUSSIA  195 

conditions,  it  is  hardly  surprising  that,  in  the  course  of  decades, 
only  about  ten  thousand  Jewish  artisans — that  is,  about  two  per 
cent  of  the  half  million  Jewish  workingmen  in  Russia — have 
found  their  way  to  the  interior  governments,  while  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  this  class  have  emigrated  to  transoceanic  coun- 
tries. 

Expulsions 

In  addition  to  the  legally  privileged,  there  are  unquestionably 
large  numbers  of  non-privileged  Jews  whom  economic  con- 
ditions have  compelled  to  break  through  the  artificial  territorial 
barriers  and  to  settle  in  prohibited  places.  These  unfortunates 
are  the  sport  and  prey  of  the  police.  The  richer  pay  enormous 
sums  to  be  allowed  to  remain,  always  in  fear  and  trembling, 
while  the  poor  are  pitilessly  driven  back  to  starve  in  the  over- 
crowded cities  of  the  Pale.  Inevitably  the  privileged  suffer 
with  the  non-privileged.  Recently  the  administration  has  not 
hesitated  to  include  in  its  proscriptions  children  and  paralyzed 
old  men. 

Whenever  a  particularly  strong  wind  of  anti-Semitism  agi- 
tates the  official  atmosphere,  local  authorities  are  quick  to  show 
their  zeal.  Then  follow  raids,  arbitrary  expulsions,  and  the  im- 
prisonment of  non-privileged  Jews  as  examples.  At  such  times 
Jews,  or  persons  whose  features  are  considered  by  the  police 
to  have  a  Jewish  cast,  have  been  actually  stopped  in  the  streets 
and  required  to  prove  their  right  of  residence. 

The  constant  governmental  harrying  is  naturally  productive 
of  great  economic  distress.  At  one  time,  for  example,  at  least 
forty  per  cent  of  the  Jews  of  Odessa  were  forced  to  resort  tem- 
porarily to  the  public  charities.  Worse  yet,  the  victims  are 
broken  in  spirit  and  degraded  in  the  eyes  of  their  neighbors. 
Such  spectacles  as  night  raids  on  the  homes  of  privileged  Jews 
and  the  public  expulsion  of  troops  of  innocent  Jews,  herded  by 
squads  of  police,  arouse  cowardly,  brutal  mob  instincts  that  find 
vent  in  the  murderous  pogroms  for  which  the  government  seeks 
to  evade  responsibility. 

The  Jews  of  the  Pale 

And  now,  what  is  the  lot  of  the  Jews  in  the  Pale  of  Settle- 
ment? In  this  great  Ghetto,  created  by  the  strong  arm  of 
government,  ninety-five  per  cent  of  their  ntunber  are  confined. 


196  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Here  their  condition  might  not  be  insupportable,  if  only  they 
had  freedom  of  movement.  But  the  assertion  that  even  a 
twenty-third  part  of  the  Russian  empire  is  open  to  Jews  is  a 
fiction.  In  reality  only  a  two-thousandth  part  of  the  empire  is 
free  to  them.  For  the  May  Laws  of  1882  definitely  forbade  the 
yj'ews  to  settle  in  the  villages,  and  since  1887  they  have  even  been 

•^  forbidden  to  move  from  one  village  to  another.  Only  those  who 
were  residents  in  a  village  in  1882  may  continue  to  live  there, 
and  the  number  of  these  is  steadily  diminishing.  A  temporary 
absence  from  the  village  is  sufficient  to  forfeit  the  privilege, 
and  women  usually  lose  it  by  marriage.  For  a  long  time  Jews 
who  had  gone  to  the  cities  for  the  holidays  in  order  to  partici- 
pate in  the  divine  service  were  not  allowed  by  the  poHce  to  re- 
enter the  villages,  under  the  pretext  that  they  had  forfeited  their 
rights.  Many  have  been  expelled,  in  spite  of  the  testimony  of 
their  neighbors,  simply  because  the  police  failed  to  register  them 
as  residents  when  the  May  Laws  went  into  effect.  If  one  pre- 
text fails,  another  will  serve  a  despotic  government  in  a  war 
against  helpless  individuals.  In  some  villages  the  Jews  can- 
not even  obtain  cemetery  plots,  because  the  acquisition  of  real 
property  by  them  outside  the  city  limits  is  contrary  to  the  spirit 
of  the  May  Laws.  They  are  forced  to  drag  their  dead  to  the 
neighboring  towns. 

Another  device  was  beautiful  in  its  simplicity.    Hundreds  of 

,  places  which  in  the  official  directories  had  figured  as  townlets 
/  suddenly,  in  the  early  nineties,  were  declared  to  be  parishes,  and 
as  such  not  open  to  Jewish  settlement.  So  enormous  was  the 
injustice  of  this  movement,  supported  by  Senatorial  decisions, 
that  even  Plehve  relented  so  far  as  to  restore  to  a  considerable 
number  of  these  places  their  urban  standing.  But  this  mitiga- 
tion was  applied  ten  years  after  the  catastrophe,  after  thousands 
of  Jews,  especially  in  the  governments  of  Chernigov  and 
Poltava,  had  sustained  irretrievable  loss. 

The  Jews  are  fairly  driven  into  the  great  centers,  and  then 
they  are  upbraided  for  their  tendency  to  gather  in  the  cities. 

The  Rights  of  Foreign  Jews 

Russia  is  practically  closed  to  foreign  Jews.  Of  the  great 
number  that  formerly  lived  there  but  few  remain.  Under  a 
regulation  of  1891,  foreign  Jews  representing  known  firms  may 


RUSSIA  197 

obtain  a  permit  for  a  three  months'  sojourn  in  Russia,  and  after 
their  arrival  the  permit  may  be  extended  for  six  months  at  the 
utmost.  All  other  Jews  wishing  to  visit  the  country  must  re- 
ceive special  permission  from  the  Minister  of  the  Interior.  Per- 
manent residence  in  Russia  is  allowed  only  to  the  following 
classes  of  foreign  Jews:  (o)  physicians  and  rabbis  when  invited 
by  the  government;  (b)  founders  of  factories;  (c)  foremen 
when  engaged  by  manufacturers  for  factory  work.  Members  of 
all  these  classes  must  overcome  great  official  obstacles,  and  their 
entry  into  Russia  is  a  rare  occurrence.  But  if  a  foreign  Jew  de- 
sires to  engage  in  commerce  in  Russia,  he  must  obtain  special 
permission  from  three  Ministers — the  Minister  of  the  Interior, 
the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  the  Minister  of  Finance — 
and  must  pay  the  tax  of  the  first  guild.  Such  are  the  precau- 
tions taken  by  the  Russian  government  to  prevent  Jewish 
capitalists  from  becoming  a  power  in  Russia  or  exploiting  the 
wealth  of  the  empire!  Yet  the  same  government  is  more  than 
ready  to  resort  to  the  same  capitalists  when  confronted  by  the 
problems  of  a  depleted  treasury. 

Governmental  Duplicity 

Recently  the  attitude  of  the  Russian  government  and  of  local 
administrations  toward  the  Jews  has  varied  according  to  the 
political  tendency  of  the  moment.  Promises  of  reform  have  in- 
variably been  followed  by  bitter  reaction.  And  the  vacillations 
of  the  government  have  served  to  trick  many  Jews  out  of  their 
rights.  Sometimes  it  seems  as  though  contradictory  govern- 
ment circulars  were  designed  for  that  very  purpose.  Thus  the 
(  Stolypin  circular  of  May  22,  1907,  induced  large  numbers  of 
Jewish  merchants  and  artisans  to  discontinue  observing  the 
formalities  necessary  to  maintain  their  residential  rights,  by 
promising  permanent  rights  of  residence.  But  the  wavering 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  yielding  to  reactionary  forces,  in  1909 
issued  a  supplementary  circular  which  actually  annulled  this 
promise.  Then  the  Jew  who,  relying  on  the  first  circular,  had 
lost  his  old  rights  by  non-observance  of  formalities,  even 
though  he  had  been  a  legal  settler  for  thirty  years,  lost  all  privi- 
leges. No  better  trick  to  defraud  old  residents  could  well  be 
devised;  but  anything  is  possible  when  a  government  can  tie  a 
string  to  every  promise. 


198  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  Expulsions  of  1910 

The  Jews  were  not  long  left  unconvinced  of  their  error  in 
trusting  the  promises  held  out  in  the  first  circular.  In  many 
places  the  new,  supplementary  circular  gave  a  long-desired  oppor- 
tunity for  persecution.  In  Kiev  thousands  were  marked  for  ex- 
pulsion. The  police  inaugurated  a  series  of  night  raids,  invad- 
ing hotels,  the  homes  of  private  citizens,  surprising  clerks  in  the 
shops,  and  expelling  many  singly  and  in  groups.  In  the  spring 
of  1910,  acting  on  orders  from  St.  Petersburg,  the  local  authori- 
ties sent  orders  of  expulsion  to  1,150  families  in  Kiev  and  to  238 
families  in  the  suburb  of  Demiyevka.  The  petitions  of  non- 
Jewish  merchants  who  protested  to  the  government  that  the 
wholesale  expulsions  would  cause  great  economic  damage,  the 
protests  of  Jewish  delegations,  and,  lastly,  the  attacks  of  the 
foreign  press,  had  but  little  ultimate  effect.  The  names  of  a 
small  fraction  of  the  proscribed  were  stricken  from  the  list,  but 
for  1,200  Jewish  heads  of  households  with  their  families  the 
order  remained.  Those  who  could  not  obtain  the  right  of  resi- 
dence by  paying  the  guild  tax — and  but  few  could  afford  it — ^had 
to  quit  the  locality.  Most  of  the  expelled  went  voluntarily  to 
Odessa,  Warsaw,  Cracow,  Lemberg,  or  emigrated  to  America. 
Among  these  a  girl,  deranged  by  her  experiences,  flung  herself 
from  the  window  of  the  express  train  that  was  taking  her  to 
Odessa,  and  was  killed. 

Typical  Instances 

Many  expulsions  are  the  results  of  direct  orders  or  hints 
from  St.  Petersburg.  Officials  everywhere  are  incited  to  inquire 
carefully  into  the  rights  of  residence  of  the  Jews  within  their 
jurisdiction.  Lack  of  zeal  in  this  direction  is  not  tolerated. 
Thus  the  Governor  of  Livonia  was  reprimanded  for  his  indiffer- 
ence to  the  question,  whereupon  he  soon  found  the  required  vic- 
tims. In  Rostov,  hotels  and  restaurants  were  suddenly  raided, 
and  many  Jews,  large  numbers  of  them  legally  privileged,  were 
expelled.  Among  those  listed  by  the  police  for  expulsion  from 
Tula  were  four  women  of  from  sixty  to  eighty  years  who  had 
long  lived  there.  To  evade  expulsion  they  contracted  fictitious 
marriages  with  old  soldiers  of  Nicholas  I,  and  thus  secured  im- 
munity. In  Tashkent  forty  families  were  ordered  out,  A^ith  but 
three  days'  grace.    In  the  middle  of  winter,  with  the  thermo- 


RUSSIA  199 

meter  far  below  zero,  dozens  of  Jews  were  driven  from  Irkutsk, 
among  them  children,  and  men  seventy  years  old.  In  Vladi- 
vostok the  Governor  directed  that  every  expulsion  from  the  capi- 
tal should  be  communicated  to  the  other  cities  of  the  province, 
so  that  the  expelled  might  find  no  refuge.  In  Smolensk,  in  the 
winter  of  1910,  twenty-one  dentists  were  first  expelled.  A  goodly 
number  of  artisans  followed,  the  order  for  their  expulsion  stating 
that  "their  applications  for  the  right  of  residence  have  not  been 
looked  into,  and  until  this  has  been  done  they  must  leave  the  city." 
Acting  under  orders  of  the  Governor,  the  police,  on  May  17,  sur- 
rounded the  townlet  of  Potchinok,  consisting  of  two  hundred 
houses,  but  at  first  secured  only  ten  Jews  for  expulsion.  A  regu- 
lar hunt  in  the  neighboring  forest,  however,  resulted  in  the  cap- 
ture of  sixty  more,  chiefly  young  clerks.  In  consequence  of  the 
expulsion  of  these  young  men  several  wholesale  houses  were 
obliged  to  close  for  a  time  for  lack  of  employees.  From  city 
after  city  artisans  were  expelled  on  the  easy  claim  that  they  had 
lost  their  rights  of  residence  by  not  pursuing  their  trade.  The 
artisans  are  usually  meek  victims,  for  most  of  them  are  too  poor 
to  defend  their  rights,  and  injustice  to  them  makes  but  little  stir. 

All  other  persecutors,  however,  yield  the  palm  to  Dumbadse, 
of  Yalta.  After  violent  denunciations  and  brutal  inquisitions,  he 
expelled  a  large  number  of  Jewish  artisans,  and,  when  some  of 
these  in  their  extreme  misery  offered  themselves  for  baptism,  he 
declared  that  this  would  not  save  them.  In  his  hatred  of  the 
Jews,  Dumbadse  issued  the  most  frantic  orders.  He  expelled 
from  Yalta  all  the  Jewish  soldiers  of  the  Wilna  regiment  which 
garrisoned  the  town,  thus  even  daring  to  affront  the  military 
authorities. 

Emulating  the  exploits  of  Dumbadse,  Governor-General 
Hoershelman,  of  Moscow,  signalized  himself  by  expelHng  from 
the  city  three  little  children  because  they  did  not  hold  the  privilege 
of  residence  in  their  own  right!  Their  father,  Raitzy,  had  ob- 
tained a  personal  right  of  residence  in  Moscow  as  an  employee 
of  a  merchant  of  the  first  guild.  Their  mother,  in  her  capacity 
of  midwife,  possessed  a  similar  right.  Being  unable  to  deprive 
of  their  right  either  husband  or  wife,  the  Moscow  authorities, 
with  the  consent  of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  expelled  their 
three  children,  respectively  four,  eight,  and  ten  years  old.  The 
Senate  canceled  this  order  on  the  ground  that  it  is  not  only  a 
right  but  also  a  duty  of  parents  to  keep  their  children.     But 

15 


200  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

this  Moscow  decision  is  illustrative  of  many  similar  cruelties 
perpetrated  by  the  bureaucrats  and  police  that  are  not  even  re- 
viewed by  the  higher  authorities. 

Travelers  and  Sojourners 

In  some  places  the  authorities  have  conceived  the  idea  of 
preventing  Jews,  while  traveling,  from  setting  foot  in  their  do- 
main. The  priority  in  this  annoyance  belongs  to  Dumbadse. 
He  did  not  allow  Jews  coming  by  steamer  to  disembark  in  his 
city.  A  Jewish  physician,  from  his  profession  belonging  to  the 
first  privileged  class,  was,  on  his  arival  at  Yalta,  ordered  to  de- 
part on  the  first  steamer  leaving  for  Theodosia.  His  request  to 
be  allowed  to  continue  his  voyage  to  Eupatoria  was  denied,  be- 
cause this  would  entail  his  staying  overnight  in  Yalta.  It 
happened  that  this  physician  had  served  with  distinction  through 
the  Japanese  War,  carried  official  testimony  to  his  "political 
reliability,"  and  still  belonged  to  the  reserve.  But  why  should 
the  military  record  of  an  army  physician  have  any  weight  with 
the  capricious  satrap  of  Yalta,  when  his  own  Imperial  govern- 
ment had  withdrawn  the  promised  general  right  of  residence 
even  from  the  Jewish  volunteers  who  fought  at  Port  Arthur! 
As  for  Jewish  invalids  seeking  health  at  Russian  resorts,  the 
barbarities  to  which  they  are  subjected,  in  the  face  of  the  pro- 
tests of  physicians,  furnish  but  too  many  additional  instances  of 
the  brutal  whims  of  a  bureaucracy. 

On  every  side  the  Russian  Jew  is  beset  with  chicanery,  extor- 
tion, and  numberless  annoyances,  great  and  small.  He  cannot 
tell  what  future  a  benign  government  may  next  prepare  for  him. 
Until  the  great  iniquity  of  the  laws  of  exception,  the  restriction 
in  the  right  of  residence,  is  removed,  he  cannot  hope  to  struggle 
upward.  It  seems  too  much  to  hope,  but  some  day,  perhaps,  the 
rulers  of  Russia  may  recognize  the  truth  that  Frederick  the  Great 
phrased  long  ago :  "Bigotry  is  a  tyrant  that  depopulates  the 
countries.  Toleration  is  a  tender  mother  who  nourishes  them 
and  makes  them  flourish." 


RUSSIA  201 


SITUATION  OF  THE  JEWS  IN  RUSSIA* 


During  the  years  just  preceding  the  war  the  Jews  in  Russia 
were  passing  through  a  grievous  period;  the  government's  anti- 
Semitism  had  increased,  being  expressed  in  a  more  intensified 
system  of  limitations  of  rights  and  in  a  tendency  to  extend  this 
system  not  only  by  the  application  of  already  existing  limitations 
but  also  by  the  elaboration  of  new  legislation.  The  laws  con- 
cerning Jews  have  always  been  characterized  by  a  remarkable 
vagueness;  they  had  to  do  with  such  elementary  human  rights 
as  the  right  to  live  in  this  or  that  locality,  the  right  to  carry  on 
trade  and  industry,  the  right  to  receive  an  education,  and  so 
forth;  yet  these  laws  constantly  and  invariably  raised  doubts 
when  they  had  to  be  applied  to  the  complicated  and  varied  con- 
ditions of  life  which  did  not  fit  into  the  framework  of  the  pro- 
hibitory laws.  They  were  so  all-embracing  that  the  mere  ap- 
plication of  the  laws  in  a  more  restrictive  or  in  a  more  liberal 
sense,  without  any  change  in  the  law  itself,  would  mean  either 
the  oppression  of  many  millions  of  Jews  in  Russia  or  a  slight 
alleviation  of  their  condition. 

Official  Anti-Semitism 

The  vital  interests  of  this  popi!!?8tion  and  the  corresponding 
interests  of  the  whole  population  were  therefore  more  dependent 
on  the  practice  in  the  application  of  the  laws  than  on  the  laws 
themselves.  It  was  the  government's  policy  to  adapt  the  admin- 
istrative apparatus  of  circulars  and  edicts  to  the  requirements 
of  its  anti-Semitic  state  of  mind.  The  government  did  not  need 
to  issue  new  restrictive  laws  in  order  to  manifest  its  anti-Semit- 
ism; the  same  results — restriction  and  limitation — could  be  se- 
cured by  a  simple  circular  or  by  an  edict  of  the  Senate. 

This  is  why  it  was  always  possible  for  every  local  administra- 
tor— not  to  speak  of  persons  in  the  higher  central  government, 
from  Governors  of  provinces  down  to  the  lowest  police  agents — 
to  follow  their  individual  policy  with  regard  to  the  Jews.  At 
any  given  moment  one  could  divide  Russia  into  regions,  and 
on  a  general  background  of  absence   of   rights,   note   that  the 

*  By  Henry  Sliozbcrg.  Current  History  Magazine  of  the  New  York 
Times.  5:209-13.  November,  1916, 


202  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

situation  of  the  Jews  was  comparatively  better  or  worse,  accord- 
^  ing  to  the  administrator  of  the  district,  although  the  laws  were 
equally  binding  for  all  localities.     There  was  still  greater  variety 
'^    according  to  epochs,  in  spite  of  absence  of  new  legislative  meas- 
ures. 

For  more  than  twenty-five  years  I  have  been  in  very  close 
touch  with  the  question  of  the  application  of  the  restrictive  laws 
on  Jews,  and  I  must  state  that  there  never  was  a  more  oppressive 
period  than  that  of  the  several  years  just  preceding  the  war. 
Without  the  enactment  of  any  new  laws,  the  noose  of  legal  limi- 
tations on  Jews  was  pulled  tighter  every  month  by  interpretative 
circulars  of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  Maklakov,  and  by  edicts 
of  the  Senate,  under  the  direction  of  the  Minister  of  Justice, 
Shcheglovitov. 

(These  two  Ministers  resigned  in  June,  1915,  under  the  pressure  of 
public  opinion. — Translator.) 

Again  the  political  law  was  confirmed  of  the  direct  corre- 
spondence between  the  increase  of  reaction  in  general  and  the 
^>rlcrease  of  governmental  anti-Semitism.  The  Jewish  question 
has  for  a  long  time  been  a  political  question;  and  recently, 
from  1905  on,  it  has  been  the  main  axle  around  which  turned 
the  wheel  of  reaction.  The  center  from  which  the  reaction 
derived  its  strength  supplied  the  governmental  circles  with  the 
energy  in  their  anti-Semitism.  This  centre  was  the  frank,  and, 
to  a  greater  degree,  the  concealed,  activity,  of  the  so-called 
Council  of  the  United  Nobility,  which  introduced  in  the  Gov- 
ernmental circles  the  policy  of  limitations  on  the  rights  of 
Jews. 

To  Bar  Jews  From  Army 

Immediately  before  the  war  the  United  Nobility  began  to  take 
the  initiative,  to  put  through  a  law  excluding  Jews  from  the 
army,  and  substituting  for  military  service  in  the  case  of  Jews 
either  taxes  in  money  or  a  special  form  of  military  service.  This 
project  of  the  law  naturally  met  with  the  approval  of  the  former 
Minister  of  War  Sukhomlinov,  who  was  acting  under  the  direct 
influence  of  the  Chief  of  the  General  Staff,  General  Yanushke- 
vich,  one  of  the  most  active  members  of  the  Council-  of  the 
United  Nobility.  Perhaps  in  no  other  branch  of  public  life  has 
anti-Semitism  been  imposed  from  above  with  such  insistence  as 
in  the  military. 


RUSSIA  203 

The  documents  on  this  side  of  the  question  are  unbelievably 
eloquent.  During  the  last  years  before  the  war  there  was  no 
instance  of  the  promotion  of  a  Jewish  soldier  to  the  rank  of 
non-commissioned  officer;  Jewish  volunteer  recruits  were  unable, 
without  the  help  of  special  protection,  to  gain  admittance  to 
regiments  of  their  choice;  and  the  attitude  of  the  regimental 
officers  toward  the  Jewish  soldiers  was  tinged  with  hate,  and 
inspired  constant  animosity  toward  them  in  the  army.  Just  as 
the  attitude  of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  always  went  rapidly 
down  the  hierarchic  ladder  to  the  very  lowest  steps,  so  the  atti- 
tude of  the  Minister  of  War,  and,  particularly,  that  of  the  Chief 
of  the  General  Staff,  was  passed  on  to  the  lowest  commanding 
ranks  in  the  army. 

Thus  governmental  anti-Semitism  reached  its  highest  point 
during  the  last  few  years,  and,  similarly,  the  legislative  bodies 
showed  the  same  degree  of  anti-Semitism.  To  one  who  knows 
Russian  political  life  it  is  quite  clear  that  both  the  Third  and 
the  Fourth  Dumas,  in  their  majorities,  performed  simply  the 
wishes  of  the  Government  and  were  under  the  exclusive  influence 
of  the  governmental  policy.  Though  there  could  be  difference  of 
opinion  on  any  general  question  among  the  parties  forming  the 
majority  of  the  Duma,  nevertheless,  on  the  Jewish  question — the 
main  axle  of  reaction — unanimity  prevailed.  The  Octobrist 
Party,  trained  to  obedience  from  the  time  of  the  late  Stolypin, 
never  had  the  courage  to  give  evidence  of  its  comparative  liberal- 
ism when  it  came  to  the  Jewish  question. 

Masses  Sound  at  Heart 

On  the  other  hand,  the  better  section  of  Russian  public 
opinion  remained  true  to  the  best  traditions  of  genuine  liberal- 
ism. It  always  recognized,  as  did  the  Jews,  that  the  governmental 
action  and  anti-Semitism  were  Siamese  twins.  Therefore,  not 
by  reason  of  any  agreement,  but  by  a  common,  similar  under- 
standing of  the  political  situation,  the  Jews  always  went  hand  in 
hand  with  the  genuinely  liberal  groups  of  the  public.  The  latter, 
struggling  against  reaction,  also  struggled  against  the  govern- 
mental policy  toward  the  Jews;  and  the  Jews,  fighting  for  their 
civil  and  national  rights,  fought  reaction.  If  one  adds  that  anti- 
Semitism  in  Russia  has  never  had  any  roots,  or  at  least  any  deep 
roots,  in  the  psychology  of  the  broad  popular  masses,  it  becomes 
clear  that  the  Jews  of  Russia  had  no  ground  for  refusing  to  be- 


^04  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

lieve  in  a  brighter  future,  and  confidently  to  wait  till  the  gloom 
of  reaction  should  be  dispelled,  and  with  it  the  limitations  for 
the  Jews. 

Such  was  the  situation  in  the  Jewish  question  when  the  war 
;^y  broke  out.  Contemporaries  will  never  forget,  and  history  will 
l^Ocertainly  note,  the  general  enthusiasm  which  seized  also  upon  the 
rY  Jewish  population  of  Russia  in  August,  1914.  It  would  have 
been  hard  to  presume  a  few  weeks  before  that  the  Jewish  popula- 
tion, so  oppressed  and  exhausted  morally  and  physically,  would 
be  able  to  show  such  enthusiasm  for  the  common  cause  of  Russia. 
But  such  was  the  fact.  Instinctively,  the  whole  Jewish  population 
felt  that  events  of  world  importance  were  beginning,  and  that 
these  events  must  lead  to  a  general,  radical  change  and  to  a  re- 
valuation of  all  values. 

Jews,  together  with  others,  felt  instinctively  that  this  was  a 
war  of  liberation.  The  Jews  also  showed  every  variety  of  public 
enthusiasm.  The  general  state  of  mind  of  the  Jews  was  re- 
flected in  the  declarations  of  representatives  of  various  parties 
and  national  groups  in  the  Imperial  Duma,  not  excluding  Jewish 
representatives. 

But  the  army  that  went  to  the  front  did  not  witness  this  gen- 
eral state  of  mind;  it  went  off  to  the  war,  educated  during  the 
preceding  years  in  the  policy  of  Sukhomlinov  and  General 
Yanushkevich. 

Propaganda  in  the  Army 

Military  operations  began  in  Poland,  and  from  the  very  first 
day  one  was  made  to  feel  the  extremely  aggravated  Jewish-Polish 
relations.  I  shall  not  stop  to  describe  in  detail  these  relations. 
By  indisputable  documents  and  facts  it  is,  however,  established 
that    there    was    an    unheard-of    propaganda    in    the    army    of 

(calumnies  against  the  Jews — calumnies  which  gradually  developed 
into  legends  of  Jewish  espionage.  These  legends  found  a  solid 
backing,  already  prepared,  and,  in  the  main,  they  were  supported 
by  the  fact  that  the  army  met  in  the  Jewish  population  of  Poland, 
as  well  as  of  Galicia,  a  society  quite  strange  to  it,  differing  from 
the  Jewish  population  of  Russia  both  in  language  and  in  exter- 
nal appearance. 

The  customary  and  inevitable  occurrence  of  separate  instances 
of  excesses,  which  in  many  places  reached  the  point  of  destruc- 
tion of  property,  immediately  terrified  the  local  Jewish  popula- 


RUSSIA  205 

tion.  This  state  of  mind  supported  the  estrangement,  which,  in 
turn,  kept  alive  the  legends  which  were  being  spread  along  the 
whole  front.  The  very  same  stories,  all  absolutely  absurd,  were 
spread  everywhere,  finding  an  echo  in  the  orders  of  the  higher 
army  commanders,  under  the  direction  and  leadership  of  the 
Chief  of  Staff  of  the  Imperial  Commander  in  Chief,  General 
Yanushkevich,  the  author  of  the  law  to  exclude  Jews  from  the 
army  and  a  member  of  the  Council  of  the  United  Nobility. 

The  result  of  all  this  was  the  issuing  of  military  orders  re- 
ferring exclusively  to  the  Jewish  population.  The  wholesale 
expulsion  of  Jews  from  various  cities  and  towns  laid  the  founda- 
tion for  the  so-called  fugitive  movement.  Fugitives  began  to 
rush  to  Warsaw  from  the  localities  near  the  line  of  battle,  and 
very  soon  there  were  gathered  in  Warsaw  more  than  120,000  fugi- 
tives, left  without  roof  or  food.  Gradually  the  attitude  toward 
the  Jewish  population  began  to  influence  the  attitude  toward 
Jewish  soldiers  and,  in  general,  toward  all  Jews  having  to  do  with 
the  army.  Hundreds  of  documents,  absolutely  authentic,  testify 
to  the  constant  issuing  of  orders  by  commanders  of  armies  and 
by  the  staff  of  the  Commander  in  Chief,  referring  not  only  to  the 
Jewish  population,  but  also  to  the  Jews  in  the  army.  The  Jew- 
ish population  was  literally  dum  founded  by  the  events  which 
followed,  feeling  them  with  particular  sensitiveness  because  of 
the  crisis  just  experienced.  The  next  events — the  wholesale  ex- 
pulsion of  Jews  from  the  provinces  of  Kovno  and  Courland  even  t^^ 
before  military  operations  had  reached  these  localities — created  an 
atmosphere  of  complete  perplexity  and  dejection. 

One  must  note  that  by  this  time  the  difference  between  the 
attitude  of  the  military  and  the  civil  authorities  toward  the  Jews 
had  become  clear.  Not  as  the  result  of  a  weakening  of  govern- 
mental anti-Semitism,  but  by  reason  of  the  realization  of  the  eco- 
nomic and  social  consequences  of  the  policy  adopted  by  the  army 
commanders  in  their  relations  to  Jews,  the  government,  in  a 
series  of  representations,  attempted  to  temper  the  severity  of  the 
military  orders.  The  government  was  able  to  stop  the  whole- 
sale expulsions  of  the  Jewish  population  from  the  western  prov- 
inces, gradually  substituting  an  expulsion  of  the  entire  population 
from  localities  threatened  by  the  enemy. 


2o6  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Breach  in  So-Called  Pale 

Under  the  influence  of  the  expulsions,  and  as  the  result  of  the 
occupation  by  the  enemy  of  certain  portions  of  the  western  prov- 
inces, a  breach  was  made  in  the  so-called  Pale  of  Settlement. 
At  first  Jews  were  forcibly  transferred  to  eastern  provinces, 
(Voronezh  and  Penza.)  On  Aug.  4,  191 5,  came  the  well-known 
order  of  the  Council  of  Ministers,  and,  in  a  circular,  the  Minister 
of  Interior,  Prince  Shchebatov,  stopped  temporarily,  until  a 
general  revision  of  the  laws  on  Jews,  the  application  of  the  re- 
strictive law  on  residence  of  Jews  in  the  interior  provinces  of 
Russia,  not  excluding  Siberia,  except  the  capitals,  Petrograd  and 
Moscow,  regions  under  the  authority  of  the  military,  the  Terri- 
tory of  the  Don  Armies,  the  Ter  and  Kuban  Territories  in  the 
Caucasus,  and  cities  under  the  control  of  the  Minister  of  the 
Court. 

This  measure,  which  at  any  other  time  would  have  meant  a 
considerable  reform  in  the  field  of  the  Jewish  question,  could  not, 
however,  make  a  serious  impression  when  expulsion  of  Jews  from 
western  provinces  continued  to  be  the  practice.  One  cannot  deny 
that  the  Jewish  population  received  this  measure,  essentially  one 
of  beneficence,  with  distrust,  which  has  not  been  dispelled  at  this 
moment  of  writing.  For  the  Jews  this  was  simply  a  measure 
called  forth  by  the  war.  It  was  felt  that,  if  the  attitude  toward 
the  Jews  was  not  radically  altered,  this  measure  might  be  repealed 
after  the  war,  if  it  were  not  sanctioned  by  the  legislative  author- 
ities. 

The  present  phase  of  the  government's  policy  with  regard  to 
the  Jews  is,  therefore,  somewhat  different  from  that  which  we 
had  before.  If  a  few  months  ago,  as  I  have  pointed  out,  the 
governmental  authorities  opposed,  to  a  certain  degree,  the  spread- 
ing of  malicious  calumnies  against  the  Jews,  and  repealed  certain 
measures  taken  by  the  military  authorities,  now,  however,  there 
is  no  such  attitude  of  opposition,  and  the  best  evidence  of  this 
fact  is  the  well-known  circular  of  Jan.  9,  1916,  of  the  former 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  Hvostov,  which  gave  rise  to  an  interpel- 
lation in  the  Duma. 

It  is  clear  to  any  one  acquainted  with  the  internal  life  of  Rus- 
sia that  a  bitter  internal  struggle  is  going  on,  with  the  war  as  a 
general  background,  between  the  government  and  the  various 
organizations  of  Russian  society.    In  this  struggle,  which  is  a 


RUSSIA  207 

struggle  of  reaction  against  liberal  tendencies,  the  Jewish  ques- 
tion continues  to  play  the  same  role  which  it  played  before  the 
war — the  role  of  a  lightning  rod,  all  the  more  necessary  because 
the  war  has  introduced  notable  complications  into  the  internal 
life  of  the  country.  Now  here,  now  there,  attempts  are  being 
made  to  put  off  on  the  Jews  the  responsibility  for  the  high  cost 
of  living  and  for  various  other  manifestations  of  disorder. 

[The  circular,  addressed  to  local  Governors,  suggested  that  the  Jews 
were  responsible  for  the  increase  in  the  cost  of  living  because  of  speculative 
operations  conducted  by  them,  and  urged  that  local  officials  keep  their  eyes 
open  to  this  possibility.  The  circular  was  not  made  public  at  the  time, 
and  the  Minister  interpreted  this  as  indicating  that  it  was  simply  a  measure 
of  precaution,  and  not  in  any  sense  a  measure  of  anti-Semitic  propaganda, — 
Translator.] 

Aid  from  Duma  Progressives 

A  very  important  factor  bearing  on  this  Jewish  question  was 
the  formation  in  the  Imperial  Duma  of  the  Progressive  mem- 
bers; apart  from  its  general  political  significance,  the  Progres- 
sives indicated  the  practical  isolation  of  the  government  in  the 
popular  representative  bodies.  The  Progressives  had  a  direct 
relation  to  the  Jewish  question,  for  its  program  included  certain 
points  indicating  a  desire  and  tendency  to  relieve  the  weight  of 
the  restrictive  laws  on  Jews.  But  unfortunately  the  expectations 
inspired  by  the  Progressives — expectations,  however,  which  not 
all  had  entertained — were  not  realized,  and  at  the  present  moment 
it  has  become  clear  that  the  Jews  cannot  expect  from  the  Pro- 
gressives in  the  near  future,  in  view  of  the  policy  being  adopted 
by  the  government,  any  amelioration  of  their  position. 

But  at  the  same  time  one  must  note  that  there  is  no  Jewish 
group,  representing  this  or  that  political  tendency,  which  would 
not  recognize  that  the  events  that  are  taking  place  today,  so  far 
as  they  affect  the  Jews,  are  simply  the  fruit  of  the  policy  of  the 
last  ten  years,  and  that  neither  the  war  itself  nor  the  events  con- 
nected with  it — that  is,  all  that  preceded  the  war — created  that 
strained  situation  which  is  now  felt.  All  recognize  that  now,  as 
formerly,  the  solution  of  the  Jewish  question  is  closely  connected 
with  the  solution  of  the  general  question  of  the  internal  policy 
in  Russia.  Reaction  will  be  accompanied  by  anti-Semitism.  All 
thinking  Jewish  groups,  who  are  able  to  understand  the  politi- 
cal events  that  are  taking  place,  are  absolutely  unanimous  on 


2o8  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

this  point.  They  are  unanimous  in  the  belief  that  after  the 
war  reaction  must  give  way  to  a  liberal  regime,  and  that  there- 
fore the  Jewish  question,  though  at  the  present  moment  in  a 
most  difficult  situation,  is  not,  however,  without  hope. 

Concerning  the  attitude  of  the  Jews  toward  the  war  itself, 
one  must  note  that  there  is  not.  a  single  category  among  Russian 
Jews  which  would  not  bind  its  lot  to  the  lot  of  Russia  in  general 
and  see  in  a  Russian  victory  the  guarantee  of  well-being  for 
Russia,  and,  in  particular,  for  the  Jews  within  Russia.  This 
attitude  is  dictated  especially  by  the  realization  that  the  7,000,000 
Jews  of  Russia  are  so  closely  attached  to  Russia  in  their  moral 
and  material  interests  that  it  is  quite  impossible  for  them  to 
think  of  their  own  welfare  except  in  terms  of  the  welfare  of 
Russia.  Thinking  Jews  have  always  recognized  that  Germany 
is  the  home  of  anti-Semitism,  and  that  the  most  reactionary  ele- 
ments in  Russia  have  been  the  officials  of  German  origin. 
Thinking  Jews  believe  that  the  more  decisive  the  victory  the 
quicker  will  Russia  proceed  along  the  road  of  progress  in  her 
internal  life. 

Victory  in  this  war  will  not  be  a  victory  of  the  government, 
but  a  victory  of  the  people,  a  victory  of  the  social  forces,  and, 
in  view  of  the  constant  opposition  of  government  to  society, 
the  coming  victory  will  mean  the  victory  of  these  same  social 
forces.  The  social  forces  of  Russia  have  always  been  opposed 
to  reaction,  and,  by  this  same  fact,  opposed  to  the  main  flag  of 
reaction — anti-Semitism. 

Recognizing  all  this,  we  are  now  passing  through  a  very  com- 
plicated state  of  mind.  Jews  are  experiencing  great  bitterness; 
they  are  outraged  by  the  injury  to  their  national  and  human 
feelings  and  their  feelings  of  common  citizenship.  This  bitter- 
ness increases  as  the  attitude  dictated  by  the  spheres  of  the 
commanding  personnel  of  the  army  does  injury  not  only  to  their 
material  and  civil  rights,  but  also  to  their  national  rights.  The 
prohibition  to  publish  newspapers  in  the  Jewish  popular  lan- 
guage has  made  a  crushing  impression,  equal  only  to  the  im- 
pression resulting  from  the  wholesale  expulsions  from  the  prov- 
inces of  Kovno  and  Courland.  The  Jewish  population  has  been 
deprived  of  proper  leadership,  and  it  is  therefore  very  difficult 
for  an  outside  observer  to  grasp  the  actual  state  of  mind  jof  the 
Jews. 


kUSSiA  4G0 

To  what  has  been  said  I  must  add  that  Jewish  political 
circles  were  astounded  by  the  impudence  of  two  Jews  who  took 
part,  it  would  seem,  in  some  kind  of  declaration  against  Russia, 
addressed  to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  drawn  up  in 
Stockholm  in  the  name  of  all  non-Russian  elements  of  the  em- 
pire. I  stand  very  close  to  all  Jewish  political  spheres,  and 
must  testify  directly  that  these  persons  are  unknown  to  Jewish 
political  leaders  in  Russia  and  that  they  ha^no  authorization 
from  any  Jewish  groups  or  circles. 


THE  RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION  AND  JEWISH 
IMMIGRATION' 

The  ramifications  of  the  Russian  revolution  have  apparently 
no  end.  It  affects  American  Hfe  in  countless  ways.  The  best- 
informed  believe  that  it  will  not  only  check  Jewish  immigration 
to  the  United  States  but  that  the  emancipation  of  the  Jews, 
which  is  already  assured,  will  cause  thousands  of  Russian  Jews, 
perhaps  millions,  to  go  back  to  Russia.  Despite  the  infamous 
treatment  that  the  Jews  of  Russia  have  experienced  at  the  hands 
of  the  Russian  autocracy,  they  still  have  the  greatest  affection 
for  that  country  and  look  upon  it  as  their  fatherland.  There  is 
also  a  saying  current  among  the  Jews  that  Russia,  except  for  its 
reactionary  government,  is  the  least  anti-Semitic  country  in 
Europe.  A  decrease  in  Russian  Jewish  immigration  would  prob- 
ably be  welcome  here,  for  it  would  make  less  acute  the  assimila- 
tion problem  of  the  United  States,  the  tendency  of  these  people 
having  been  to  settle  as  a  mass  in  large  cities,  instead  of  dis- 
tributing themselves  throughout  the  country.  This  has  strained 
our  economic  resources  to  the  utmost. 

The  new  immigration  law,  which  went  into  effect  May  1st, 
assumes  a  new  interest  in  view  of  the  changed  conditions  in 
Russia.  This  excludes  all  alien  immigrants  more  than  sixteen 
years  of  age  who  cannot  read  some  language.  But  it  excepts 
certain  classes — exceptions  that  were  inserted  mainly  in  the  in- 
terest of  Russian  Jews.  Any  immigrant  who  can  show  that  he 
comes  to  the  United  States  to  escape  religious  and  economic 
persecution  is  admissible  whether  he  can  read  or  not.     This  is 

*  World's  Work.  34:i33-4-  June,  191? 


210  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

the  motive  that  has  impelled  practically  all  the  Russian  Jewish 
immigration  of  the  last  thirty  years.  Thus  the  new  immigration 
law,  had  conditions  remained  intact,  would  have  excluded  prac- 
tically no  immigrants  such  as  congregate  in  large  numbers  on 
the  East  Side  of  New  York.  With  the  removal  of  all  religious 
and  economic  disabilities  in  Russia  as  a  result  of  the  Russian 
revolution,  this  claim  can  no  longer  be  made,  and  Russian  Jews 
will  now  have  to  be  able  to  read,  like  all  other  immigrants. 

Thus  the  Russian  revolution,  which  liberalizes  Russian  insti- 
tutions with  regard  to  the  Jews,  will  give  them  fair  opportunity 
where  they  are  now  and  will  not  force  them  upon  us  in  undue 
numbers,  and  the  literacy  test  will  apply  to  them  as  well  as  to 
others,  so  that  they  will  have  at  least  to  read  some  language 
when  they  come,  which  gives  some  ground  for  hope  that  they 
will  learn  English  after  they  come  here. 


/ 


RUSSIA  IN  THE  EUROPEAN  WAR 


RUSSIA'S  CONTRIBUTION  TO  THE  WAR' 

What  one  knows  about  Russia  in  this  war  may  be  likened  to 
what  one  sees  of  a  floating  iceberg.  About  seven-eighths  of  the 
iceberg  is  submerged.  It  seems  to  the  writer  that  at  least  seven- 
eighths  of  the  Russian  achievements  and  sacrifices  are  not  un- 
derstood or  appreciated  outside  of  Russia.  Even  within  the 
country  itself  lack  of  publicity  has  prevented  the  public  from 
learning  the  extent  to  which  Russia  has  contributed  to  what  is  to 
be  the  ultimate  success  of  the  war.  Fairly  to  judge  the  situa- 
tion, one  must  in  the  first  place  realize  that  this  is  not  a  war  be- 
tween Russia  and  Germany.  It  is  a  war  between  the  Allies  and 
the  group  of  powers  hypnotized  by  Germany  into  believing  that 
a  community  of  interest  exists  between  her  and  these  misled  na- 
tions that  she  has  dragged  into  her  world  adventure,  or  perhaps 
one  might  better  say  misadventure. 

General  Effect  of  Russia's  Campaigns 

In  dealing,  therefore,  with  the  Russian  campaign  one  must 
always  keep  in  mind  that  each  success  or  failure  in  the  East  is  of 
importance  only  in  the  degree  that  it  tends  to  influence  the  great 
world  situation.  Which  of  the  Allies  is  to  give  the  final  blow  is 
of  no  importance.  But  it  is  important  that  all  of  the  Allies 
weaken  the  enemy,  so  that  in  the  final  struggle  one  of  them  may 
give  the  decisive  stroke.  It  is  quite  immaterial  whether  that  one 
be  Russia,  or  France,  or  England.  Every  week  in  the  campaign 
presents  changes  and  it  is  impossible  to  judge  now  from  what 
quarter  this  decision  may  ultimately  come. 

To  judge  of  Russia's  contribution  to  the  war,  one  must  get 
and  preserve  a  great  perspective  of  the  whole  theater  of  war  and 
realize  that  if  Russia  breaks  the  final  German  strength  under  the 
walls  of  Moscow  and  gives  the  French  the  chance  to  get  the  de- 

'  By  Stanley  Washburn.    Review  of  Reviews.  53:431-8.  April,  1916. 


212  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

cision  in  the  West,  she  has  as  much  played  her  part  as  though 
she  had  allowed  the  Germans  to  get  to  Paris  and  then  herself 
ended  the  war  before  the  gates  of  Berlin.  With  this  perspective, 
then,  let  us  consider  what  Russia  has  been  able  to  offer  on  the 
altar  of  the  common  cause  as  her  portion  toward  the  ultimate 
success  of  the  Allies. 

Russian  Sacrifice  Saved  Paris 

At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  as  is  now  well  understood,  the 
Russians  had  not  planned  an  immediate  offensive.  Their  policy 
was  to  defend  their  frontiers  while  their  huge  strength  was  mo- 
bilizing. The  rush  on  Paris  in  the  West,  however,  threatened 
the  cause  of  the  Allies,  and  almost  over  night  the  Russians  de- 
cided to  embark  on  a  hastily  planned  offensive  in  East  Prussia. 
The  impetus  of  this  attack  swept  the  Russians  through  the  favor- 
ite province  of  the  Kaiser,  and  in  ten  days  the  Unter  den  Linden 
was  filled  with  panic-stricken  refugees  that  had  fled  before  the 
avalanche  so  suddenly  launched  from  the  East.  At  a  critical 
moment  in  the  West,  when  the  German  vanguard  was  almost 
within  sight  of  the  Eiffel  Tower,  the  Germans  shifted  an  im- 
portant body  of  troops  from  the  West  to  protect  the  East  from 
Russian  inroads.  The  Russians  say  that  six  corps  were  sent  to 
East  Prussia,  while  the  French  claim  it  was  but  four.  But  the 
figures  are  not  material.  What  we  know  is  that  after  their  de- 
parture for  the  East  came  the  battle  of  the  Marne  and  the  turn- 
ing point  of  the  war. 

The  Russians  paid  for  this  by  the  loss  of  almost  their  entire 
East  Prussian  army,  but  they  say  their  sacrifice  saved  Paris. 
History,  no  doubt,  will  establish  the  facts,  but  on  the  evidence 
available  at  present  their  claim  seems  logical  and  will,  I  believe, 
be  ultimately  credited  to  them  as  their  first  great  contribution  to 
the  Allies'  cause.  This  single  phase  of  the  war  alone  proves 
that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  victory  in  defeat  when  that  defeat 
was  achieved  by  the  enemy  at  the  cost  of  the  weakening  of  an- 
other front  and  the  consequent  victory  of  an  ally  in  a  more 
strategically  important  theater  of  operations.  The  loss  of  East 
Prussia  and  of  one  entire  army  was  a  mere  drop  in  the  bucket 
of  Russia's  sacrifices,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  faijure  of 
the  Germans  to  take  Paris  in  1914  promises  to  stand  out  of  the 
war  as  one  of  the  great  turning  points  in  the  world's  history. 


RUSSIA  213 

So  much  for  Russia's  first  entrance  into  the  European  theater  of 
operations. 

Drive  to  Calais  Thwarted  by  Russia 

In  October,  1914,  the  Germans,  piqued  perhaps  by  their  failure 
to  follow  up  their  northern  successes,  decided  to  take  Warsaw. 
What  happened?  They  reached  the  very  outskirts  of  the  city 
and  were  hurled  back  to  their  own  frontier  at  a  time  when  they 
were  just  beginning  their  fierce  drive  to  Calais.  And  what  was 
looming  in  the  East  just  then?  Another  group  of  Russian 
armies,  this  time  threatening  the  invasion  of  Prussia  from  the 
Polish  frontier  at  one  point  and  Silesia  at  another.  At  a  time 
when  the  Germans  needed  every  possible  man  to  break  through 
in  Belgium,  they  were  again  obliged  to  divert  huge  bodies  of 
troops  to  protect  their  own  frontiers  in  the  East.  Army  corps 
after  army  corps  came  into  the  Polish  theater  of  operations. 
Outnumbered  in  men  and  munitions,  the  Russians  fell  slowly 
back  on  the  Bzura  line  in  the  North  and  the  Dunajec  line  in 
Galicia,  fighting  battle  after  battle  and  taking  their  toll  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  Teutons  and  Austrians. 

But  they  were  defeated,  says  the  critic  in  America.  True 
enough,  the  Russians  gave  back.  But  what  happened  in  the 
West?  A  point  which  the  Germans  believed  spelled  destruction 
to  the  English  was  saved,  and  to  balance  this  what  had  the  Ger- 
mans to  show  in  the  East?  Losses  for  themselves  and  their  ally 
that  ran  not  far  short  of  300,000  to  400,000  and  the  gain  of — 
what? — nothing  in  particular  except  the  opportunity  to  attack 
Warsaw  itself,  which  they  did  for  nearly  ten  months  longer.  I 
cannot  say  how  many  troops  the  Germans  diverted  to  the  East 
at  this  time,  but  probably  not  far  short  of  between  fifteen  and 
twenty  army  corps  were  operating  against  Russia.  Here  again 
we  have  a  Russian  defeat  and  Allied  victories,  but  again  Russia 
must  be  credited  with  having  made  a  great  contribution  to  the 
common  cause. 

Importance  of  Austria's  Defeats  in  Galicia 

The  early  fighting  in  Galicia  cannot,  I  think,  be  counted  as 
much  of  an  asset  to  the  Allies,  inasmuch  as  it  represented  in  its 
early  stages  what  might  be  called  a  private  quarrel ;  but  when  it 
became  so  successful  as  to  threaten  Silesia  there  developed  a 
real  menace  to  Germany.    This  menace  was  checked  with  the 


214  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

second  advance  on  Warsaw.  The  Russians,  however,  never  dis- 
appointed or  discouraged,  began  immediately  to  do  to  the  Aus- 
trians  what  they  had  failed  to  accomphsh  against  the  Germans; 
and  in  the  early  days  of  January  and  February,  1915,  we  find  the 
Russians  pushing  the  Austrians  back  over  the  Carpathians  and 
at  last  taking  their  great  fortress  Przemysl  in  March  of  that 
year. 

Heavy  drives  in  the  Bukowina  by  Russian  corps  so  threatened 
the  Hungarian  plain  that  Hungary  itself  became  dissatisfied  and 
for  a  brief  period  the  Dual  Monarchy  was  threatened  with  a 
collapse  which  would  have  seriously  imperilled  the  German 
plans.  Russian  successes,  too,  no  doubt  helped  to  bring  Italy 
into  the  arena.  In  May,  then,  when  beyond  a  shadow  of  a  doubt 
the  one  thing  that  the  Germans  longed  for  was  to  strike  de- 
cisively in  the  West,  they  found  their  neighbor,  on  whom  they 
depended  for  protection  on  the  South,  so  involved  in  disaster 
and  with  dissipated  morale,  that  they  were  obliged  practically  to 
suspend  their  big  movements  in  the  West  and  turn  toward  im- 
perturbable Russia,  who,  inch  by  inch,  was  eating  away  the  pres- 
tige and  the  armies  of  their  ally. 

Strategic  Value  of  the  Great  Retreat 

There  followed  then  the  terrific  drive  in  Galicia  and  the  cam- 
paign in  the  Baltic  provinces.  The  Russians — again  outnum- 
bered and  practically  destitute  of  munitions — were  forced  to  re- 
tire and  they  did  so  in  perfect  order,  trading  Galician  acres 
which  had  formerly  belonged  to  Austria  for  German  lives  which 
the  Germans  could  not  spare.  Corps  after  corps  of  Germany's 
best  came  by  express  train  to  the  East,  until  at  last  the  Germans 
were  maintaining  between  thirty-three  and  thirty-seven  corps  on 
the  Russian  front  and  sending  thousands  to  fill  the  losses  which 
the  Russians  were  taking  daily  from  their  ranks.  Then  came 
the  fall  of  Warsaw  and  the  spectacle,  which  must  have  been  a 
sad  one  to  the  Germans,  of  their  iron  jaws  snapping  at  air,  while 
the  Russian  army  in  excellent  order  slid  away  into  its  wind- 
swept spaces  to  the  Eastward.  In  their  fury  to  secure  a  decision 
the  Germans  followed  on  and  on  into  that  desolate  plain  of  Rus- 
sia, always  losing  heavily  and  scoring  little,  until  at  last  their 
momentum  ceased  entirely.  Many  of  them  will  say  and  do  say 
that  the  German  line  stopped  because  it  had  reached  its  ap- 
pointed place.    But  I,  who  have  been  there  and  know  the  coun- 


RUSSIA  215 

try,  can  say  that  the  German  line  stopped  its  advance  for  the 
same  reason  an  arrow  falls  to  earth — because  it  had  no  longer 
any  impulse  to  advance.  Their  line  to-day  runs  through  meadow 
and  forest  and  swamp  just  where  it  stopped  in  the  fall,  because 
it  could  not  advance  further. 

What  then  is  the  summing  up  of  the  summer  campaign? 

Russian   Defeat    Gained  Valuable    Time  For  the    Allies  in  the 

West^ 

It  is  simply  this.  Germany  pursuing  the  entire  summer  a 
will-o'-the-wisp  until  fall,  when  we  see  the  German  army  settled 
down  in  the  snow  with  spirit  gradually  evaporating  for  want  of 
local  success  to  keep  it  going.  What  has  Germany  gained? 
Russian  prisoners  and  limitless  acres  of  bleak  landscape  which 
will  come  back  to  Russia  by  treaty  without  a  fight  at  all  when 
the  decision  comes  for  the  Allies,  which,  I  believe,  is  inevitable, 
whether  it  be  now  or  whether  it  be  one  or  two  years  from  now. 
And  what  has  Germany  lost?  Perhaps  a  million  in  casualties  in 
the  East  since  March  and  the  loss  of  the  opportunity  to  strike 
during  the  summer  in  the  West.  And  what  has  been  going  on 
in  the  West  all  this  time?  Preparation.  With  what  result?  We 
have  seen  it  in  the  last  weeks  at  Verdun  in  the  spray  of  German 
infantry  dashing  against  the  rocks  of  the  French  phalanx  and 
the  French  defenses,  Germans  gaining  each  inch  and  foot  of  ter- 
rain by  the  shedding  of  German  blood  in  torrents. 

The  reader  will  say,  "Ah,  yes,  but  the  Russians  have  been  de- 
feated in  the  East."  True  enough;  but  it  has  taken  so  much  to 
defeat  the  Russians  that  the  Allies  have  had  time  to  prepare 
themselves,  so  that  the  Germans,  as  it  now  seems,  cannot  break 
the  Western  line  with  the  hope  of  gains  commensurate  with  the 
cost.  Does  the  reader  imagine  that  if  the  thirty-five  German 
corps  operating  in  Russia  this  past  summer  had  been  available 
in  a  block  to  throw  against  the  Allied  line  in  France  or  Belgium 
in  May  that  Paris  would  still  be  in  French  hands?  Russian  de- 
feats purchased  for  the  Allies  these  priceless  days  during  which 
they  were  able  to  make  their  line  almost  impregnable.  And 
thus  again  we  can  trace  Russia's  contribution  to  the  war. 

Plenty  of  Munitions  Now 

I  have  written  a  little  about  Russian  reverses,  but  I  think  so 
far  there  has  been  little  to  indicate  to  the  outside  world  how 


2i6  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

very  little  these  reverses  mean  to  Russia  as  a  whole.  The  re- 
tirements were  due  to  practically  no  other  cause  than  the  lack  of 
rifles  and  munitions.  Warsaw  was  lost  because  there  were  no 
shells  for  the  Russian  guns.  The  Germans  may  deny  this,  but  a 
million  denials  would  never  convince  me  because  I  was  there. 
Time  and  again  I  saw  Russian  caissons  coming  at  a  gallop  from 
fifteen  miles  in  the  rear  to  replenish  batteries  that  were  silent  for 
want  of  shells.  The  day  before  Warsaw  fell  I  saw  battery  after 
battery  limber  up  and  come- out  of  strategic  positions  because 
there  was  not  a  shell  left.  The  condition  as  to  rifles  was  almost 
as  bad.  Millions  of  men  were  in  uniform,  but  could  not  go  to 
the  front  for  want  of  rifles.  When  the  world  learns,  as  it  will 
eventually,  the  meager  effective  force  with  which  Russia  was 
fighting  all  last  summer,  it  will  consider  it  an  amazing  thing,  not 
that  the  Russians  were  beaten,  but  that  the  Germans  did  not  ut- 
terly destroy  them. 

By  late  September  the  scale  began  to  turn,  and  with  the 
final  check  of  the  Germans  in  the  fall  was  dissipated  their  last 
great  chance  against  the  Russians.  It  is  true  that  they  may  this 
year  push  them  here  and  there,  but  never  again  will  they  find 
Russia  unprepared.  With  millions  of  men  available  for  her 
colors  and  with  the  arsenals  of  the  world  working  for  her,  tools 
are  daily  being  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Russians  with  which 
to  hew  out  their  destiny  this  coming  summer. 

The  Janiiary  Offensive  in  Galicia 

In  considering  Russia's  contribution  to  the  general  campaign 
one  must  not  overlook  the  January  offensive  in  southern  Galicia 
which  began  almost  where  it  was  left  off  in  May — the  drives 
toward  the  Bukowina.  All  of  this  happened  since  I  left  Russia 
and  I  am  not  able  to  speak  authoritatively  of  the  strategy  or 
tactics  of  the  campaign  but  from  a  knowledge  of  the  situation 
there  in  July  and  August  and  acquaintance  with  the  generals  in- 
volved I  am  not  inclined  to  believe  that  this  is  or  will  be  a  major 
theater  of  Russian  operations.  The  effect  was  aimed,  I  believe, 
to  accomplish  two  results :  First,  to  interfere  with  and  impede 
the  German- Austrian  movements  in  the  Balkans,  and,  second,  to 
create  a  moral  effect  not  only  on  the  enemy  but  more  e§pecially 
on  Bulgaria  and  Rumania.  That  these  results  have  been  achieved 
seems  to  be  moderately  clear.    The  menace  on  the  Bukowina 


RUSSIA  217 

rendered  it  necessary  for  the  central  powers  to  divert  heavy 
masses  of  troops  from  other  fronts  to  send  against  the  Russian 
army,  which  forces  would  otherwise  have  been  available  against 
the  Allies  operating  from  Salonika  as  a  base.  It  is  clear  that 
the  operations  of  the  central  powers  in  the  Balkans  have  faded 
into  insignificance  since  this  recent  Russian  advance,  and  for  the 
moment,  at  least,  we  are  hearing  nothing  more  of  the  Teuton 
campaign  in  the  Serbian  theater  of  operations. 

The  moral  effect  of  this  January  offensive  of  the  Russians 
has  been,  I  think,  of  enormous  value.  To  realize  the  important 
bearing  that  it  must  have  in  Bulgaria,  one  must  understand  the 
situation  that  has  existed  in  that  country  since  the  beginning 
of  the  war. 

German  Propaganda  in  Bulgaria 

The  sentiment  in  Bulgaria  was  always  intensely  pro-Russian 
and  somewhat  pro-English,  though  possibly  indifferent  to  the 
French.  During  the  first  months  of  the  war  there  was  every 
reason  to  believe  that  Bulgaria  might  have  been  induced  to  side 
with  the  Allies,  but  at  that  time  her  participation  was  not  con- 
sidered important  and  the  golden  moment  slipped  by.  In  the 
meantime  German  propaganda  was  working  night  and  day  in 
Bulgaria  to  convince  the  people  that  the  Allies'  cause  was 
doomed.  Moving  pictures,  lectures,  newspapers,  and  every  other 
means  of  publicity  known  in  this  day  and  generation  were  used 
by  the  Germans  to  present  to  the  people  of  Bulgaria  an  un- 
broken picture  of  German  successes.  With  the  King  himself 
German  and  with  everyone  who  could  be  bought  working  for 
the  Cjerman  ends,  the  Bulgarians  were  half  convinced  by  May  of 
last  year  that  Germany  was  going  to  win.  Then  came  the  Gali- 
cian  drive  and  the  spectacle  of  Russia  thrown  out  of  all  but  a 
corner  of  Galicia,  and  on  top  of  it  the  shouts  of  the  Germans  that 
Russia  was  finished.  Still  Bulgaria  hesitated.  Then  followed  the 
fall  of  Warsaw  and  the  apparent  melting  away  of  the  Russian 
army  into  the  heart  of  Russia.  Simultaneously  with  this  Ger- 
man troops  appeared  in  constantly  growing  numbers  on  the  Ser- 
bian fronts.  The  Bulgarians,  convinced  now  that  Russia  was 
hopelessly  lost  and  the  Allies'  cause  doomed,  joined  the  Teutons. 


2i8  SELECTED  ARTICLES 


THE  RUSSIANS  AND  THE  WAR^ 

The  Russian  peasant  soldier  regards  the  enemy  as  vermin 
that  must  be  destroyed.  He  has  no  doubt  that  he  is  clearing 
away  something  ugly  and  full  of  evil.  He  is  fighting  something 
pestilential,  like  the  cholera  or  the  plague. 

The  bodies  of  the  Germans  and  the  Austrians  lay  rotting  on 
the  fields  of  Poland  this  autumn  and  early  winter,  and  infecting 
the  air  with  odors.  It  was  with  difficulty  that  the  Russian  sol- 
diers could  be  persuaded  to  bury  them. 

"Bury  these  corpses,"  said  a  general  to  one  of  his  servant 
soldiers. 

"No,  your  excellency,"  said  the  latter,  "let  them  lie  there  like 
dogs ;  they  are  not  fit  to  be  buried  in  the  good  earth." 

When  I  told  some  soldiers  of  the  sinking  of  the  Emden  and 
the  capture  of  Von  Miiller,  they  could  not  understand  our  leni- 
ency toward  the  German  admiral. 

"Such  people  ought  to  be  destroyed  directly  they  are  caught," 
said  one  of  the  soldiers,  "He  ought  to  have  been  executed  at 
once." 

In  this  spirit,  of  course,  the  peasant  soldier  goes  forth  to  any 
of  the  Czar's  work;  and  whether  it  be  war  against  Japan,  or 
suppression  of  the  Trans-Caucasian  cutthroats  in  North  Persia, 
or  a  pogrom  of  the  Jews,  he  has  much  the  same  outlook.  He  is 
unswervingly  loyal  to  the  word  of  the  Czar,  or  what  is  told  him 
is  the  word  of  the  Czar. 

There  has  been  no  bandying  of  wit  between  German  and 
Russian  soldiers.  For  one  thing  the  Germans  do  not  understand 
Russian.  For  another,  the  Russian  soldiers  are  carefully  trained 
not  to  enter  into  any  sort  of  converse  or  familiarity  with  their 
enemies.  During  the  time  of  the  revolutionary  outburst  in 
Russia  it  was  indeed  rather  difficult  for  ordinary  Russian  civ- 
ilians to  joke  or  talk  with  Russian  soldiers.  One  could,  how- 
ever, offer  them  cigarettes. 

This  necessarily  adds  value  to  the  peasantry  as  reliable  fight- 
ing material. 

Then  the  religion  of  the  peasant  helps  him  to  be  brave.  The 
Russian  army  on  the  offensive    is  something  like  an  elemental 

'^  By   Stephen   Graham.    Atlantic  Monthly.    115:387-96.   March,    1915. 


RUSSIA  219 

destructive  force.  There  is  no  hesitation  about  the  Russians, 
little  giving  of  quarter,  little  seeing  of  white  flags,  no  malice, 
no  lust,  not  much  delight  in  cruelty,  but  on  the  other  hand  no 
squeamishness.  The  blood  flowing  does  not  turn  the  Russian 
sick ;  the  sight  of  the  dead  does  not  make  him  pale.  He  is  strik- 
ing with  the  sword  of  the  Lord. 

True,  the  principal  function  and  purpose  of  war  is  going  to 
kill.  And  tlierein  lies  not  only  a  denial  of  Christianity  but  of 
the  primitive  Judaic  law,  "Thou  shalt  not  kill."  But  the  func- 
tion of  Russian  war  that  has  struck  me  most  was  that  of  going 
to  be  killed. 

When,  in  the  Altai  Mountains,  in  the  middle  of  the  consecra- 
tion service,  I  learned  that  it  was  Germany  that  had  declared 
war  upon  Russia,  I  felt  that  the  consecration  was  consecration 
unto  death,  that  the  strapping  of  the  knapsack  on  the  back  was 
like  the  tying  on  of  the  cross. 

The  religion  of  Russia  is  the  religion  of  death.  As  I  wrote 
in  my  book  on  the  Russian  peasant-pilgrims  journeying  toward 
the  Sepulchre  at  Jerusalem,  "All  pilgrimages  are  pilgrimages  to 
the  Altar,  to  the  place  of  death.  Protestantism  reveals  itself  as 
the  religion  of  the  mystery  of  life;  orthodoxy  as  the  religion  of 
death."  The  Russians  march  to  battle  as  they  tramp  to  shrines. 
Death  is  no  calamity  for  them.  It  is  the  thrice  beautiful  and 
thrice  holy  culmination  of  the  life  pilgrimage.  Watch  the  Rus- 
sian soldiers  at  one  of  the  many  funerals  of  fallen  comrades. 
They  are  calm  and  reverent,  but  it  is  the  calm  and  reverence 
that  are  the  accompaniment  of  an  exaltation  of  spirit. 

When  the  wounded  soldier  is  brought  to  the  hospital  and  laid 
in  his  bed,  his  first  wish  is  that  the  priest  may  hold  the  cross  for 
him  to  kiss.  The  priest  who  visits  every  bedside  every  morning 
carries  a  little  cross  in  his  hand,  and  each  poor  soldier  presses 
his  lips  to  the  centre  of  it  and  kisses  it  vehemently. 

War  to  the  Russian  soldier  is  a  great  religious  experience. 
"He  liveth  best  who  is  always  ready  to  die,"  says  a  holy  prov- 
erb of  the  Russians.  And  readiness  to  die  is  the  religious  side 
of  war.  The  Russian  soldier  kills  his  enemy  without  religious 
qualm,  yet  without  hate.  He  does  not  feel  that  to  shoot  at  a 
fellow  man,  to  charge  at  him  with  a  bayonet,  is  doing  an  evil 
thing  to  him.  The  great  reality  that  confronts  him  is  not  that  he 
may  kill  others,  but  that  he  himself  may  suffer  terrible  pain  or 
may  lose  the  familiar  and  pleasant  thing  called  life.    In  order 


220  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

to  face  this,  the  Russian  has  to  dive  down  deep  in  himself  and 
find  a  deeper  self  below  his  ordinary  self;  he  has  to  find  the 
common  spirit  of  man  below  his  own  ego ;  he  has  to  live  in 
communion  with  the  fount  of  Life  from  which  his  own  little 
stream  of  life  is  flowing.  No  relic  of  the  war  is  more  precious 
than  the  Httle  loaf  of  holy  bread  which  the  soldier  saves  from 
his  last  communion  before  going  to  battle  or  going  under  fire 
for  the  first  time. 

The  Russian  soldiers  go  to  war  in  very  much  the  same  spirit 
in  which  the  Russian  pilgrims  go  toward  Jerusalem.  Indeed 
many  a  man  was  just  about  to  start  for  Jerusalem  when  the 
war  broke  out  and  he  was  summoned  to  fight  against  the  Ger- 
mans. In  the  fields  of  East  Prussia  and  of  Poland  he  found  as 
veritable  a  Jerusalem  as  that  he  sought  in  Palestine.  It  is  per- 
haps a  shorter  way  thither. 

The  priests  serving  in  the  army  and  in  the  hospitals  tell  won- 
derful stories  of  rehgious  experience,  of  touching  peasant  mys- 
ticism, of  holy  patriotism. 

A  dying  soldier  lies  on  the  battlefield  and  the  visiting  priest 
thinks  him  gone  too  far  to  receive  the  Holy  Communion.  So  he 
says  the  otkhodnaya,  the  prayer  for  the  departing  soul.  Sud- 
denly the  dying  man  opens  his  dim  eyes  and  whispers  just  audi- 
bly: 

"My  countrymen,  my  dear  countrymen — No,  not  that — Little 
Father — my  own  one — thou  hast  come  to  save  me." 

He  tries  to  get  up,  crosses  himself  widely — that  is,  from 
shoulder  to  shoulder  and  from  brow  to  chest — and  repeats, 
"Thou  hast  come  to  save  me." 

There  is  a  short  confession,  as  of  a  child.  Communion.  The 
soldier  with  a  great  effort  crosses  himself  once  more,  drops 
back  on  the  wet  mud  of  the  battlefield,  and  slips  into  oblivion, 
with  glazed  eyes,  set  lips,  but  white,  calm  brow.  The  priest, 
bending  over  him,  lays  a  cross  upon  him,  and  goes  on  to  the  next 
suffering  or  dying  one  on  the  field. 

The  Russian  religion  is  the  reHgion  of  suffering  and  death, 
the  religion,  that  helps  you  to  meet  suffering  calmly  and  to  be 
always  ready  to  die.  Many  Catholics  and  Protestants  among 
the  Russian  ranks  ask  the  Orthodox  blessing.  In  the  moment 
of  the  ordeal  they  know  that  true  religion  is  never  divided 
against  itself. 


RUSSIA  221 

The  war  is  the  great  wind  that  blows  through  our  Hfe  so  that 
the  things  that  can  be  shaken  may  be  shaken  down  and  that  the 
things  that  cannot  be  shaken  may  remain.  Religion  is  never 
shaken  down  by  war.  But  strange  to  say,  the  logicians  are 
shaken  in  their  logic,  agnosticism  is  shaken,  materialism  is 
shaken,  atheism  is  shaken,  positivism  is  shaken.  The  intellectual 
dominance  is  shaken  and  falls;  the  spiritual  powers  are  allowed 
to  take  possession  of  men's  beings. 

"Many  is  the  time,"  said  a  priest  to  me,  "that  an  officer  has 
called  me  to  his  side  and  has  said,  *I  am  an  atheist :  I  believe  in 
nothing';  but  I  have  confessed  him  and  he  has  emptied  his  life 
to  me — to  the  very  dregs — and  I  have  put  him  in  Holy  Com- 
munion and  left  him  all  melted  and  holy." 

The  Cossacks  are  different  in  their  religious  temperament. 
They  are  the  descendants  of  robber  tribes  and  mercenary  bands. 
To  realize  what  the  Cossacks  have  been  you  must  read  Gogol's 
Taras  Bulba,  and  when  you  have  realized  what  they  used  to  be 
you  have  a  notion  of  what  they  are.  There  is  much  Russian 
blood  in  them,  but  there  is  also  much  of  the  Tartar  and  the 
Mongol.  They  have  not  much  in  common  with  the  gentle  Slav. 
Their  conception  of  Christianity  is  very  different  from  that 
which  animates  the  mujiks. 

The  Cossack  is  always  a  soldier.  In  Cossack  villages  every 
man  has  to  serve  in  the  army;  only  sons  have  no  privileges.  It 
is  rarely  that  a  Cossack  is  rejected  on  medical  grounds,  and 
rarer  still  is  his  acceptance  of  rejection.  By  his  passport  he  is  a 
soldier.  When  he  is  farming  he  is  said  to  be  "on  leave."  The 
village  is  not  called  a  village  but  a  station,  a  stanitsa.  Almost 
every  man  in  the  station  works  in  trousers  that  have  a  broad 
military  stripe.  By  that  stripe  you  may  tell  the  Cossacks  and 
the  Cossack  stations  in  the  country. 

I  tramped  through  several  hundred  miles  of  Cossack  country 
last  summer,  and  I  have  a  very  bright  impression  of  the  people. 
They  have  a  considerable  quantity  of  land.  The  government 
pursues  a  set  policy  of  giving  the  Cossacks  land,  space  wherein 
to  live  well  and  multiply.  The  whole  of  Central  Asia  and  Tur- 
kestan is  preferably  settled  by  Cossacks.  The  Russian  govern- 
ment trains  the  men  for  two  or  three  years,  and  when  the  time 
of  training  has  been  run  through,  the  authorities  propose  to  them 
that  they  settle  down  near  the  place  where  they  have  been  en- 
camped.   Land  will  be  given  them  free.    They  can  bring  their 


222  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

sweethearts  and  their  wives.  The  docile  Kirghiz  and  Chinese 
and  other  aborigines  can  be  practically  forced  to  build  houses 
for  them  and  dig  out  irrigation  canals  and  plant  poplars  and  wil- 
lows. A  company  of  Cossacks  accepts  the  government  proposal, 
and  so  a  new  station  is  marked  on  the  map.  A  church  is  built. 
A  horizontal  bar  and  a  wooden  horse  and  a  greasy  pole  are  put 
up.  A  vodka  shop  is  suppHed.  And  that  constitutes  Cossack 
civilization.  (Now  the  vodka  shops  are  all  closed,  and  there  is 
talk  of  reopening  them  as  schools.) 

The  talk  and  the  songs  and  the  life  of  the  station  are  all 
military  in  nature.  The  talk. is  of  battles  lately  and  battles 
long  ago  and  the  battles  of  the  future;  the  songs  are  recruit- 
ing songs  and  war  songs;  the  life  is  ever  with  the  gun  and  on 
horse  back. 

Children  ride  on  horseback  as  soon  as  they  can  walk  and 
jump.  Little  boys  get  their  elder  brothers'  uniforms  cut  down 
to  wear :  the  trousers,  be  they  ever  so  ragged,  have  still  the 
broad  colored  stripe  that  marks  the  Cossacks.  Siberian  Cos- 
sacks have  red  stripes,  Don  Cossacks  have  blue  stripes.  March- 
ing songs  are  on  the  children's  lips,  and  one  of  the  most  frequent 
sights  is  that  of  a  company  of  Cossacks  riding  up  the  main 
street  of  the  stanitsa,  carrying  the  long  black  pikes  in  their 
hands  and  singing  choruses  as  they  go.  The  pike  is  another 
distinction  of  the  Cossack;  it  is  a  long  black  wooden  lance, 
steel-pointed  like  a  spear. 

No  woman  grudges  her  children  to  the  war.  War  is  the  ele- 
ment in  which  they  all  live,  arid  the  official  manoeuvres  are  so 
wild  and  fierce  that  many  get  killed  in  them,  kill  one  another 
even,  forgetting  that  they  are  only  playing  at  war.  The  Cos- 
sacks even  in  remote  Asia  take  themselves  seriously  as  the  per- 
sonal bodyguards  of  the  Czar;  formerly  robbers  and  border 
riders  of  the  wildest  type,  they  are  now,  thanks  to  tactful 
handling,  the  most  loyal  subjects  of  the  Czar,  and  are  bred — out 
on  the  Seven-Rivers-Land  and  the  Altai  Mountains,  for  instance 
— much  as  one  might  breed  a  type  of  horse,  for  sterling  qualities. 
They  are  called  orthodox  Christians,  but  have  seldom  any  mys- 
tical sense  of  Christianity.  They  are  baptized  barbarians  and 
are  of  course  extraordinarily  superstitious.  They  hand  down 
their  icons  and  their  battle-charms  from  generation  to  genera- 
tion, and  worship  them  almost  with  idolatry. 

Their  homes  are  neither  comfortable  nor  clean — the  homes  of 


RUSSIA  223 

eagles  rather  than  of  men.  The  women  are  lazier  than  ordinary 
Russian  peasant  women,  and  eat  more  and  sleep  more. 

As  a  fair  companion  of  the  road  explained  to  me, — 

"It's  the  women  who  must  be  blamed  for  the  dirt  in  their 
cottages.  After  dinner  the  women  always  lie  down  and  fall 
asleep,  and  they  leave  all  the  dirty  dishes  on  the  table,  and  let 
the  pigs  and  the  chickens  come  in  and  hunt  for  food." 

That  is  true.  You  enter  the  little  room  that  is  all  in  all  of  a 
home,  and  you  find  fifty  thousand  flies  buzzing  over  everything. 
Often,  of  an  afternoon,  I  have  entered  a  cottage  in  order  to  get 
milk  and  have  found  every  one  asleep,  even  the  dog,  who  but 
opens  one  eye  at  the  noise  of  my  step.  The  baby  lies  in  the 
swing  cradle  and  tosses  now  and  then  and  cries  a  little.  He 
would  be  almost  naked  were  he  not  black  with  flies.  The  chil- 
dren keep  picking  flies  off  his  body  and  hurting  him — that  is  why 
he  cries.  None  the  less  that  baby  will  grow  up  to  be  a  sturdy 
Cossack.  And  they  seem  none  the  worse  for  dirt  and  disorder, 
to  judge  from  the  fine  young  men  we  see:  tall,  agile,  hawk- 
faced — the  rising  generation  no  weaker  than  the  fathers. 

They  are  hospitable,  but  because  of  the  biting  flies  I  have 
found  it  more  comfortable  to  sleep  out  of  doors,  even  in  bad 
weather  or  when  mosquitos  are  thick.  They  always  give  you 
full  measure  and  running  over  when  you  buy  from  them.  But 
they  are  altogether  left  behind  in  hospitality  by  their  neighbors 
the  Kirghiz  or  the  Mongolians. 

The  Cossack  has  settled  where  of  old  the  Kirghiz  had  his 
best  pastures.  He  has  harried  the  gentle  man  of  the  East  into 
the  bare  lands  and  wildernesses,  and  over  the  border  to  China. 
The  winter  pastures  that  the  ICirghiz  has  discovered  for  himself 
and  marked  out  with  stones,  the  Cossack  has  pitilessly  mown  for 
hay.  Even  his  houses,  the  long  village  street  of  them,  the  Cos- 
sack makes  the  Kirghiz  build,  while  he  stands  by  like  a  barin  or 
a  master.  The  Kirghiz  will  work  for  lower  wages  than  the 
Chinese;  sometimes  he  can  be  persuaded  to  work  for  nothing. 

**You  are  entering  Kirghiz  country  now;  there  are  no  Rus- 
sian villages,  no  Cossack  stations,"  said  one  to  me.  "No  mat- 
ter; you  can  always  spend  the  night  in  a  ICirghiz  tent  and  you 
will  always  get  food  from  them,  as  much  as  you  want.  Don't 
ever  pay  them  anything.  They  don't  expect  it.  They  will  give 
you  the  best  they  have,  but  don't  pay.  You  needn't.  They  are 
that  sort  of  people:  glupovaty,  stupid-like." 


224  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  favorite  adjective  applied  by  Russians  to  Cossacks  is 
otchainy,  which  is  supposed  to  mean  "desperate,"  but  certainly 
does  not  mean  it  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  hopeless.  It  means 
past-praying-for,    wild-beyond-all-hopes. 

"The  Siberian  Cossacks,  they  are  the  wildest  of  all,"  you 
will  hear. 

They  are  spoken  of  by  ordinary  Russians  much  as  the  High- 
landers are  spoken  of  by  the  English,  and  in  some  respects  they 
resemble  the  clansmen.  They  are  brave  beyond  any  qualifica- 
tion. They  are  all  expert  horsemen  and  ride  like  the  wind. 
Their  favorite  exploit  is  to  charge  the  enemy  lying  close  to 
their  horses'  sides,  even  under  their  bellies,  so  that  it  looks  to 
the  enemy  as  if  a  drove  of  riderless  horses  were  plunging  to- 
ward them.  And  when  the  Cossacks  arrive  at  the  object  of 
their  charge,  Heaven  help  the  poor  Uhlans  or  ordinary  Euro- 
pean troops  who  happen  to  be  in  the  way!  The  Cossacks  de- 
light in  the  cutting  off  of  heads. 

It  was  the  Siberian  Cossacks  who  turned  the  scale  at  the  first 
battle  of  Warsaw;  and  with  them,  as  brothers  in  arms,  were 
the  Caucasian  cavalry.  The  Caucasian  tribesmen  are  if  any- 
thing more  warlike  than  the  Cossacks;  they  are  stronger  phys- 
ically, always  wear  arms,  understand  life  as  military  gallantry, 
have  much  less  regard  for  the  value  of  life,  and  are  much  more 
given  to  fighting  in  time  of  peace.  Murder  has  no  moral  stigma 
in  the  Caucasus;  the  man  who  has  killed  another  man  is  not 
troubled  about  his  crime — not  upset  in  his  mind,  not  obliged  to 
return  and  look  at  the  corpse,  not  obliged  to  confess  at  last. 
Indeed,  many  of  the  pleasantest  and  most  courteous  men  you 
may  meet  in  the  mountains  have  several  "murders,"  as  we 
should  call  them,  to  their  charge.  Their  success  in  fighting  gives 
them  more  confidence  and  more  politeness. 

They  are  not  quite  so  brave  as  the  Cossacks,  being  consider- 
ably more  intelligent  and  a  very  calculating  people.  They  are 
also  not  so  loyal  to  the  Czar;  they  consider  themselves  liberals. 
They  are  corruptible,  and  the  Russian  system  of  bribery  has 
been  much  improved  by  them.  They  are  more  cruel  than  the 
Cossacks,  less  Christian.  A  fine  body  of  people,  however — the 
handsomest  men  in  Europe,  the  hardest. 

War  for  them  is  also  the  most  interesting  thing  in  life,  and 
conversation  over  the  endless  stoups  of  red  wine  always  turns 
to  battles.    By  the  way,  the  prohibition  of  the  sale  of  vodka 


RUSSIA  225 

and  beer  leaves  the  Caucausus  just  as  drunken  as  before.  The 
government  had  no  monopoly  there  in  the  sale  of  spirits.  Every 
one  could  sell  who  wanted  to.  Vodka,  however,  was  never 
much  drunk,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  Caucasus  has  its  own 
good  vintage  and  the  natives  despise  the  use  of  spirits  as  a  sign 
of  lower  caste. 

They  are  a  poor  people  as  money  goes.  It  is  marvelous  that 
they  retain  their  physique,  considering  the  poorness  of  the  food 
they  eat  and  the  quantity  of  wine  they  drink.  Many  villages  sub- 
sist on  black  bread  and  wine.  They  are  always  hungry.  They 
could  live  much  better  than  they  do.  They  love  clothes,  love 
rich  carpets  and  elegant  ornaments.  They  would  put  jewels  on 
their  wives,  would  be  princes  not  only  in  title  but  in  estate,  and 
would  hold  court  and  go  out  hunting  or  to  battle  with  retainers 
in  the  good  old  way. 

One  of  the  phenomena  which  show  how  popular  the  war  is 
in  Russia  is  the  participation  of  the  children  in  the  conflict. 
There  is  scarcely  a  town  school  in  Russia  from  which  boys  have 
not  run  away  to  war.  Hundreds  of  girls  have  gone  off  in 
boys'  clothes,  and  tried  to  pass  themselves  off  as  boys  and  en- 
list as  volunteers;  and  several  have  got  through,  since  the  med- 
ical examination  is  only  a  negligible  formality,  required  in  one 
place,  forgotten  in  another — the  Russians  are  so  fit  as  a  whole. 
So  among  the  wounded  in  the  battle  of  the  Niemen  was  a 
broad-shouldered,  vigorous  girl  from  Zlato-Ust,  only  sixteen; 
nobody  had  dreamed  that  she  was  other  than  the  man  for  whom 
she  was  passing  herself  off.  But  not  only  boys  and  girls  of 
sixteen  and  seventeen,  but  children  of  eleven  and  twelve, 
have  contrived  to  have  a  hand  either  in  the  fighting  or  in  the 
nursing. 

Whilst  I  was  in  Wilna  there  was  a  touching  case.  A  little 
girl  of  twelve  years,  Marusia  Charushina,  turned  up.  She  had 
run  away  from  her  home  in  Viatka,  some  thousand  miles  away, 
and  had  got  on  the  train  "as  a  hare,"  that  is,  without  a  ticket. 
The  conductor  had  smiled  on  her  and  let  her  go  on.  At  Wilna, 
she  was  a  little  bewildered  by  the  traffic  of  the  great  Pohsh 
city,  but  she  asked  a  passing  soldier  the  way  to  a  hospital;  he 
took  her  to  one,  and  she  explained  to  him  that  she  had  come  to 
nurse  the  wounded*  At  the  hospital  a  Red  Cross  nurse  ques- 
tioned her,  and  she  gave  the  same  answer.  The  nurse  tele- 
graphed to  the  little  girl's  father  and  asked  his  permission  for 


226  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

her  to  remain  in  the  hospital  nursing  the  wounded  soldiers.  The 
father  gave  permission,  so  little  Marusia  was  allowed  to  re- 
main. A  uniform  was  made  for  her,  and  now,  as  the  small- 
est Sister  of  Mercy  of  all,  she  tends  the  soldiers  and  is  very 
popular. 

There  was  Stefan  Krafchenko,  a  boy  of  ten,  who  said  he 
wanted  to  fight  the  Germans  and  so  was  taken  along  by  the  in- 
dulgent soldiers.  He  was  attached  to  the  artillery,  and  handed 
up  shells  out  of  the  shell-boxes  during  three  battles,  and  came 
out  of  all  unscathed  and  glorious  and  happy.  Then  Victor 
Katchalof,  a  boy  of  thirteen,  had  his  horse  shot  under  him  and 
was  himself  wounded  in  the  leg  during  the  fight  against  the 
Austrians  below  Lfof.  Bonstantim  Usof,  a  boy  of  thirteen,  was 
wounded  by  shrapnel  at  Avgustof. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  schoolboy  hero  of  Russia  is  a  boy 
named  Orlof,  from  Zhitomir  town  school.  He  fought  in  eleven 
battles,  and  was  eventually  decorated  by  the  Czar  with  the  Or- 
der of  St.  George.  While  reconnoitering  he  came  into  collision 
with  a  great  force  of  the  enemy.  He  lay  in  a  trench  with  his 
fellows  and  fought  all  day.  But  ammunition  ran  very  low. 
Orlof  saved  his  corps  by  creeping  out  in  the  dark  and  finding 
his  way  through  heaps  of  corpses  to  the  main  Russian  force.  He 
was  under  gun  and  artillery  fire  all  the  time,  but  he  succeeded  in 
getting  across,  and  so  saved  his  friends. 

These  are  but  random  instances.  The  Imperial  Academy  of 
Science  is  collecting,  and  will  probably  edit  and  publish,  all 
manner  of  printed  and  unprinted  impressions  of  the  war — dia- 
ries, minor  dispatches,  or  authenticated  stories  of  deeds  of  der- 
ring  do.  When  these  are  issued  it  will  be  seen  to  what  an  ex- 
tent the  children  of  Russia  have  been  fighting  this  war.  Ten 
years  ago,  war  was  unpopular  in  the  playgrounds.  The  war 
with  Japan  did  not  fire  the  minds  of  the  young  ones,  who  were 
all  agog  then  with  the  idea  of  revolution,  so  precocious  are  the 
young  in  Russia. 

Now  Russia  is  pulling  all  together — not  only  school-children 
and  students  and  police  and  soldiery,  but  all  the  various  tribes 
and  races — Russians,  Cossacks,  Georgians,  Finns,  Poles,  Jews. 

I  have  now  just  returned  to  London  after  a  year  in  Russia 
— after  three  months  of  Russia  in  wartime;  and  I  am  surprised 
at  the  difference  in  atmosphere.  There  is  an  unmistakable  de- 
pression in  London.    Among  those  who  have  no  personal  stake 


RUSSIA  227 

in  the  war,  no  one  fighting  in  the  trenches,  no  one  drilling,  no 
one  serving  on  special  duty,  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  apathy 
and  pessimism.  But  in  Russia  there  is  no  apathy.  There  the 
whole  atmosphere  is  one  of  eagerness  and  optimism.  They  are 
full  of  thankfulness  for  the  things  the  war  has  brought  to  Rus- 
sia: national  enthusiasm,  national  tenderness,  national  temper- 
ance, and  moral  unanimity.  The  war  has  closed  the  vodka  shop ; 
it  has  healed  the  age-long  fratricidal  strife  with  Poland;  it  has 
shown  to  the  world  and  to  themselves  the  simple  strength  and 
bravery  of  the  Russian  soldiers  and  the  new  sobriety  and  ef- 
ficiency of  their  officers.  It  has  in  fact  given  a  real  future  to 
Russia  to  think  about;  it  has  shed,  as  from  a  great  lamp,  light 
on  the  great  road  of  Russian  destiny.  Russians  have  always 
dimly  divined  that  they  were  a  young  nation  of  genius;  they 
have  held  faith  in  themselves  despite  dark  hours;  but  now  they 
feel  confirmed  and  certain  of  their  destiny,  of  their  progress 
from  being  an  ill-cemented  patchwork  of  countries  to  being  a 
single  body  feeling  in  all  limbs  the  beat  of  a  single  heart;  of 
their  progress  from  quietness  and  vast  illiteracy  to  being  con- 
fident possessors  of  a  strong  voice  in  the  counsels  of  nations; 
of  their  progress  from  denial  and  anarchism  and  individual  ob- 
stinacy to  affirmation,  cooperation,  and  readiness  to  serve. 

As  nations  go,  Great  Britain  is  like  a  man  of  forty-five,  Ger- 
many like  a  man  of  thirty,  but  Russia  like  a  genius  who  is  just 
eighteen.  It  is  the  young  man  that  you  find  in  Russia :  virginal, 
full  of  mystery,  looking  out  at  a  world  full  of  color  and  holi- 
ness and  passion  and  sordidness. 

Despite  the  beauty  and  self-sufficiency  of  the  old  life,  Russia 
is  definitely  committing  herself  to  the  new.  She  is  going  to 
have  a  puritan  intolerance  for  sin ;  she  is  beginning  to  manifest 
that  passion  for  solid  education  that  has  marked  Puritan  Scot- 
land, America,  Germany.  More  and  more  people  are  going  to 
take  up  with  materialism  and  ethics  and  agnosticism.  Not  that 
Russian  pilgrimaging  or  asceticism  or  religious  observance  can 
ever  cease,  or  that  the  mystical  outlook  will  be  lost.  But 
Westernism  and  success  and  national  facetiousness  and  light- 
heartedness  will  be  more  clamorous. 


228  SELECTED  ARTICLES 


RUSSIANS  OF  TODAY* 

War  and  the  Russian  Village 

It  is  only  when  one  has  traversed  Russia  in  different  direc- 
tions that  its  enormous  size  becomes  a  fact  in  one's  conception 
of  the  country;  one,  moreover,  to  be  counted  with  in  every  de- 
velopment and  phase  of  the  nation's  life  and  history. 

During  the  hours  that  the  train  crawls  through  pasture  and 
forest  and  steppe,  and  the  villages  become  exciting  breaks  in 
the  beauty  which  has  grown  monotonous,  you  gradually  realize 
that,  while  the  roads  are  during  many  months  impassable,  links 
forged  by  the  peasants  themselves  or  by  the  powers  which  rule 
the  country  must  somehow  connect  these  scattered  groups  of 
people. 

When,  early  one  morning  in  the  train  bound  for  St.  Peters- 
burg, I  got  my  first  view  of  Russia,  the  thought  struck  me,  after 
I  had  watched  for  twenty  minutes  to  see  some  village,  "How 
can  an  army  be  gathered  here  ?  How  is  it  possible  to  collect  the 
scattered  reservists  in  time  of  war?  " 

And  later,  when  I  had  learned  to  know  the  Russian  peasant 
— and  it  is  he  who  forms  the  bulk  of  the  army — that  question 
answered  itself  in  one  word,  "Patriotism."  That  is  the  quality 
which  makes  the  mobilization  of  the  Russian  army  possible.  It 
is  the  good  will  with  which  the  peasants  answer  the  call  to  arms 
that  carries  them  to  the  distant  centers  whither  they  are  sum- 
moned. 

The  mujik  has  been  a  serf,  he  has  been  beaten  and  merci- 
lessly taxed  by  his  Government  at  various  times,  yet  his  love  for 
his  country  is  even  more  deeply  rooted  and  stronger  than  his 
religion.  Perhaps  it  is  to  some  extent  a  love  for  the  land — for 
that  which  is  the  greatest  factor  in  his  life,  feeding  body  and 
soul  alike.  Its  beauties  appeal  to  his  imagination,  its  changes 
and  its  immutability  to  the  strain  of  mystic  fatalism  in  his  na- 
ture. 

To  be  parted  from  the  land  is  a  tragedy  for  every  Russian 
peasant. 

Some  weeks  ago  I  came  upon  an  extraordinary  group^in  the 
London  street  which  is  still  known  as  "Petticoat  Lane."    In  the 

*  By  Sasha  Kropotkin.    Outlook.  108:413-17.  October  21,  1914. 


RUSSIA  229 

middle  of  the  street  stood  a  sturdy  girl,  a  handkerchief  on  her 
head.  She  was  singing  one  of  the  slow,  plaintive,  and  most 
beautiful  of  our  Russian  folk  songs.  Round  her  stood  a  group 
of  Russian  peasants  in  long  kaftans,  utterly  unconscious  of 
everything  around,  the  tears  trickling  down  their  cheeks,  their 
bodies  swaying  slowly  to  the  melody.  As  the  girl  finished,  one 
of  them  drew  the  back  of  his  hand  across  his  eyes  and  said,  in 
a  hushed  voice,  "Brothers,  at  home  now  they're  cutting  the 
hay." 

It  is  small  wonder,  then,  that  when  in  times  of  peace  the  des- 
siatski— a  chosen  representative  of  the  village — begins  to  gather 
the  conscripts,  the  women  weep,  the  older  men  grumble,  and 
the  whole  village  is  plunged  in  gloom.  Nevertheless  the  young 
men  prepare  for  departure.  They  gather  in  some  big  isba  for 
the  last  time,  and  sit  around  the  table  on  which  stands  the  in- 
evitable samovar.  When  they  have  drunk  innumerable  glasses 
of  tea,  their  parents  bless  them  before  the  icon,  there  is  gen- 
eral leave-taking  and  kissing,  and  befofe  they  go,  according  to 
the  usual  Russian  custom,  every  one  "rests  for  a  moment,"  sit- 
ting stiffly  and  silently.  Then  begins  the  real  departure.  Half 
the  village  accompanies  the  young  men  to  the  nearest  town 
where  the  recruiting  center  is,  the  women,  in  their  best  sara- 
fans, singing  mournful  songs  bewailing  the  fate  of  the  unfortu- 
nate youths  who  are  being  torn  from  their  homes.  In  the  town 
the  young  men  draw  numbers,  and  those  who  receive  the  lowest 
ones  go  to  serve  their  country  for  four  years— that  is,  in  time 
of  peace.    In  time  of  war  the  picture  changes. 

During  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  when  the  reservists  were 
called,  even  though  the  war  was  not  popular — partly  because  it 
was  so  far  away — there  were  cheerfulness,  a  desire  to  fight  for 
their  country,  no  matter  where,  and  great  resignation.  I  myself 
witnessed  a  deeply  moving  scene  at  a  station  near  Moscow.  As 
a  train  filled  with  reservists  was  steaming  out,  a  group  of  peas- 
ants lined  up  in  a  row  along  the  platform.  Holding  their  tat- 
tered caps  in  both  hands,  pressed  against  their  breasts,  they 
bowed  deeply  and  solemnly,  inclining  their  whole  body,  to  the 
reservists  in  the  outgoing  train.  When  the  trains  go  now,  there 
will  be  more  than  bowing,  there  will  be  enthusiasm,  for  the  war 
is  nearer  home  this  time.  When  one  knows  what  it  means  to 
an  agricultural  population  to  lose  its  strongest  workers,  the 
cheerfulness  with  which  they  are  given  up  becomes  awe-inspir- 


230  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

ing;  for,  once  the  villages  are  emptied  of  the  capable  men,  the 
entire  work  falls  on  the  women.  It  is  not  for  nothing  that  the 
Russian  peasant  woman  is  respected  by  her  men  and  counted 
as  their  equal  in  all  labor.  She  plows  and  sows  and  reaps  with 
them,  rising  before  the  sun  and  ceasing  work  only  when  the  day 
fades.  And  the  work  she  has  to  undertake  when  her  men  have 
gone  to  the  war  is  no  light  one.  Each  family  has  at  least  five 
or  six  acres  to  cultivate.  The  pasture  land  the  village  holds  in 
common.  It  is  usually  the  custom  in  time  of  stress  for  the 
workers  to  do  all  the  field  work  in  common.  At  three  in  the 
morning  the  women,  and  even  the  children,  turn  out  to  work ;  at 
eleven  they  have  a  meal  of  dry  black  bread  and  perhaps  a  small 
cucumber.  Then,  while  the  sun  is  high,  they  sleep;  and  from 
four  o'clock  they  work  again,  till  sunset.  The  fete  of  Saint 
Eliyah,  on  August  2,  is  the  day  by  which  the  reaping  is  usually 
finished  and  the  crops  stand  ready  to  be  garnered  for  the  win- 
ter. This,  among  others,  is  a  fact  which  the  Germans  have 
miscalculated.  They  thought  that  the  crops  were  still  standing, 
whereas  they  had  all  been  cut  by  the  date  of  the  declaration  of 
the  war,  and  as  I  write  the  women  are  threshing  the  corn  hur- 
riedly and  the  crops  are  already  safely  stored  for  the  winter. 
There  is  other  work  too  for  the  women  to  do — shoeing  horses, 
mending  plows,  scythes,  wheels,  and  so  on.  The  blacksmith  has 
gone  to  the  war,  the  wheelwright  also;  so  the  peasant  woman 
wields  the  hammer  and  sends  the  chips  flying  with  the  ax.  In 
the  autumn  she  fells  the  trees  and  shears  the  sheep.  And  all  the 
winter  she  spins  and  weaves,  waiting  for  her  men  to  come 
back,  hoping  always  and  teaching  her  children  to  love  their  coun- 
try and  their  father,  who  has  gone  to  defend  them  against  a 
strange  foe. 

The  Russian  Officer  of  To-day 

An  intrepid  horseman,  a  magnificent  dancer,  dashing  and 
smart,  clad  in  uniform  and  spurs  (those  spurs  were  inevitable), 
often  drunk  and  always  charming,  such  was — or  is  still — the 
popular  conception  of  a  Russian  officer. 

Many  years  ago  in  a  very  modified  degree  this  may  have  been 
somewhere  near  the  mark.  But  this  was  indeed  long  ago. 
Above  all,  it  was  before  the  Russo-Japanese  War.  Though  there 
were  thousands  of  Russian  officers  in  that  war  who  distinguished 
themselves  in  the  face  of  terrible  odds  and  displayed  qualities  of 


RUSSIA  23t 

foresight,  organizing  power,  and  resistance,  yet  there  were 
others  who  proved  inefficient,  lacking  in  knowledge  and  often  in 
moral  stamina.  It  was  necessary  that  such  men  should  be  elim- 
inated by  the  time  Russia  went  to  war  again.  And  that  she 
would  go  to  war  at  no  very  distant  date  was  an  acknowledged 
fact  even  at  that  time.  Every  Japanese  victory  was  hailed  with 
delight  in  Germany.  Also  a  sinister  fact,  one  not  known  to  the 
general  public,  was  the  absolute  unreliableness  of  the  projectiles 
supplied  by  German  firms  to  the  Russian  army.  It  was  impos- 
sible, owing  to  the  inaccuracy  with  which  they  had  been  made, 
to  calculate  in  firing  them  where  they  would  fall.  Whether 
these  projectiles  were  manufactured  so  inaccurately  by  design 
or  accident  is  not  known,  but  the  fact  was  considered  significant 
of  Germany's  attitude.  Immediately  after  the  Japanese  War 
Russia  set  about  reorganizing  her  army,  paying  great  attention, 
among  other  things,  to  the  officers.  Of  the  then  existing  staff 
thirty-seven  per  cent  were  eliminated  from  active  service. 

Officers  of  the  Russian  army  are  drawn  from  all  classes,  any 
one  having  finished  a  gymnasium  (secondary  school)  course  and 
completed  two  or  three  years  in  a  special  military  academy  being 
eligible.  Great  numbers  of  them  are  also  men  with  a  university 
education.  These  qualifications,  though  sufficient  to  procure  a 
commission,  will  not  help  a  man  to  promotion,  which  formerly 
was  largely  automatic. 

To  begin  with,  special  attention  is  paid  to  the  moral  caliber 
of  the  men.  Drunkenness  and  gambling  are  no  longer  winked 
at  by  superiors,  nor  is  looseness  in  money  or  other  matters.  The 
lodging  of  complaints  by  soldiers  against  their  officers  has  been 
greatly  facilitated,  and  a  number  of  complaints  against  the  same 
man  will  certainly  lessen  his  chances  of  promotion.  A  man  who 
is  known  to  be  a  drunkard  now  can  never  reach  the  rank  of 
captain.  It  is  obvious  from  this  that  the  officers,  taken  as  a 
whole,  are  far  steadier  and  more  reliable  to-day  than  they  were 
some  years  ago. 

But  an  even  more  important  innovation  is  the  tremendous 
amount  of  up-to-date  knowledge  of  military  matters  which  is  re- 
quired from  the  officer.  To  this  end  evening  lectures  have  been 
arranged  in  each  regiment,  attendance  on  which  is  compulsory. 
These  lectures  deal  with  tactics  and  every  branch  of  military 
science.  Problems  of  all  possible  kinds  are  set,  and  their  solu- 
tions must  be  presented  at  the  following  lecture.    Every  facility 

17 


2Z2  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

is  afforded  in  obtaining  the  latest  works  in  all  languages  on 
military  matters,  and  the  officers  are  expected  to  keep  au  cour- 
ant  of  all  innovations.  On  the  other  hand,  far  less  time  is 
devoted  to  unnecessary  parades,  and  much  more  time  is  spent 
in  camp  and  in  maneuvers.  Where  formerly  only  six  weeks 
were  spent  in  maneuvers  now  six  months  are  devoted  to  them, 
and  three  months  of  these  are  spent  in  camp.  The  Russian  is 
by  nature  generally  anything  but  bellicose.  He  is  too  good- 
natured,  often  too  lazy  and  easy-going,  to  be  what  is  usually 
considered  an  ideal  soldier.  But  he  has  another  quality  which 
goes  further  than  sternness  in  holding  an  army  together,  es- 
pecially when  the  tide  is  going  against  it— and  that  is  a  truly 
democratic  spirit. 

The  married  officers  usually  spend  only  such  time  as  is  ab- 
solutely necessary  with  their  men,  but  the  unmarried  ones  spend 
every  moment  they  can  spare  with  them.  They  write  intermi- 
nable letters  for  the  soldiers  (who  are  often  completely  illiterate) , 
beginning  with,  *T  send  my  greeting  to  mother,  father.  Grand- 
mother Maria  and  Great-aunt  Anna,  to  Grandfather  Nicholas 
and  my  brothers  and  sisters."  A  list  follows,  and  then  the 
whole  village  is  enumerated.  Sometimes  a  ruble  accompanies 
the  letter,  often  contributed  to  by  the  officer,  who  also  provides 
paper  and  stamps.  When  these  items,  small  in  themselves,  are 
drawn  from  a  salary  of  loo  or  no  rubles  a  month,  a  certain 
amount  of  self-denial  is  involved  on  the  part  of  the  officer.  Then 
also  the  officers  spend  much  of  their  time  reading  to  the  men, 
teaching  them,  taking  them  to  cinematographs  where  there  are 
films  of  educational  value,  and  generally  doing  what  they  can 
for  their  welfare.  As  a  result  the  men  trust  their  officers  com- 
pletely, and  the  ties  which  bind  them  together  are  very  strong. 
And  since  it  is  not  what  every  man  can  do,  but  what  he  can't  do 
and  still  does,  which  wins  battles,  it  is  of  incalculable  value  that 
the  officers  should  be  men  who  can  inspire  their  soldiers  to  that 
supreme  effort.  That  the  Russian  officer  of  to-day  who  lives  on 
such  good  terms  with  his  men  is  of  this  stuff  will  be  proved  in 
the  present  campaign. 

In  time  of  war  the  officer  of  the  reserve  also  plays  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  success  of  an  army. 

There  are  supposed  to  be  seven  officers  to  every  battery; 
usually  there  are  only  five.  In  time  of  war  the  battery  is  en- 
larged and  split  into  two.    There  are  therefore  only  two  or  three 


RUSSIA  233 

ordinary  officers  to  each  half;  the  rest  are  officers  of  the  re- 
seFve.  Sixty  per  cent  of  these  are  men  of  university  education, 
and,  though  their  knowledge  of  military  matters  cannot  obvi- 
ously be  as  complete  as  that  of  a  proper  officer,  they  have  been 
well  grounded,  and  the  fact  that  at  various  times  since  serving 
their  term  of  military  service  they  have  been  in  camp  for  cer- 
tain periods  fits  them  for  service.  What  they  lack  in  knowledge 
they  will  more  than  make  up  in  enthusiasm  in  this  war.  Ger- 
man culture  is  respected  in  Russia,  but  the  appalling  results  of 
fanatical  militarism  have  been  realized  only  too  well;  and,  be- 
sides, every  Russian  is  a  patriot  and  will  fight  for  every  inch  of 
his  country. 

The  army  which  Russia  has  put  into  the  field  is  indeed  a  dif- 
ferent "proposition"  from  the  one  she  sent  out  man  by  man  to 
the  Far  East  ten  years  ago.  The  entire  army  has  been  com- 
pletely rearmed  and  reorganized,  especially  the  artillery,  which 
is  magnificent.  The  officers  are  efficient,  steady,  willing  and 
ready  to  die,  and,  above  all,  absolutely  confident  of  the  loyalty 
of  their  soldiers. 

RUSSIA  IN  ARMS:  SOCIAL  ASPECTS^ 

The  present  clash  of  nations  has  brought  into  play  vast  forces 
and  deep-seated  energies;  it  has  called  anew  into  being  im- 
memorial brutalities  as  well  as  long  vanished  sanctitudes;  it  has 
put  to  the  test  of  fire  not  only  the  flesh  but  also  the  spirit;  in 
fact,  it  is,  in  a  sense,  an  event  of  the  spiritual  order.  The 
changes  which  the  war  has  so  far  wrought  in  the  map  of  Rus- 
sia's territory  are  surely  less  significant  than  those  wrought  in 
the  map  of  her  spirit.  While  the  body  of  the  country  has  suf- 
fered losses,  its  soul  has  grown — grown  with  the  fabulous  rapid- 
ity which  is  so  characteristic  of  these  days  when  Time  seems  to 
have  increased  infinitely  the  speed  of  its  ceaseless  race.  The 
light-bearing  ray  often  comes  to  us  in  the  shape  of  a  thorn,  and 
Pain  is  a  harsh  but  efficient  master.  Under  its  ferule,  men  and 
women  in  Russia  have  gone  through  mighty  transformations,  the 
effect  of  which  cannot  as  yet  be  appraised. 

Some  of  the  processes  that  to-day  ferment  Russian  minds 
and  hearts  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country 
are  still  latent,  hidden  in  the  deep  undercurrents  of  conscious- 

*  By   Abraham    Yarmolinsky.     Bookman.     44:598-603.    February,    1917. 


234  SELECTEt)  ARTICLES 

ness.  Others  have  already  resulted  in  definite  and  visible 
changes,  which  conjure  up  the  vision  of  Russia,  emerging  from 
the  crucible  of  this  war  regenerated,  chastened  by  losses,  in- 
ternally strengthened,  free  from  age-old  fetters  and  sins,  ready 
for  great  tasks  and  high  missions. 

"Retro,  Satanas! " 

He  who  in  these  days  would  go  to  Russia  and  enter  her  silent 
villages  and  bustling  towns,  would  find  there  fewer  concrete 
changes  than  he  might  be  led  to  expect.  But  he  could  hardly 
fail  to  notice  that  a  multitude  of  new  ideas  and  evaluations  have 
eaten  their  way  into  the  minds  of  the  people  and  have  prepared 
the  soil  for  the  seeds  of  the  future.  Our  hypothetical  visitor,  in 
wandering  along  the  endless  streets  and  roads  of  Russia,  would 
be  struck  by  the  amount  of  constructive  work  which  is  going  on 
everywhere  in  the  country.  Even  more  impressed  would  he  be 
by  the  change  on  the  part  of  the  Russians  in  their  general  at- 
titude toward  practical,  socially  organised  activities. 

"Somewhere  deep  in  the  Russian  soul,"  says  Maxim  Gorky, 
"no  matter  whether  it  be  the  master's  or  the  muzhik's,  there 
lives  a  petty  and  squalid  demon  of  passive  anarchism,  who  in- 
fects us  with  a  careless  and  indifferent  attitude  toward  work, 
society,  and  ourselves."  There  is  a  great  deal  of  bitter  truth  in 
this  utterance  of  a  man  who  has  a  deep  and  intimate  knowledge 
of  his  people.  It  is  impossible  to  understand  the  Slav  type  of 
civilisation  without  allowing  for  the  fact  that  to  the  Russian 
culture  is  essentially  a  spiritual  phenomenon,  not  to  be  projected 
into  the  outer  world,  but  to  be  lived  internally.  The  Russian  is 
a  dreamer  who  loves  fairy-tales  of  beauty,  but  his  interest  in  the 
practical  activities  which  lead  to  the  upbuilding  of  a  beautiful 
life  is  but  weak  and  transient,  and  his  distate  for  every-day  un- 
assuming duties  and  responsibilities  is  often  appalling.  These 
peculiarities,  in  combination  with  the  Slav  individualism  and  the 
chaotic,  unbalanced  and  undisciplined  social  will  of  an  over- 
governed  race,  have  been  both  the  glory  and  the  tragedy  of  Rus- 
sian culture,  this  living  conglomeration  of  glaring  contradictions, 
this  treasure-house  of  created  beauty,  lacking  the  elementary 
norms  of  law  and  order,  which  are  the  very  atmosphere  of 
Western  civilisation. 

Now,  under  the  influence  of  the  crisis  brought  about  by  the 
war,  people  in  Russia  are  realising  that  it  is  necessary  to  say  to 


RUSSIA  235 

the  demon  of  passive  anarchism :  "Retro,  Satanas ! "  They 
have  awakened  to  the  necessity  of  freeing  and  educating  their 
vast  innate  powers  and  applying  them  to  the  solution  of  prac- 
tical social  problems.  "Matushka  Rossia,"  Mother  Russia,  meek, 
passive,  essentially  feminine,  is  striving  to  develop  all  her  man- 
hood potentialities.  Mary,  lost  in  contemplation,  has  heard  the 
insistent  call  of  life  and  has  come  to  envy  Martha's  part.  Hence, 
the  propaganda  of  organised  public  effort,  which  is  to  assume 
the  form  of  "organisation,"  either  in  the  sense  Wilhelm  Ost- 
wald  uses  it  or  in  the  peculiarly  Russian  sense  of  a  kind  of  co- 
operation which  does  not  restrain  the  spiritual  autonomy  of  the 
co-operating  individuals.  The  propaganda  of  organisation  goes 
hand  in  hand  with  the  so-called  "economism."  This  movement 
deals  with  the  mighty  economic  problems  which  face  Russia, 
such  as  the  exorcising  of  German  influence  and  the  utilisation 
of  the  inexhaustible  natural  wealth  which  lies  dormant  in  the 
Russian  soil.  Another  manifestation  of  the  same  tendency  is 
the  interest  society  is  taking  nowadays  in  the  growth  of  higher 
educational  institutions,  especially  technical  ones.  Several  such 
institutions,  which  owe  their  existence  mainly  to  private  initia- 
tive and  enthusiasm,  have  already  begun  functioning.  The  gov- 
ernment is  planning  to  add  a  number  of  universities  to  the  ten 
which  existed  before  the  war. 

Organising  For  Victory 

Nowhere  did  Russia's  newly  awakened  constructive  energies 
find  a  more  brilliant  expression  than  in  the  patriotic  work  of 
the  zemstvos  (county  councils)  and  municipalities.  The  story 
of  how  the  people  of  Russia  fought  for  the  right  to  take  a  direct 
part  in  the  jnobilisation  of  the  forces  of  the  country  in  the  rear, 
and  how  free  public  organisations  were  formed  for  that  purpose, 
in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  governmental  agencies — an  opposi- 
tion which  is  still  in  full  force — this  story,  it  is  hoped,  will  be 
some  day  told  in  detail.  It  will  once  more  reveal  to  the  world 
all  the  utter  inefficiency  and  lack  of  vision  manifested  by  the 
Russian  bureaucracy  in  the  hour  of  crisis. 

As  early  as  July  30,  1914,  the  zemstvos,  organs  of  self-gov- 
ernment, in  peace-time  exclusively  local,  organised  into  an  All- 
Russian  Union,  under  the  leadership  of  Prince  G.  E.  Lvov. 
Somewhat  later,  the  towns  formed  a  similar  union,  with  its 
main  centres  in  Petrograd,  Moscow,  Kiev,  Voronezh,  Tiflis,  and 


236  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Irkutsk,  and  the  manufacturers  and  merchants  organised  the  so- 
called  Military-Industrial  Committees.  After  a  while,  the  two 
unions  consolidated  into  a  combination  called  Zemgor.  At  first, 
the  activity  of  the  Unions  was  restricted  by  the  government  to 
the  care  of  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers.  But,  as  the  inability 
of  the  heavy  bureaucratic  machine  to  cope  with  the  situation 
became  more  and  more  apparent,  the  authorities  yielded  re- 
luctantly, and  the  Unions'  sphere  of  activity  has  gradually  come 
to  include  a  vast  range  of  tasks.  Nowadays  Zemgor  is  a  most 
important  factor  in  the  life  of  the  army,  and  it  is  with  these 
public  organisations  that  the  hopes  of  the  country  are  bound 
up  rather  than  with  the  bureaucratic  agencies.  The  Unions  not 
only  take  care  of  the  wounded,  the  refugees,  the  families  of  sol- 
diers; through  their  local  branches  they  also  build  mills,  fac- 
tories, workshops,  garages,  and  manufacture  munitions  and 
clothing  for  the  army.  Alexander  Kuprin,  the  eminent  author, 
has  recently  visited  one  of  these  newly  built  zemstvo  factories. 
He  conveys  in  the  following  terms  the  impression  which  the 
headquarters  of  the  local  branch  of  the  Union  made  on  him 
(quoted  from  The  Soul  of  Russia,  edited  by  Winifred 
Stephens)  : 

This  place  is  like  a  government  office,  but  a  government  office  without 
arrogant,  irascible,  and  uncivil  bureaucrats,  with  useless  and  aimless  wan- 
derings from  department  to  department,  whither  one  is  waved  by  indolent 
arms,  without  fatiguing  and  humiliating  hours  of  waiting  in  corridors  and 
vestibules,  without  crowds  of  insolent  extortioners,  without  surly  door- 
keepers, without  the  ominous  "To-morrow — in  a  week — in  a  month."  Every- 
thing, great  or  small,  is  done  at  the  Union  quickly  and  smoothly,  accurately, 
as  upon  a  war  footing. 

Exit  Vodka 

In  one  of  his  numerous  utterances,  connected  with  the  prob- 
lems of  the  day,  Leonid  Andreyev,  the  well-known  author,  says : 
"The  thirst  for  self-respect — that  is,  the  fundamental  feeling 
which  now,  in  the  days  of  the  most  terrible  war,  has  seized  the 
entire  Russian  society,  which  has  exalted  the  people  to  the 
heights  of  heroism,  and  which  makes  us  fear  all  that  reminds  us 
of  our  sad  past."  It  is  this  feeling,  aided  by  a  tremendous  ef- 
fort of  the  national  will,  awakened  by  the  world  conflagration, 
that  accounts  for  the  success  with  which  the  "miracle  measure,*' 
to  use  the  expression  of  an  American  author,  of  prohibition  has 
been  carried  out  in  Russia. 

As  is  known,  the  government  wine-shops  were  closed  and  the 


RUSSIA  237 

free  sale  of  alcoholic  liquors  strictly  prohibited  in  Russia  right 
after  the  outbreak  of  hostilities.  Many  sins  will  be  pardoned 
Russian  officialdom  for  this  measure.  The  ukase  of  July  18, 
1914,  was  truly  an  act  of  genuine  faith  and  great  courage.  For 
years  the  governmental  traffic  in  vodka  was  one  of  the  main 
sources  of  Imperial  revenue.  In  1914,  for  instance,  the  income 
from  the  governmental  vodka  monopoly  amounted  to  936  million 
rubles,  while  the  entire  income  was  3,080  million  rubles.  It  may 
be  said  that,  in  a  sense,  drinking  was  forced  on  the  population 
by  the  government,  which  lived  by  what  was  the  scourge  of  the 
country  and  which,  hence,  was  far  from  encouraging  the  pro- 
hibition movement  among  the  people. 

Enthusiasts  compare  the  prohibition  act  with  the  Emancipa- 
tion of  the  Serfs  and  even  with  the  reforms  of  Peter  the  Great. 
In  fact,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  over-rate  the  salutary  effect  of 
the  measure,  especially  on  the  life  of  the  village.  Here  all  the 
observers  of  Russian  life  are  perfectly  unanimous.  As  high  an 
authority  as  Professor  Ozerov  asserts  that  "the  universal  so- 
briety of  Russia  has  been  equivalent  to  an  annual  investment  in 
our  national  industries  of  vast  sums  of  money."  The  economic 
value  is  but  one  side  of  this  social  experiment.  The  reports  of 
Provincial  Chambers  of  the  Exchequer,  summarised  and  recently 
published  by  the  Ministry  of  Finances,  as  well  as  other  author- 
itative studies,  show  that  universal  abstinence  has  been  highly 
instrumental  in  the  adjustment  of  the  population  to  the  new 
burdens  of  the  war  and  that  it  has  laid  a  solid  foundation  for 
the  happiness  of  innumerable  homes.  If  things  keep  on  going  as 
they  have  been  for  the  last  two  and  a  half  years,  the  classical 
Russian  tramp,  eternalised  by  the  writings  of  Maxim  Gorky,  is 
seriously  threatened  by  the  danger  of  becoming  a  fossil.  Im- 
morality, pauperism,  and  criminality  have  decreased,  the  health 
of  the  population  has  been  improved  and  the  standard  of  living 
raised,  while  a  new  era  of  economic  prosperity  and  thrift  has 
been  inaugurated — all  this  as  a  direct  result  of  the  prohibition 
measure.  It  is  true  that  in  some  places,  especially  in  the  towns, 
a  number  of  deaths  have  been  caused  by  the  use  of  poisonous 
substitutes  for  vodka.  In  this  connection  Mr.  Richard  Wash- 
burn Child,  in  his  book  Potential  Russia,  retells  a  Moscow  anec- 
dote about  a  little  girl  who  was  asked  by  a  kindly  old  gentleman 
why  she  was  wearing  mourning.  "Father  is  dead,"  answered 
the  child  candidly.    "Father  could  not  get  any  vodka  because 


238  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

the  Czar  has  forbidden  vodka  to  be  sold.  So  father  drank  the 
fuel  spirits  from  mother's  stove,  and  now  he  is  dead.  God  bless 
our  dear  Emperor !  " 

The  abolition  of  alcohol  in  Russia  is  only  a  temporary  meas- 
ure. After  the  war,  the  government  wine-shops  may  be  re- 
opened, although  public  opinion  is  decidedly  for  the  maintenance 
of  prohibition.  It  is  believed  in  Russia  that  the  spread  of  ed- 
ucation and  the  organisation  of  rational  forms  of  recreation, 
such  as  are  furnished  by  libraries,  neighbourhood  centres,  cine- 
matographs, will  keep  the  country  permanently  temperate, 
whether  or  not  the  prohibition  act  will  remain  in  force.  Here 
is  one  of  the  many  fields  in  which  American  experience  can  be 
of  great  use  to  the  Russians. 

The  New  Nationalism 

The  mighty  momentum  of  the  struggle  has  overcome  Rus- 
sia's immense  inertia  and  brought  forth  all  her  powers  of  re- 
sistance and  aggression.  In  addition,  the  concerted  efforts  and 
common  trials  have  vastly  intensified  her  national  self-con- 
sciousness. The  reality  of  this  New  Nationalism  is  to-day 
plainly  written  across  Russia's  complex  mind.  In  fact,  it  is 
nowadays  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  features  of  her  life  and 
one  of  the  storm  centres  of  her  thought.  It  would  be  rash  to 
assert  that  this  nationalistic  spirit  is  free  from  Chauvinism  or 
"zoological" — as  the  Russians  say — patriotism.  This  is  but  the 
spiritual  counterpart  of  the  physical  scars  and  deformities  left 
by  the  war.  It  is  essentially,  however,  a  progressive  phenome- 
non: it  stands  above  all  for  national  self-knowledge  and  self- 
criticism.  It  is  primarily  an  emotional  attitude — a  feeling  of  a 
new  responsibility  and  a  new  devotion,  even  unto  death,  to 
otcheezna,  the  abstract  entity  of  the  fatherland.  The  intel- 
lectuals have  been  especially  affected  by  this  change  of  heart. 
They  have  always  felt  themselves  in  their  own  country  strang- 
ers, homeless  and  superfluous.  And  now  they  have  suddenly 
discovered,  so  to  speak,  their  native  land  and  learned  to  love  it 
not  only  as  one  loves  his  mother,  but  also  as  one  loves  his  child, 
frail  and  needing  all  your  loving  care  and  help.  And  if  Russian 
Intelligentzia  has  seen  in  these  days  the  fall  of  many  of  its  long- 
cherished  ideals,  it  had  never  been  nearer  the  realisation  of  its 
old  longing  to  see  filled  the  gulf  between  it  and  the  plain  peo- 
ple, the  voiceless  millions  of  bast-shoed  peasants. 


RUSSIA  239 

This  newly  awakened  national  spirit  has  nothing  to  do  with 
official  Nationalism,  which  has  heaped  upon  Russia  an  un- 
speakable disgrace  by  practising  most  ruthlessly  what  Treit- 
schke  calls  "Volkermord."  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
leviathan,  stretching  over  one-sixth  of  the  entire  land-surface  of 
our  planet,  and  commonly  known  as  Russia,  is  a  polyglot  con- 
glomeration of  races,  some  of  which  are  bearers  of  ancient  cul- 
tures, more  or  less  impervious  to  assimilation.  One  of  the  many 
ideas  this  war  is  driving  home  to  people  in  Russia  is  the  ab- 
solute necessity  of  giving  these  various  nationalities  full  freedom 
of  development,  instead  of  forcing  down  their  throats  the  civ- 
ilisation of  the  sovereign  Great-Russian  race,  as  it  has  been 
done  until  now.  It  is  the  hope  of  progressive  Russia  that  the 
war  will  lay  a  firm  foundation  for  the  future  peaceful  co-opera- 
tion of  the  various  people  who  go  to  make  the  huge  empire  and 
who  are  now  shedding  their  blood  for  their  common  fatherland. 

A  sign  of  the  times  is  the  interest  which  has  arisen  to-day  in 
Russia  in  the  cultural  strivings  and  achievements  of  the  inor- 
odtzy  (Russian  subjects  of  non-Russian  birth),  and  which  has 
brought  into  existence  a  number  of  special  publications.  One 
of  these  is  a  series  of  volumes,  edited  by  Maxim  Gorky  and  de- 
voted to  the  literature  of  the  various  non-Russian  languages 
spoken  in  Russia,  including  the  literatures  of  the  Tartars,  Finns, 
Lithuanians,  Jews,  and  so  forth.  In  this  connection,  it  is  inter- 
esting to  mention  another  publication  edited  by  Gorky,  in  col- 
laboration with  Leonid  Andreyev  and  Fyodor  Sologub,  and  en- 
titled The  Shield.  It  is  a  symposium  of  representative  Russian 
men-of-letters  and  scientists  on  the  Jewish  question  in  Russia. 
There  can  be  no  better  proof  that  the  best  minds  of  Russia  side 
with  the  Jews  in  their  struggle  for  equal  rights.  In  these  days, 
when  the  ancient  nation  is  living  through  the  most  tragic  period 
of  its  troubled  history,  thinking  Russia  has  done  well  to  have 
raised  her  voice  to  demand  the  removal  of  Jewish  disabilities 
and  to  protest  against  the  unspeakable  crime  which  the  Russian 
state  has  been  committing  for  years  against  an  entire  people. 

Prophetic  Russia 

A  goodly  portion  of  the  speculative  thought  produced  by  the 
♦var  in  Russia  is  devoted  to  the  national  problems  and  cognate 
matters.  In  the  light  of  her  newly  awakened  self -conscious- 
ness Russia  is  pondering  over  the  riddle  of  her  existence.    The 


240  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

storm  of  the  war  has  wrecked  many  of  the  Western  idols 
which  had  commanded  the  worship  of  intellectual  Russia.  By  a 
natural  reaction  the  minds  of  men  are  turning  to  their  own  na- 
tional altars  and  shrines,  and  the  pendulum  of  Russian  thought 
once  more  comes  near  the  pole  of  Slavophilism,  with  its  belief 
in  Russia's  predestined  mission  on  earth.  It  is  remarkable  that 
the  religious  element  plays  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  philo- 
sophical manifestations  of  the  New  Russian  Nationalism,  and 
the  vision  of  future  Russia  is  often  mingled  with  the  mystic 
vision  of  New  Jerusalem.  In  this  connection  an  interesting  at- 
tempt to  interpret  Russia's  soul  has  been  recently  made  by  Nik- 
olay  Berdyayev,  a  brilliant  philosopher  of  the  Moscow  school  of 
mystic  thought. 

To  this  religious  thinker  the  symbol  of  Russia  is  a  pilgrim 
journeying  in  quest  of  Kitezh,  the  City  Invisible  of  the  old  Rus- 
sian legend.  While  German  mysticism  is  a  plunging  into  the 
depths  of  the  spirit,  the  mystic  temper  of  the  Slav  expresses  it- 
self in  a  quest  for  the  City  Divine,  in  a  yearning  for  absolute 
and  final  values,  in  moods  intensely  apocalyptic  and  prophetic. 
Russia's  religion  is  that  of  prophets,  not  that  of  priests.  It  is  in 
the  light  of  this  inner  restlessness,  this  ceaseless  seeking  of  God, 
this  spiritual  thirst,  that  Russia's  national  mission  must  be  inter- 
preted and  the  "Russian  Idea  formulated.  It  is  also  these  es- 
sential characteristics  of  Russia's  spirit,  that  distinguish  her  from 
the  West,  with  its  genius  for  the  relative  and  the  practical;  its 
age-old  domesticity  and  its  deep-rooted  amor  loci.  In  contrast- 
ing Russia  with  the  Western  culture,  Mr.  Berdyayev  does  not, 
however,  share  the  traditional  contempt  of  the  Slavophils  for 
"the  rotten  West."  He  would  rather  agree  with  Goethe  that 
"Gottes  ist  der  Orient,  Gottes  ist  der  Occident."  It  is  his  belief 
— a  belief  characteristic  of  Russian  thought  to-day — that  the 
great  schism  of  war  will  result  in  the  union  of  East  and  West, 
and  that  after  the  conflict  Russia,  conscious  of  her  separate  mis- 
sion in  the  world,  will  be  finally  ushered  into  the  family  of 
Western  nations.  In  fact  this  union  of  the  two  worlds  is,  ac- 
cording to  Berdyayev,  one  of  Russia's  world  tasks.  But  she  is 
not  as  yet  ready  for  her  mission ;  her  mystic  spirit  is  thwarted 
and  marred  by  a  fatal  tendency  to  passivity.  Her  eyes  ever  on 
the  vision  of  the  City  Heavenly,  she  has  neglected  to  build  up 
her  City  Terrestrial,  and  so  "Holy  Russia"  is  in  many  respects 
a  most  unholy  place,  swayed  by  dark  powers.    Mr.  Berdyayev 


RUSSIA  241 

believes  that  Russia  will  reach  the  active  paths  of  ihe  spirit  not 
by  importing  ideas  and  methods  essentially  strange  to  her  inner- 
most nature — and  here  our  philosopher  is  again  a  Slavophil — but 
by  revealing  and  developing  the  masculine,  creative  element 
which  is  potentially  present  in  her  mystic  quest  for  truth  and 
holiness. 

This  interpretation  is  one  of  the  many  contributions  made  by 
philosophers  and  publicists  to  the  store  of  Russian  national  self- 
knowledge.  Whatever  their  value  may  be,  they  all  point  to  the 
fact  that  amidst  the  storm  and  stress  of  the  struggle,  Russia  is 
realising  that  she  has  come  of  age.  This  feeling  of  maturity 
leads  her  to  the  desire  for  an  independent  and  untrammeled  de- 
velopment of  her  native  powers.  The  new  Nationalism  is  thus 
necessarily  a  freeing  and  constructive  force.  It  stands  back  of 
the  young  and  frail  constitutionalism  and  marches  at  the  head 
of  the  armies.  Without  this  national  spirit  the  war  would  be 
little  more  than  "a  revolt  of  the  conquered,"  as  the  Germans 
are  said  to  have  referred  to  the  Russian  campaign  at  the  out- 
break of  the  hostilities.  And  it  is  well  to  remember  that  Rus- 
sia's success  in  this  war  will  be  eventually  a  double  triumph. 
For  the  war  which  she  is  now  waging  against  the  Teutons  is  also 
a  war  against  her  inner  foes,  whose  stronghold  is  Russian  of- 
ficialdom. It  is  unthinkable  that  the  people,  having  discovered 
and  tested  their  strength  m  shaking  off  the  German's  grip,  should 
long  tolerate  the  swaddling-clothes  of  an  inefficient  and  superan- 
nuated political  system. 

THE  HOMELESS  HORDES  OF  RUSSIA^ 

In  Russia,  when  one  speaks  of  refugees,  one  does  not  mean, 
as  one  might  in  other  belligerent  countries,  those  who,  for 
safety's  sake  only,  have  moved  away  from  danger:  one  means 
men  or  women  or  children  who  have  fled  from  the  scorch  of 
war  as  countless  animals  and  insects  fly  before  the  approach  of 
fire  in  grass  or  timber.  In  Russia  "refugee"  usually  means  one 
who  has  had  all  past  association  permanently  rubbed  out  as  one 
rubs  writing  from  a  blackboard;  the  Russian  refugee  usually 
has  lost  village,  home,  animals,  personal  belongings,  and  often 
all  friends,  relatives,  and  even  sense  of  the  points  of  the  com- 
pass.    In  front  of  him  is  the  vast  Russian  plain  and  the  future; 

>By  £.  W.  Child.    Collier's.  56:8-9,  32-3-  March  11,  19 16. 


242  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

behind  him  is  the  lost  past.  ^Life,  constructed  year  after  year;J 
the  cup  from  which  he  drank,  the  room  in  which  his  grand- 
father died,  and  even  the  view  from  the  back  door  have  been 
wiped  away  now.  Life  is  erased.  Dazed,  frostbitten,  sick, 
footsore,  a  human  being  stripped  of  most  of  the  distinctions 
which  had  separated  him  from  his  cow  or  his  pig,  clinging  now 
to  existence  as  his  most  precious  possession,  herding  with 
others,  as  sheep  in  a  storm,  or  broken  off  from  the  herd  as  a 
lame  animal  falls  behind:  on  and  on  he  goes. 

Where?    God  knows. 

I  asked  a  member  of  one  of  the  war  committees  in  Moscow 
how  many  refugees  were  in  Russia.  He  said :  "Fourteen  mil- 
lion." A  government  official  told  me:  "Probably  eleven  mil- 
lion." 

I  said :  "I  do  not  believe  that  we  realize  this  thing  in  the 
United  States."  The  Russian  artillery  officer  at  Vitebsk  to 
whom  I  spoke  then  replied :  "Nor  do  we.  But  it  has  been  ex- 
aggerated.    There  are  not  over  eight  or  nine  million  refugees." 

Eight  or  nine  million!  His  low  estimate  was  more  than  the 
total  population  of  Canada! 

After  a  time  I  asked :     "Where  do  they  go  ?  " 

He  said:  "Ah,  about  such  a  thing  who  can  tell?  There  is 
nothing  so  sad.  I  have  seen  with  my  own  eyes  a  woman  whose 
journey  over  the  fields  and  roads  had  been  interrupted  by  child- 
birth.    She  had  to  stop.     They  were  both  frozen." 

In  Petrograd  there  are  a  million  new  residents,  and  many  of 
these  are  refugees  who  have  stood  the  long  journey  from  Po- 
land or  elsewhere  on  the  war  front.  In  Moscow  the  number  is 
over  a  million.  Thus  the  population  of  these  two  cities  alone 
has  been  swelled  by  a  number  of  persons  larger  than  the  entire 
population  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  and  Rhode 
Island;  this  is  the  contribution  that  war  has  made  to  the  two 
cities,  and  in  the  main  it  is  a  contribution  of  individuals  whose 
lives  have  been  uprooted,  whose  pasts  are  obliterated,  and  whose 
futures  are  as  blank  as  unprinted  pages. 

"What  will  be  their  destiny?  "  I  asked  of  one  of  the  editors 
best  known  in  Russia. 

He  said :  "IJ^ar  that  Destiuy^has  too  muchLjust  now  in  her 
head  to  make  any  plans  for  these  migrating  millions.  The  spar- 
row's fall  of  the  past  has  assumed  great  significance  as  com- 
pared to  the  fate  of  one  of  these." 


RUSSIA  243 

Nowhere  could  I  receive  any  clear  answer  to  the  question  of 
what  was  to  become  of  all  this  homeless  horde.  I  went  to 
Vladislas  Zukowski,  perhaps  the  most  prominent  man  in  the 
public  affairs  of  the  Poland  of  yesterday,  and  considered  the 
Polish  leader  in  the  Third  Duma. 

He  shook  his  head.  "I  can  only  speak  for  Poland,"  he  said. 
"The  number  of  Polish  refugees  in  Russia,  as  distinguished  from 
the  other  refugees,  probably  is  nearly  a  million  and  a  half.  The 
Russian  government  contributes  five  or  six  millions  of  rubles 
every  month  for  their  maintenance  and  about  ten  millions  of 
rubles  have  been  spent  on  their  clothing.  But — "  He  paused 
and  we  both  understood  that  six  million  rubles  a  month  meant 
an  expenditure  of  a  little  over  a  dollar  per  refugee. 

"In  August  and  September,  and  even  later,  no  relief  action 
had  been  organized,"  he  went  on.  "Thousands  upon  thousands 
of  children  were  lost  or  perished  from  exposure  and  exhaustion, 
all  over  the  fields  and  roads  of  western  Russia.  The  land  is 
loaded  with  unidentified  burials.  Polish  national  institutions 
have  centered  their  efforts  of  relief  to-day  in  the  Congress  of 
Polish  Institutions  in  Moscow.  The  Russian  government  re- 
garded the  relief  action  favorably  and  granted  large  credits. 
Many  of  our  refugees  are  secure  from  starvation. 

"It  is  not  only  the  peasant  who  has  suffered;  understand 
that  the  land  owners  and  professional  classes  have  also  lost 
everything.  No  compensation  is  in  sight.  Sometimes  the  army 
authorities  can  act  quickly  to  protect  those  who  have  lost  every- 
thing by  army  service,  but  the  civil  authorities  will  have  to  de- 
lay indefinitely  relief  to  ruined  land  owners  and  those  in  the 
professions.  Owing  to  the  uncertainty  of  what  is  to  become  of 
them,  the  refugee  Poles  in  Russia,  whether  peasants  or  not,  are 
in  terrible  bitterness.  Moral  depression  is  evident.  There  is 
nothing  to  live  for. 

"Perhaps  this  depression  could  be  relieved  materially  by  sym- 
parthy  from  the  western  nations.  But  remember  that  such  ex- 
pressions of  sympathy  must  not  be  of  the  kind  to  irritate  Rus- 
sian opinion,  for  that  would  be  fatal.  Remember,  too,  that  after 
the  Russian  army  retired  from  Poland  the  Polish  question  was 
no  longer  an  internal  question  of  the  Russian  Empire;  it  is 
now    an   international   question." 

The  real  truth  is  that  Russia  herself  cannot  conceive  the 
magnitude  of  the  hordes  of    homeless    staggering  out  of  the 


244  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

West,  wandering  Russian  fields  and  roads,  fleeing  this  way  and 
that  without  plan  or  purposes,  dazed  by  war :  of  men  and  women 
and  children  driven  eastward  across  the  great  plain,  as  insects 
scurry  out  of  fields  aflame,  and  in  their  countless  numbers  mak- 
ing ridiculous  the  importance  of  the  human  individual. 


RUSSIA  A  NATION  UNITED  BY  WAR* 

I  do  not  think  it  is  yet  realized  outside  Russia  how  good  a 
turn  Germany  served  the  Russian  government,  and  ultimately 
the  Russian  people,  when  she  dictated  Austria's  note  to  Servia 
and  compelled  Russia  to  make  preparations  for  war. 

During  the  days  that  preceded  this,  not  only  St.  Petersburg, 
but  every  big  manufacturing  district  of  Russia,  was  shaking  with 
revolt  of  a  peculiar  kind,  and  a  civil  war  of  the  most  horrible 
was  on  the  point  of  being  declared.  There  was  much  more 
serious  evidence  of  this  than  ever  got  into  the  papers,  although 
no  doubt  it  was  all  reported  in  Germany,  and  strengthened  the 
case  of  the  Kaiser's  councilors  who  were  convinced  that  this 
was  a  propitious  moment  for  the  war  for  which  during  forty 
years  military  Germany  has  been  steadily  making  ready. 

Only  a  few  days  before  the  war  I  had  gone  up  to  St.  Peters- 
burg from  Finland  to  get  my  rooms  ready,  as  I  wished  to  see 
as  much  as  possible  of  the  attempt  at  revolution  that  then 
seemed  inevitable.  There  were  barricades  up  in  the  streets  of 
the  workmen's  quarters.  One  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
workmen  were  on  strike,  and,  this  is  the  point,  they  were  not 
on  strike  for  higher  wages.  In  no  single  case  did  the  men  make 
a  demand  from  their  masters.  In  no  single  case  had  a  man  gone 
on  strike  because  of  a  visible  grievance  which  his  master  could 
put  right.  No  concession  by  the  masters  could  have  brought 
the  men  back  to  work.  The  only  answer  they  returned,  when 
asked  why  there  was  a  strike,  was  that  they  were  dissatisfied 
with  their  lives,  with  the  present  conditions  of  the  working-man, 
and  that  they  intended  to  disorganize  the  state  until  these  con- 
ditions were  altered. 

They  began,  as  I  suppose  is  known,  by  smashing  up  the  tram- 
cars  and  by  desultory  attacks  on  the  police.  Many  of  the  fac- 
tories were  garrisoned  in  expectation  of  attack.    I  may  perhaps 

*  Century.  89:183-8.  December,  1914. 


RUSSIA  245 

give  an  idea  of  the  state  of  affairs  if  I  describe  an  incident  that 
took  place  in  a  St.  Petersburg  factory.  A  manager  had  sacked  a 
small  number  of  men  some  little  time  before,  and  one  of  these 
thought  to  take  advantage  of  the  rebellion  (for  it  was  that 
rather  than  a  strike)  and  to  revenge  himself  on  this  manager. 
The  factory  was  guarded  by  Cossacks,  and  the  manager's  private 
room  had  been  turned  into  a  bedroom  for  the  Cossack  officer.  A 
cartload  of  provisions  were  being  taken  into  the  yard,  and  the 
workman  slipped  in  with  it,  dashed  across  to  the  door,  knifed 
the  sentry  there,  and,  knowing  his  way,  rushed,  knife  in  hand, 
through  the  corridors  to  the  manager's  room.  He  burst  open 
the  door,  and  was  confronted  not  by  his  enemy,  but  by  the  Cos- 
sack officer,  who  promptly  shot  and  wounded  him.  A  number  of 
soldiers  in  close  pursuit  then  arrived,  and  very  nearly  killed  him 
with  the  butts  of  their  rifles.  This  is  only  one  incident  of  the 
many  that  never  got  into  the  papers. 

The  Threatened  Revolution  That  War  Stopped 

St.  Petersburg  was  in  momentary  fear  of  another  and  a  far 
more  serious  revolution  than  that  of  1905.  The  police  captured 
the  people  supposed  to  be  the  leaders,  but  it  soon  appeared  that 
there  were  no  leaders,  for  these  arrests  had  no  influence  what- 
ever on  the  enormous  body  of  men  who  had  left  their  tools  with 
no  clearer  aim  than  to  disorganize  the  state  in  the  hope  of  some- 
thing better.  Things  seemed  to  the  Russian  government  about 
as  bad  as  they  very  well  could  be,  and  orders  were  actually 
given  for  the  severest  possible  repressive  measures,  which  would 
perhaps  have  involved  a  large-scale  battle,  probably  a  massacre, 
certainly  a  state  of  war  in  the  capital.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  the  stirring  up  of  this  unrest  was  done  by  German  influ- 
ence, and  it  is  an  undoubted  fact  that  the  first  men  to  strike 
were  the  employees  of  a  German  firm. 

Germany's  Faith  in  This  Disaffection 

Whether  or  not  German  influence  had  had  a  share  in  creating 
this  state  of  things,  Germany  was  certainly  fully  informed  of  it, 
as  well  as  of  the  English  trouble  in  Ireland.  This  may  be 
known  by  the  announcements,  a  little  premature,  in  the  German 
press  that  Ireland  had  revolted  and  that  there  actually  was  a 
revolution  throughout  Russia.  In  both  cases  the  Germans  had 
underestimated  the  incalculable  factor  of  loyalty.    The  moment 


246  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

it  became  clear  in  St.  Petersburg  that  Germany  was  determined 
on  war,  the  repressive  measures  were  countermanded  two  days 
before  they  were  to  have  taken  effect,  and  the  workmen  went 
instantly  and  quietly  back  to  work.  Many  of  those  who  were 
not  called  to  the  colors  by  the  mobilization  orders  themselves 
volunteered  for  the  front. 

During  the  first  few  days,  however,  the  government  showed 
its  sense  of  insecurity  by  actually  organizing  demonstrations  to 
excite  the  patriotic  feeling  of  the  masses.  These  were  not  spon- 
taneous demonstrations  of  enthusiasm.  Small  groups  of  the 
worst  hooligans  were  given  flags  and  a  portrait  of  the  Czar  and 
sent  off  to  patrol  the  town,  singing  hymns,  and  knocking  off  the 
hats  of  people  who  did  not  themselves  remove  them.  There  was, 
however,  no  need  for  any  such  meretricious  aids  to  patriotism, 
and  after  a  little  harm  had  been  done,  the  hooligans  lost  their 
state  employment  and,  though  no  one  else  wanted  that  kind  of 
demonstration,  the  police,  no  doubt  with  their  tongues  in  their 
cheeks,  pasted  up  notices  prohibiting  it.  However,  during  the 
time  of  the  demonstration  enthusiastically  reported  in  the  official 
and  foreign  press,  I  had  ample  opportunity  to  observe  that  the 
crowds  of  respectable  people  who,  with  real  enthusiasm,  at- 
tached themselves  to  these  processions,  were  of  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent character  from  that  of  their  disreputable  paid  leaders. 
And  there  could  be  no  doubt  of  the  sudden  and  genuine  unity 
of  feeling  among  the  people.  Even  the  police,  usually  hated, 
were  no  longer  regarded  as  enemies.  I  myself  saw  a  detach- 
ment of  mounted  police  heartily  cheered  in  the  Nevski  Prospekt 
by  the  crowd  waiting  to  read  the  news  pasted  up  in  the  windows 
of  a  newspaper.  They  had  probably  never  been  cheered  before 
in  their  lives,  and  were  so  surprised  by  this  change  of  feeling 
that  they  saluted  the  populace  and  laughed  shamefacedly,  like 
flattered  children. 

As  the  mobilization  proceeded,  the  streets  were  filled  with 
companies  of  reservists  marching  to  the  depots,  where  they  were 
examined  by  the  doctors  and  given  their  uniforms  The  men 
for  the  most  part  were  admirably  built,  and  even  out  of  uniform 
looked  good  soldiers.  They  marched  through  the  streets  with 
a  sturdy,  swinging  gait,  carrying  their  bundles  and  their  tin  ket- 
tles in  extreme  seriousness.  There  was  a  complete  absence  of 
jingoism.  These  men  did  not  love  fighting.  They  realized  that 
fighting  was  necessary,  and  that  it  was  for  the  moment  their 


RUSSIA  247 

business.  They  went  oflF,  like  Cromwell's  soldiers,  singing 
hymns.  In  many  cases  their  wives  and  children  marched  with 
them,  to  see  the  last  of  their  men  before  they  finally  took  train 
for  the  front.  Barracks  were  improvised  for  them  out  of  pri- 
vate houses,  riding-schools,  and  workhouses.  Every  man  was 
allowed  seven  rubles  for  a  pair  of  top-boots,  and  they  marched 
along  with  these  comfortable  Russian  boots,  loose  below  the 
knee.  Each  man  had  a  large  wooden  spoon  tucked,  handle 
downward,  into  one  of  his  boots,  and  when  they  fed,  ten  or  a 
dozen  together  round  great  tubs  and  bowls  of  food,  they  used 
these  spoons,  now  and  then  giving  spoonfuls  to  the  women,  and 
afterward  replacing  the  spoons  in  their  boots.  Whole  streets 
were  turned  into  something  like  horse-fairs,  where  the  horses 
commandeered  were  examined  and  allotted  to  the  men.  The 
Champ-de-Mars,  a  huge  grassless  field  once  used  for  reviews, 
was  for  days  covered  with  horses.  Then  the  horses  disap- 
peared, and  their  place  was  taken  by  hundreds  upon  hundreds 
of  motor-cars,  they,  too,  requisitioned  for  the  front. 

The  sight  of  the  men  actually  going  to  war,  the  whole  face 
of  the  city  changed  by  these  gigantic  preparations,  made  it  im- 
possible for  the  population  not  to  realize  that  the  war  was  an 
actual,  imminent  thing.  They  realized  it  with  extreme  serious- 
ness. From  every  house  some  one  had  gone,  and,  besides  their 
tenants,  many  houses  had  lost  all  their  porters,  as  well  as  the 
guards  whose  business  it  is  to  watch  outside  the  doors  at  night 
and  to  share  the  duties  of  the  police. 

The  Welding  of  a  People 

All  this  prepared  the  way  for  the  great  meeting  in  the  Palace 
Square,  when  the  Czar  and  the  Czarina  appeared  on  the  balcony 
before  their  people.  In  England,  in  France,  in  America,  such  a 
meeting  would  not  have  had  the  same  significance.  King  and 
Presidents  have  long  been  accustomed  to  show  themselves  freely 
to  their  people,  and  to  appear  in  public  without  a  hedge  of  sol- 
diery. It  is  not  so  in  Russia.  Throughout  the  reign  of  the  pres- 
ent Czar  such  a  meeting  has  been  thought  impossible. 

I  was  fortunate  enough  to  be  present.  All  the  streets  lead- 
ing to  the  square  were  choked  with  cabs  and  hurrying  pedes- 
trians. The  square  is  an  enormous  cobbled  space,  with  the 
gigantic  Alexander  column  rising  in  the  middle  of  it.  On  the 
southern  side,  between  the  square  and  the  Neva  River,  is  the 

18 


248  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

long  building  of  the  Winter  Palace,  blood-red.  Far  away  on 
the  other  side,  also  red,  are  the  buildings  of  the  general  staff 
and  a  great  archway,  with  a  bronze  group  above  it.  Beside  the 
column  in  the  middle  were  a  crowd  of  cabs,  with  men  and 
women  standing  on  the  seats.  The  whole  square  was  a  sea  of 
hatless  people.  There  were  twenty  or  thirty  policemen,  no 
more.  On  our  left,  within  sight,  was  the  place  where,  only  a 
few  years  before,  a  vastly  smaller  crowd  had  been  shot  down  on 
Bloody  Sunday  by  soldiery  standing  where  we  were  standing. 
Nothing  could  have  better  illustrated  the  new  unity  between 
Government  and  people  than  this  unmarshaled  meeting  on  this 
historic  place. 

The  Russian  hostility  to  Germany  is  partly  founded  on  fear, 
but  has  deeper  roots  in  a  psychological  antipathy.  The  Russian 
has  never  been  able  to  sink  his  personality  in  that  of  the  busi- 
ness man.  He  brings  to  the  towns  the  comfortable,  slow 
method  of  the  country.  He  dislikes  nothing  more  than  hurry. 
For  him  business  is  like  corn  that,  once  sown,  grows  by  itself. 
He  is  consequently  hopelessly  outdone  by  the  town-bred  Ger- 
man, with  his  attention  to  detail,  his  attention  to  copecks,  his 
ceaseless  efforts  to  cheapen  this  or  to  improve  the  efficiency  of 
that.  In  St.  Petersburg  alone  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
trade  is  in  German  hands.  The  Russian  sees  the  wealth  of  his 
country  slipping  visibly  into  German  pockets.  Thus  it  is  in  the 
towns. 

German  Tactlessness  in  Russia 

These  considerations  do  not  count  for  the  peasants.  For 
them  the  Germans  are  atheists,  and  for  that  reason  alone  the 
natural  enemies  of  the  most  religious  people  in  the  world.  The 
English  church  is  said  to  be  very  like  the  Greek  orthodox.  It  is 
not  so,  in  fact,  but  in  Russia  it  is  believed  to  be  so  by  all  classes 
of  the  population.  That  is,  indeed,  the  one  thing  about  England 
which  they  all  know.  I  have  known  more  than  one  peasant  ask 
me,  "Is  England  far  beyond  Germany?  Or  beyond  Siberia?" 
and  then  add,  "But  your  religion  is  like  ours."  The  origin  of 
this  belief  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  we  are  not  Lutherans, 
and  we  do  not  acknowledge  the  pope. 

Very  well,  then.  We  have  the  greedy  German  for  the  rich, 
the  atheist  German  for  the  poor,  the  successful  German  every- 
where tactlessly,  in  the  German  way,  accentuating  his  success 


RUSSIA  249 

and  allowing  himself  an  amount  of  self-assertion  which,  bad 
taste  at  home,  is  incredibly  exasperating  when  exhibited  in  a 
foreign  and  hospitable  country.  An  illustration  of  the  German 
spirit  in  Russia  is  provided  by  the  German  embassy  itself. 

This  is  a  huge  granite  building  in  the  great  square  behind  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  Isaac's.  It  spoils  that  square  artistically,  being 
even  larger  than  the  Russian  state  offices.  An  enormous  build- 
ing, in  itself  sufficiently  pretentious,  a  strange  contrast  to  the 
old-fashioned  house  that  holds  the  English  embassy,  it  had  on 
the  top  of  it  a  monstrous  group  in  bronze,  two  gigantic  horses, 
led  up  from  the  west  by  two  naked  giants.  It  was  a  threat, 
taken  as  such  by  the  people  of  St.  Petersburg,  a  clear  allegory 
of  Germany  proudly  advancing,  and  here  in  the  capital  of  Rus- 
sia had  an  air  of  really  astonishing  insolence.  I  had  often  won- 
dered that  the  Germans  could  have  been  so  blunt  in  flaunting 
their  ambition  on  their  embassy,  and  that  the  Russians  had  al- 
lowed such  a  symbol  of  all-conquering  foreign  progress.  Much 
though  the  educated  classes  deplored  the  sacking  of  the  place 
and  its  probable  effect  on  public  opinion  abroad,  they  understood 
the  motives  of  the  government  in  permitting  it.  This  event  has 
not  yet  been  accurately  described.  A  band  of  hooligans  (one  of 
the  organized  demonstrations  I  have  already  described)  was  al- 
lowed, or  ordered  to  march  down  the  Nevski  Prospekt,  to  tear 
down  the  sign-boards  of  a  German  newspaper,  to  break  the 
windows  of  one  or  two  big  German  shops,  and  to  proceed  to  the 
embassy.  The  police,  despite  warnings,  did  not  make  any  at- 
tempt to  interfere,  and  the  hooligans  broke  into  the  building  and 
completely  sacked  it,  throwing  papers  and  furniture  into  the 
street.  They  got  on  the  roof,  and  with  hammers  and  chisels  cut 
down  the  two  giants,  who  fell  into  the  square,  and  were  dragged 
to  the  Moika  Canal.  An  unexpected  and  unfortunate  incident 
was  the  murder  of  a  German,  called  Kettner,  whom  the  hooli- 
gans found  in  the  building.  The  newspapers  covered  this  by  talk- 
ing of  the  supposed  finding  of  the  body  of  a  Russian  youth  in 
a  garret  of  the  embassy,  with  three  bullet-wounds  and  a  knife  in 
his  neck.  These  excesses  were  regretted,  but  next  day  the 
square  was  crowded  with  people  who  came  to  see  the  huge 
building,  with  all  its  windows  broken,  and  those  two  great 
horses  on  the  roof,  now  leaderless  and  ridiculous.  During  the 
next  night  the  police  boarded  up  the  windows  and  removed  the 
horses,  lest  unauthorized  persons  should  be  tempted  to  emulate 


250  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

the  hooligans.  As  the  insolence  of  that  building  typified  to  the 
inhabitants  of  St.  Petersburg  the  German  insolence,  so  perhaps 
the  government  intended  its  ruin  to  be  a  promise  to  them  of 
the  German  fall.  One  of  the  characteristics  of  the  Russian 
government  is  that  it  treats  the  people  like  children. 

The  Russian  Fear  of  Germany 

An  important  source  of  the  Russian  fear  of  Germany  has 
been  the  Baltic  provinces.  These  provinces,  taken  by  Peter  the 
Great  from  Sweden,  are  only  sparsely  populated  by  Russians. 
The  bulk  of  the  population  is  neither  Russian  nor  German.  In 
Livland,  for  example,  the  language  of  the  country  is  Esthonian, 
and  a  Russian  may  find  himself  quite  unable  to  talk  even  to  an 
innkeeper.  Many  of  the  landowners  are  Germans,  whose  fam- 
ilies were  settled  in  the  country  long  ago.  Many  of  the  land- 
owners are  extremely  loyal  and  more  Russian  than  the  Russians. 
A  large  proportion  of  the  officers  in  the  Russian  army  bear  Ger- 
man names  and  come  from  these  provinces.  There  is,  however, 
another  side  to  it.  German  pupils  at  the  University  of  Dorpat 
in  Livland  have  amused  themselves  by  forgetting  the  Russian 
language  as  soon  as  they  were  outside  the  doors.  And  year  by 
year  there  has  been  a  steady  influx  of  German  middlemen, 
neither  landowners  nor  peasants,  so  that  in  the  towns  of 
these  provinces  German  has  been  in  a  fair  way  of  becoming  the 
official  language  of  the  shops.  Russians  have  been  made  to 
feel  that  Germany  was  not  only  knocking  at  the  door,  but  had 
already  placed  a  foot  across  the  threshold. 

An  Explanation  of  the  Speedy  Mobilization  by  Russia 

The  Russians,  however,  had  not  contemplated  an  immediate 
German  attack,  though  she  dreaded  German  proximity  and  the 
too  clearly  manifested  desires  of  Germany's  rulers.  Nor  did 
she  in  any  way  provoke  the  war.  She  has  no  need  of  further 
provinces  on  the  German  frontiers  and  no  ambitions.  Her 
statesmen  already  saw  that  territorial  expansion  would  make  her 
topheavy  and  involve  some  kind  of  dismemberment.  I  have 
heard  it  said  that  Russia  wished  for  war,  and  made  it  inevitable, 
and  that  a  proof  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  surprising  speed 
with  which  she  was  able  to  mobilize.  She  did,  indeed,  mobilize 
with  surprising  speed,  but  that  is,  as  it  happens,  a  proof  that  her 
intentions  had  not  been  warlike.     No  one  was  more  surprised 


RUSSIA  251 

at  this  speed  than  the  officials  whose  business  it  was  to  manage 
the  mobilizations.  The  plans  for  mobilizing  on  the  German  and 
Austrian  frontiers  were  so  old  that  the  officials  found  that 
things  were  being  done  twice  as  quickly  as  they  had  expected, 
because,  forsooth,  they  had  omitted  to  consider  the  fact  that  the 
speed  of  trains  had  been  nearly  doubled  since  the  plans  were 
made,  and  that  there  were  now  double  lines  where  before  there 
had  been  only  a  single  track. 

Such  miscalculations  as  these,  and  others  not  so  fortunate, 
have  had  a  most  astonishing  effect  in  St.  Petersburg,  and  prob- 
ably on  the  whole  future  of  Russian  history.  I  have  not  men- 
tioned the  sudden  unity  of  opposing  parties  in  the  Duma.  That 
has  been  sufficiently  chronicled  in  the  newspapers.  But  this 
unity  is  now  much  more  thorough  than  mere  speech-making  in 
harmony.  Various  accidents  have  brought  into  official  and  semi- 
official positions  many  of  the  old-time  bitterest  enemies  of  the 
Russian  government.  For  example,  the  officials  superintend- 
ing the  commissariat  department  found  their  arrangements  dis- 
astrously inadequate,  and  were  pulled  out  of  their  difficulty  by  a 
very  able  revolutionary  who  is  now  one  of  the  government's 
most  valued  advisers.  Much  of  the  Red  Cross  organization  is 
in  the  hands  of  revolutionaries,  and  revolutionaries  (only  lately 
under  the  supervision  of  the  police,  who  made  a  habit  of  search- 
ing their  houses)  now  sit  on  the  committees,  in  some  cases  con- 
trolling them,  which  deal  with  the  housing  and  feeding  of  the 
women  and  children  whose  husbands  and  fathers  have  gone  to 
the  war.  It  is  so  throughout.  It  is  impossible  for  those  who  do 
not  know  the  conditions  to  realize  the  extraordinary  nature  of 
these  events. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1917 


THE  RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION^ 

Nothing  that  has  happened  in  the  past  two  and  a  half  years 
has  been  more  charged  with  promise  for  the  future  of  civilized 
men  than  the  Russian  revolution.    We  believe  that  we  see  be- 
fore us,  not  one  of  those  frothy  movements  which  are  an  easy 
prey  to  reaction,  but  the  beginnings  of  a  steady  and  wise  ameli- 
oration of  political  and  social  conditions  in  Russia  that  will  cast 
its  influences  into  every  quarter  of   organized  human   society. 
The  revolution  began  on  Saturday,  March  loth,  when  the  late 
government  unjustifiably  resorted  to  the  argument  of  the  rifle  in 
trying  to  disperse  the  unarmed  crowds  in  the  streets.     These 
crowds  were  composed  partly  of  strikers  who  had  stopped  work 
as  a  protest  against  the  bungled  distribution  of  bread,  and  partly 
of  men,  women,  and  children  who  were  looking  on  at  the  demon- 
strations and  processions.     A  great  many  persons  were  killed 
and  wounded  on  the    Saturday    and  Sunday.     This  was  more 
than  the  soldiers  could  stand.     They  knew  that  the  misery  of 
the  people  who  were  without  bread  was  real;  they  knew  that 
there  was  enough  food  if  only  it  were  brought  into  the  city; 
and  probably  they  also  knew  that  food  was  being  deliberately 
withheld  from  the  people  in  order  that  the  dark  political  pur- 
poses of  some  of  the  late  Ministers  of  the  Tsar  might  be  helped 
by  means  of  an   artificially  procured  discontent.     On    Monday, 
March    12th,    the    famous    Preobrazhensky    Regiment   mutinied. 
They  refused  to  fire  on  the  crowds  when  ordered  to  do  so.  Other 
soldiers  on  being  brought  to  suppress  the  mutiny  joined  it.    The 
example  spread  like  wildfire.   Within  a  dozen  hours  nearly  every 
regiment  in  Petrograd  was   ranged  on  the  popular  side.    We 
do  not  know  who  was  the  Hampden  who  stood  forth  and  said 
the  first  word  that  shook  the  foundations  of  the  ancient  regime. 
All  we  know  for  certain  is  that  the  Army  made  the  revolution. 

*  Spectator.  118:357-8.  March  24,  1917. 


254  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  Petrograd  garrison  quickly  made  common  cause  with 
the  Duma.  M.  Rodzianko,  the  President  of  the  Duma,  gathered 
together  a  governing  body  of  twelve  styled  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Imperial  Duma,  and  soon  this  provisional  body 
took  a  further  shape,  though  still  provisional,  under  the  Premier- 
ship of  Prince  Lvoff.  The  government  have  announced  that 
they  will  summon  a  Constituent  Assembly  as  soon  as  possible 
to  decide  upon  the  future  methods  of  administration. 

The  policy  of  the  national  government  under  Prince  Lvoff 
is  so  important  that  we  must  quote  in  full  the  reforms  promised 
to  the  Russian  people  : — 

(i)  An  immediate  general  amnesty  for  all  political  and  religious 
offences,  including  terrorist  acts,  military  revolts,  and  agrarian  crimes. 

(2)  Freedom  of  speech,  of  the  press,  of  association  and  labour  organiza- 
tion, and  the  freedom  to  strike,  with  an  extension  of  these  liberties  to  offi- 
cials   and    troops    in    so    far    as    military  and  technical  conditions  permit. 

(3)  The  abolition  of  all  social,  religious,  and  national  restrictions. 

(4)  Immediate  preparations  for  the  summoning  of  a  Constituent  As- 
sembly, which,  with  universal  suffrage  as  a  basis,  shall  establish  the  Gov- 
ernmental regime  and  the  Constitution  of  the  country. 

(5)  The  substitution  for  the  police  of  a  national  militia,  with  elective 
heads  and  subject  to  the  self-government  bodies. 

(6)  Communal  elections  to  be  carried  out  on  the  basis  of  universal 
suffrage. 

(7)  The  troops  that  have  taken  part  in  the  revolutionary  movement 
shall  not  be  disarmed,  but  they  are  not  to  leave  Petrograd. 

(8)  While  severe  military  discipline  must  be  maintained  on  active 
service,  all  restrictions  upon  soldiers  in  the  enjoyment  of  social  rights 
granted  to  other  citizens  are  to  be  abolished. 


THE  RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION:   THE   HISTORY 
OF  FOUR  DAYS^ 

When  river  ice  breaks  up  in  the  spring,  it  breaks  suddenly. 
But  the  break  comes  only  after  a  process  of  thawing,  which  may 
have  been  unnoticed  by  the  casual  observer  of  the  flat  upper  sur- 
face. When  people  say  that  the  Russian  revolution  came  unex- 
pectedly, they  indicate  that  they  have  ignored  the  long  undermin- 
ing which  gradually  melted  away  the  supports  of  the  autocracy, 
so  that  when  the  Russian  people  struck  they  struck  an  empty 
shell. 

1  Outlook.     115:544-5.  March  28,   1917. 


RUSSIA  255 

Persons  who  are  familiar  with  Russia  have  known  since  the 
beginning  of  this  war  that  a  revolution  might  come  any  day,  and 
come  with  a  suddenness  characteristic  of  many  movements  in 
Russia.  A  comparison  of  the  most  stupendous  event  since  the 
French  revolution  with  that  revolution  is  interesting.  There  was 
much  similarity  in  the  superficial  causes  of  the  great  French  up- 
heaval of  1789  and  the  revolt  of  the  Russian  people.  The  fail- 
ure of  the  harvest  of  1788  in  France  and  the  severe  winter  that 
followed  caused  poignant  suffering  and  much  smoldering  antag- 
onism for  the  existing  political  order.  In  Russia  the  scarcity  of 
food  brought  about  the  great  popular  demonstrations  which  were 
the  premonitory  signs  of  the  revolt.  But  in  France  just  before 
the  revolution  the  government  was  openly  despised,  its  power 
flouted.  In  Russia,  however,  so  far  as  surface  indications  to  the* 
outside  world  went,  up  to  the  time  that  men  of  the  first  Cossack 
regiment  joined  with  the  people  they  had  been  ordered  to  shoot 
on  the  Nevsky  Prospect  the  Russian  autocracy  seemed  almost 
as  formidable  as  ever. 

There  were,  to  repeat,  few  indications  of  impending  revolt 
in  Russia  to  any  but  the  most  acute  observers  on  the  outside. 
Some  suspicion  might  have  been  aroused  by  the  bread  riots  in 
Petrograd  the  week  before  the  revolution,  but  such  occurrences 
are  nothing  new  in  Russia,  and  even  in  Petrograd  on  the  morn- 
ing of  a  day  now  never  to  be  forgotten,  Sunday,  March  11,  very 
few  persons  noticed  any  real  revolutionary  spirit  in  people  who 
taunted  the  police  in  the  streets  and  good-naturedly  cheered  the 
Cossacks  who  had  been  ordered  to   disperse  the  crowds. 

General  Khabaloff's  order  to  the  police  and  soldiers  to  shoot 
in  order  to  disperse  crowds,  which  was  posted  on  Saturday, 
March  10,  smacked  strongly  of  provocation,  yet  when  the  Cos- 
sacks refused  to  use  their  rifles  and  later  when  they  fired  noth- 
ing more  deadly  than  blank  cartridges  from  their  machine  guns 
the  revolution  still  seemed  a  make-believe  revolution.  Not  until' 
the  regiment  of  soldiers,  ordered  to  shoot  into  a  crowd  of 
hungry  civilians,  mutinied  and  after  shooting  their  own  officers 
made  common  cause  with  the  people  did  it  seem  probable  that 
Russia's  new  birth  was  imminent. 

In  short,  the  world  had  little  advance  notice  that  a  revolution 
was  to  come  at  this  time,  but  had  every  reason  to  be  sure  that 
a  revolution  would  come  sooner  or  later  unless  the  unexpected 
should   happen    and    the    government    should   yield    voluntarily. 


256  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  anger  of  the  people  at  the  shortage  of  ammunition,  which 
was  caused  by  inefficiency  and  corruption  in  the  government, 
gradually  grew  when  Russia  was  hampered  again  and  again  by 
this  deficiency.  The  removal  of  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  as  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  Russian  armies,  the  arrogant  treatment 
of  the  Duma  by  the  Czar  and  his  reactionary  Ministers,  and  the 
appointment  of  such  pro-Germans  as  Stiirmer  and  Galitzin  to 
the  position  of  Premier,  all  goaded  the  people  into  a  state  of 
frenzy  from  which  there  could  be  only  one  outlet.  Most  of  all 
were  they  aroused  by  the  dawning  belief  that  the  lack  of  mu- 
nitions, the  removal  of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  the  appoint- 
ment of  incapable  and  treacherous  officials,  were  all  parts  of  a 
pro-German  propaganda  headed,  it  seemed  to  many,  by  their 
Empress,  and  certainly  by  the  notorious  degenerate  Rasputin, 
whose  assassination  recently  should  have  warned  the  government, 
if  anything  could  have  warned  it. 

Never  did  so  great  a  revolution  gain  headway  so  rapidly. 
Regiment  after  regiment  joined  the  people  and  fought  with 
them  against  the  few  regiments  which  remained  loyal  and  against 
the  hated  Petrograd  police.  By  Monday  morning,  March  12,  the 
situation  in  Petrograd  was  far  beyond  the  control  of  the  govern- 
ment. A  few  hours  later  the  revolution  was  virtually  won  and 
the  Duma,  in  defiance  of  the  Czar's  ukase  proroguing  it,  con- 
tinued in  session  and  telegraphed  the  Czar:  "The  hour  has 
struck.     The  will  of  the  people  must  prevail." 

Michael  Rodzianko,  the  President  of  the  Duma,  had  previously 
twice  telegraphed  the  Czar  urging  him  to  avert  disaster  by  giv- 
ing the  people  a  Ministry  which  they  could  trust.  General  Alexis 
Brusiloff,  Commander-in-Chief  on  the  southwestern  front,  and 
General  Nicholas  Ruzsky,  Commander  of  the  northern  armies, 
had  both  sent  similar  messages  to  the  Czar  at  the  request  of  the 
Duma.  Perhaps  but  for  his  fatal  characteristic  of  never  yielding 
anything  until  too  late,  the  Czar  might  have  saved  his  crown  by 
eleventh-hour  concessions.  Instead,  by  the  time  he  reached 
Petrograd  or  its  environs  abdication  was  the  only  course  that 
remained  open.  In  his  foolish  stubbornness  Nicholas  II  was  like 
Louis  XVI  in  1789  and  George  III  in  1776.  Though  the  Czar 
abdicated  in  favor  of  his  brother  the  Grand  Duke  Michael  as 
Regent,  the  Grand  Duke  had  no  illusions  as  to  his  own  position 
and  hastened  to  announce  that  he  would  rule  only  if  his  selection 
as  monarch  were  to  be  confirmed  by  a  vote  of  the  people. 


RUSSIA  257 

The  spark  that  was  ignited  in  Petrograd  carried  a  flaming 
enthusiasm  for  liberty  and  a  new  government  over  all  Russia. 
In  Moscow  Cossacks  who  attempted  to  ride  down  the  people  in 
the  celebrated  Red  Square  beneath  the  gray  old  walls  of  the 
Kremlin  leaped  off  their  horses  and  joined  in  the  huzzahs  for 
the  new  government  when  their  intended  victims  shouted  the 
news  of  the  coup  d'etat  in  Petrograd. 

In  Moscow,  it  is  said,  the  revolution  cost  only  four  lives ;  and 
even  in  Petrograd,  where  the  bloodshed  was  greatest,  the  cas- 
ualties were  evidently  surprisingly  few.  By  the  evening  of  March 
12  the  last  supporters  of  the  Czar  in  the  capital  were  holding 
out  in  two  small  groups,  one  firing  from  behind  barricades  around 
the  yellow  Admiralty  buildings  overlooking  the  Neva,  the  other 
sniping  stubbornly  from  the  windows  and  roof  of  the  Astoria 
Hotel  at  the  revolutionaries,  who  sent  back  a  hotter  fire  from 
such  scant  cover  as  could  be  found  in  the  square  south  of 
St.  Isaac's  Cathedral.  Later  that  evening,  when  the  revolution- 
aries broke  into  the  Astoria  Hotel,  which  had  been  considered  a 
hotbed  of  pro-German  intrigue  since  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
the  last  organized  resistance  of  the  loyalists  was  broken.  For 
two  days  more  there  was  sniping.  But  at  the  outside  the  re- 
sistance to  the  revolution  in  Petrograd  lasted  not  more  than  four 
days.  Long  before  that  time  had  expired  the  streets  were  filled 
with  civilians  and  soldiers  flaunting  the  red  flags  of  the  French 
revolution  and  singing  the  "Marseillaise." 

With  a  few  exceptions,  the  army  and  navy  of  Russia  stood 
loyal  to  the  revolution  from  the  first  outbreak.  The  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Duma,  which  practically  became  the  provisional 
government  of  Russia  when  the  Czar  abdicated,  restored  order 
and  began  at  once  the  work  of  adjustment  with  a  force  and  com- 
prehension that  would  have  done  credit  to  any  government. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  provisional  government  was  to 
pledge  Russia's  allegiance  to  the  cause  of  the  Allies  and  her 
unswerving  determination  to  prosecute  the  war  against  Germany 
to  a  finish.  In  the  meanwhile  the  late  Czar,  whom  some 
despatches  facetiously  refer  to  as  Mr.  Nicholas  Romanoff,  has 
gone  to  his  personal  estates  at  Livadia,  in  the  Crimea.  The  Em- 
press apparently  is  still  in  or  near  Petrograd  with  her  children, 
two  of  whom  were  ill  when  the  outbreak  came.  It  is  significant 
that  the  Russian  people  seem  to  hold  no  personal  grievance 
against  their  late  autocrat,  whereas  enmity  toward  the  Empress  is 


258  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

common.  But  this  is  only  a  continuation  of  the  situation  which 
has  existed  since  the  beginning  of  the  war,  the  Empress,  who  was 
a  Princess  of  Hesse,  being  disliked  as  the  supposed  head  of  the 
ring  which  included  Rasputin,  ex-Premier  Stiirmer,  and  Protopo- 
poff,  who  have  been  trying  to  betray  Russia  into  a  separate  peace 
with  Germany.  The  people  seem  to  believe  that  the  Czar, 
although  both  a  weakling  and  a  tyrant,  is,  after  all,  a  Russian. 

In  conclusion,  it  remains  to  sum  up  the  three  outstanding 
characteristics  of  the  Russian  revolution  as  they  appear  to  us: 

First,  its  apparent  suddenness  and  its  comparative  peaceful- 
ness.  The  world  may  never  know,  certainly  does  not  yet  know, 
the  whole  inside  story  of  the  Russian  revolution.  There  seems 
good  evidence,  however,  to  support  the  theory  that  there  was  not 
a  widespread  plan  for  the  Russians  to  revolt  when  they  did. 
There  is  a  good  deal  of  evidence  indicating  that  even  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Duma  and  the  three  great  popular  leaders  of  the 
revolution,  Rodzianko,  Milyukov,  and  Lvoff,  were  surprised  by 
the  tremendous  support  which  they  found  in  the  army.  But  the 
tighter  the  dam,  the  more  complete  its  restraint  of  the  waters 
within,  the  more  abrupt  and  explosive  is  its  bursting. 

The  second  great  feature  of  the  revolution  is  that  it  was  won 
wholly  and  solely  by  the  Russian  people.  It  could  not  have  suc- 
ceeded without  the  help  of  the  army,  but  the  army  of  Russia 
to-day  is  an  army  of  the  people.  The  autocracy  was  destroyed 
by  the  very  weapon  which  it  built  to  keep  the  people  in  restraint. 
Not  only  was  this  a  revolution  of  the  people,  however,  but  it 
seems  to  have  been  peculiarly  a  revolution  of  the  Russian  people 
in  the  narrow  sense  of  the  word.  In  America  we  have  often  heard 
of  the  grievances  of  the  Poles,  Jews,  Armenians,  Finns,  and  other 
racial  groups  within  the  Russian  empire.  Espousers  of  the  cause 
of  these  submerged  nationalities  have  often  said  in  America  that 
the  people  that  they  represented  had  no  hope  of  aid  from  the 
real  Russian  masses.  But  it  is  the  millions  of  true  Muscovites 
who  have  thrown  off  the  oppressive  yoke,  and  it  is  for  the  Poles, 
Finns,  Jews,  and  Armenians  now  to  admit  that  they  have  under- 
estimated the  power  of  the  Russian  masses. 

Finally,  as  to  the  third  predominant  feature  of  Russia's  new 
birth,  a  feature  in  which  the  outside  world  is  especially  interested, 
that  is  this : 

The  war  made  this  revolution  possible. 


RUSSIA  259 

The  war  taught  the  Russian  people  their  own  strength. 
United  from  the  outset  in  the  determination  to  beat  Germany, 
because  they  realized  that  a  war  against  Germany  was  a  war 
against  their  own  oppressive  government,  the  Russian  people 
have  gradually  come  to  know  one  after  another  of  their  own 
powers  as  they  have  been  forced  to  take  over  the  management 
of  the  war  through  their  provincial  assemblies  and  co-operative 
societies  as  the  inefficient  and  corrupt  government  has  dropped 
the  burden.  Without  a  long  war  like  this,  which  has  killed  off 
the  old  professional  army  that  was  loyal  to  the  bureaucracy, 
Russia  never  would  have  had  an  army  of  the  people  to  side  with 
the  people  in  a  national  crisis. 

We  may  be  sure  that  the  Russian  people  know  what  this  war 
has  done  for  them,  and  that  they  know  what  they  must  yet  do  in 
this  war.  A  year  ago — in  fact,  only  recently — the  Russian  people 
were  saying,  "We  have  two  wars  on  our  hands,  an  outside  war 
and  an  inside  war.  But  we  must  vanquish  the  external  enemy 
before  we  turn  on  the  foe  within.  Beat  Germany  first."  Only 
the  stupid  arrogance  of  the  Russian  Government  brought  it  to 
pass  that  the  Russian  people  did  not  "beat  Germany  first;"  but 
now  that  they  have  reversed  their  task  and  conquered  the  in- 
ternal foe,  we  may  be  sure  that  they  will  return  to  the  other 
half  of  their  labors  with  renewed  confidence  and  vigor. 

The  preparations  which  the  Russian  people  made  toward  the 
end  of  victory  over  Germany  taught  them  their  own  strength,  and 
were,  in  fact,  measures  which  made  the  success  of  the  revolution 
possible.  There  may  not  have  been  much  plot  behind  this  revo- 
lution, but  certainly  there  was  much  preparation. 


THE  VICTORY  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  PEOPLE* 

The  struggle  for  freedom  in  Russia,  which  began  with  the 
revolutionary  conspiracy  of  the  Decembrists  almost  a  century 
ago,  and  which  was  renewed  again  and  again,  with  constantly 
increasing  violence  in  later  years,  has  ended  at  last  in  the  com- 
plete triumph  of  democracy.  For  the  first  time  in  more  than 
a  millennium  the  Russian  people  are  free  from  despotic  control, 
and  are  at  liberty  to  shape  their  future  destiny  with  their  own 

*  By  George  Kennan.    Outlook.   115:546-7.  March  28,  1917- 


26o  Selected  articles 

hands  and  in  their  own  way.  The  monarch  has  been  deposed, 
the  bureaucracy  has  been  overthrown,  and  the  new  rulers  of  the 
country  are  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Duma  and  the 
Ministry  that  it  has  chosen.  The  provisional  government  cannot 
yet  be  regarded  as  securely  established,  but  the  abdication  of  the 
Czar,  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  the  bureaucratic  leaders, 
and  the  frank  recognition  of  the  "plenary  power"  of  the  Duma 
by  the  Grand  Duke  Michael  would  seem  to  exclude  the  possi- 
bility, or  at  least  the  probability,  of  any  serious  internal  dis- 
sension. There  may  be  some  friction  or  disagreement  between 
the  provisional  government  and  the  fraction  of  extreme  radicals 
who  favor  the  immediate  establishment  of  a  Socialistic  republic; 
but  the  struggle  over  this  question  will  probably  be  postponed 
until  the  National  Assembly  meets  to  decide  what  the  permanent 
institutions  of  Russia  shall  be. 

The  most  noteworthy  feature  of  the  recent  revolution  was  its 
comparatively  peaceful  character.  Seldom  if  ever  before  in  the 
world's  history  has  so  sweeping  and  momentous  a  change  been 
brought  about  with  so  little  conflict,  turbulence,  and  bloodshed. 
Revolutions  in  the  past  have  generally  lasted  months  if  not  years, 
have  been  attended  with  widespread  rioting  and  disorder,  and 
have  cost  thousands  if  not  tens  of  thousands  of  lives;  but  the 
struggle  that  ended  in  Russia  on  the  17th  of  March  occupied 
less  than  a  week,  there  were  no  popular  excesses,  and  the  victory 
was  won  with  a  sacrifice  of  life  that  seems  relatively  insignificant. 

What  made  the  difference  between  this  and  previous  revolu- 
tions? How  was  it  possible  to  overthrow  in  four  or  five  days  and 
in  such  an  orderly  way  a  government  that  was  thought  to  be 
one  of  the  strongest  in  Europe?  In  an  article  on  "The  Chances 
of  Revolution"  which  I  wrote  for  The  Outlook  about  a  year  ago 
I  ventured  to  say :  "No  revolutionary  movement  can  possibly 
succeed  in  Russia  without  the  co-operation  of  the  army.  It  may 
have  in  its  ranks  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  whole  civilian  popu- 
lation; but  without  military  support  it  can  accomplish  nothing. 
Success  will  depend  upon  concentration  of  purpose,  competent 
leadership,  and  the  support  of  the  army."  In  the  revolutionary 
movement  that  has  just  swept  the  Czar  from  his  throne  all  of 
these  conditions  were  fulfilled.  The  Duma  had  for  its  sole 
purpose  seizure  of  the  reins  of  governmental  power;  it  acted 
under  direction  of  the  best  brains  that  the  Empire  could  furnish ; 
and  it  was  supported  by  all  the  troops  in  the  national  capital,  in- 


RUSSIA  261 

eluding  even  the  Cossacks  and  the  Imperial  Guard.  Success, 
under  such  favoring  conditions,  was  almost  certain. 

The  decisive  factor  in  the  struggle  was  unquestionably  the 
army.  The  troops  in  Petrograd,  recently  recruited  from  the 
people,  were  in  full  sympathy  with  the  latter's  representatives  in 
the  Duma,  and  when  the  first  clash  came  in  the  streets  they 
threw  off  their  allegiance  to  the  crown,  joined  in  the  revolu- 
tionary movement,  and  chased  the  Czar's  police  and  gendarmes 
to  the  housetops.  Even  the  Cossacks,  who  had  been  employed 
so  many  times  in  previous  years  to  crush  the  first  manifesta- 
tions of  incipient  revolt,  fraternized  with  the  insurgents  and 
defended  them  from  the  attacks  of  the  police.  The  Duma,  with 
such  support,  became  not  only  formidable  but  irresistible.  It 
immediately  ordered  the  arrest  and  imprisonment  of  the  reac- 
tionary leaders,  as  a  means  of  preventing  such  a  counter-revo- 
lution as  that  which  defeated  the  people  in  1905;  took  into 
custody  all  the  higher  officials  of  the  government,  including  the 
Ministers,  and  completely  paralyzed  in  less  than  three  days  all 
the  energies  and  activities  of  the  bureaucratic  administration. 
The  progress  of  the  revolutionary  movement  in  the  provinces 
was  equally  rapid  and  successful.  In  Moscow,  Tver,  Nizhni- 
Novgorod,  Kazan,  Kharkof,  Saratof,  and  Odessa  the  local  rep- 
resentatives of  autocracy  submitted,  almost  without  resistance, 
to  the  will  of  the  people,  and  on  Saturday,  March  17,  when  the 
Czar  abdicated,  the  Duma  was  left  in  full  control  of  the  situa- 
tion. 

During  the  brief  interregnum  there  was  comparatively  little 
disorder  and  still  less  bloodshed,  the  people  displaying  through- 
out the  trying  week  "amazing  courage,  patience,  and  sound 
sense."  The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Duma,  too,  acted  with 
praiseworthy  moderation  and  self-restraint.  When  the  bureau- 
cracy, under  the  direction  of  Prime  Minister  Stolypin,  put 
down  the  insurrection  of  1905-6,  it  immediately  shot  scores  of 
revolutionary  leaders  without  even  the  form  of  trial,  and  hanged 
more  than  two  thousand  by  order  of  military  courts.  The  pro- 
visional government  of  the  Duma  showed  a  more  chivalrous 
and  magnanimous  spirit.  It  did  not  order  the  execution  of  a 
single  one  of  its  vanquished  opponents,  and  gave  pubHc  notice 
that  no  official  of  the  old  regime  should  be  punished,  much  less 
put  to  death,  until  he  had  had  a  fair  trial  before  a  legally  con- 
stituted tribunal. 


262  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  provisional  government  which  now  rules  Russia,  and 
which  will  continue  to  rule  until  a  constitutional  assembly  shall 
have  decided  upon  permanent  institutions,  is  composed  of  very 
strong  and  able  men. 

The  Ministry,  as  a  whole,  is  moderate  rather  than  extreme 
in  its  political  views,  and  may  be  said  fairly  to  represent  the 
flower  of  Russian  knowledge,  experience,  and  culture.  Most  of 
its  members  have,  in  the  Duma  debates  on  the  annual  budgets, 
shown  expert  knowledge  of  governmental  problems,  and  it  may 
well  be  doubted  whether  Russia  has  ever  had  in  the  Council  of 
Ministers  so  able  and  experienced  a  group  of  men.  The  task 
set  before  them  is  one  of  extraordinary  difficulty  and  complex- 
ity, but  if  they  are  not  confronted  by  some  sudden  and  threat- 
ening emergency  before  they  have  had  time  to  consolidate  their 
power  they  will  give  the  country  a  brilliant  and  successful  ad- 
ministration of  public  affairs. 

The  most  important  question  raised  by  this  change  of  gov- 
ernment, so  far  as  the  outside  world  is  concerned,  is  the  effect 
that  it  will  have  on  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  The  fear  has 
been  expressed  that  it  may  weaken,  temporarily  at  least,  Rus- 
sia's offensive  and  defensive  power.  That  there  will  be  some 
friction  and  lack  of  co-ordination  at  first  is  more  than  probable ; 
but  ultimately  the  war  will  be  carried  on  with  greatly  increased 
vigor  and  effectiveness.  The  hopeless  incapacity  of  the  old  gov- 
ernment disheartened  the  people  and  half  paralyzed  their  ener- 
gies;  but  with  the  Duma  and  the  new  Ministry  in  full  control 
of  national  affairs,  public  confidence  will  revive  and  enthusiasm 
will  take  the  place  of  discouragement.  The  Russia  of  the  peo- 
ple never  has  been  able  to  bring  all  its  forces  into  action,  but 
now  that  it  is  free  it  will  make  a  new  record  of  heroic  achieve- 
ment. Nobles,  peasants,  zemstvos,  boards  of  trade,  chambers  of 
commerce,  and  co-operative  societies  will  all  combine  and  co- 
ordinate their  efforts  in  support  of  the  Duma,  the  Ministry,  and 
the  armies  in  the  field.  Germany  may  gain  a  temporary  advan- 
tage if  she  strikes  quickly,  while  Russia  is  in  a  state  of  transi- 
tion from  the  old  to  the  new  but  the  rasputisa — the  breaking 
up  of  the  winter  roads — is  now  near  at  hand,  and  this  will  greatly 
embarrass  offensive  military  operations  on  all  the  fronts.  Be- 
fore the  spring  floods  pass  and  the  swamps  and  marshy^  fields 
become  dry  and  hard  the  new  government  will  have  organized 


RUSSIA  263 

and  consolidated  its  power  and  will  be  prepared  for  any  thrust 
that  Germany  may  make. 

One  of  the  most  serious  problems  with  which  the  new  gov- 
ernment will  have  to  deal  is  that  of  food  distribution.  Russia 
is  not  short  of  grain;  on  the  contrary,  she  has  an  available  sur- 
plus above  all  needs  of  at  least  four  million  tons ;  but,  on  account 
of  bad  management  and  divided  responsibility  in  the  Ministries 
of  Agriculture  and  the  Interior  and  incompetence  and  corrup- 
tion in  the  railway  administration,  there  has  been  great  difficulty 
in  moving  foodstuffs  from  places  where  they  were  abundant  to 
places  where  there  was  a  shortage.  Remembering  the  important 
part  played  by  railway  men  in  the  revolutionary  movement  of 
1905,  the  government  in  recent  years  has  adopted  the  policy 
of  discharging  experienced  but  "politically  untrustworthy"  em- 
ployees and  appointing  in  their  places,  as  far  as  possible,  petty 
bureaucrats  from  the  provinces  and  "loyal"  men  from  the  ranks 
of  the  Black  Hundreds.  This  has  resulted  in  the  partial  de- 
moralization of  the  railway  service  at  the  very  time  when  na- 
tional safety  required  the  utmost  possible  efficiency.  This  state 
of  affairs  will  soon  be  remedied  by  M.  Nekrasoff,  the  new 
Minister  of  Ways  and  Communications,  and  there  is  every  rea- 
son to  believe  that  when  the  railway  system  is  as  well  managed 
as  the  Union  of  Zemstvos  has  been,  its  carrying  capacity  will 
be  very  greatly  increased  and  possibly  doubled. 

Viewed  in  its  larger  aspects,  the  change  of  government  will 
bring  about  in  the  near  future  a  complete  regeneration  of  the 
people.  Within  the  space  limits  of  a  short  article  it  is  impos- 
sible to  do  more  than  refer  briefly  to  a  few  of  the  reforms  that 
are  likely  to  be  made  and  measures  that  will  probably  be  adopted. 
In  the  first  place,  there  will  be  a  great  and  rapid  extension  of  edu- 
cational facilities  for  the  peasant  class.  The  old  government  did 
not  provide  elementary  schools  enough  even  to  keep  up  with  the 
growth  of  the  population,  and  consequently  the  percentage  of 
illiteracy  is  almost  as  great  now  as  it  was  twenty-five  years  ago. 
The  present  Ministry  and  the  liberal  majority  in  the  Duma  are 
virtually  pledged  to  secure  "universal  education,"  and  the  new 
schools  required  will  be  opened  as  fast  as  possible. 

In  the  second  place,  an  end  will  quickly  be  put  to  anti-Jewish 
restrictions  and  limitations.  The  Pale  of  Settlement  will  be 
abolished,  and  Jews  henceforth  will  enjoy  all  the  rights  of  citi- 
zenship.   One  hundred  and  sixty  members  of  the  present  Duma 

19 


264  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

asked  the  old  government  to  abolish  the  Pale,  and  future  Dumas 
are  likely  to  be  even  more  tolerant  and  broad-minded  than  this 
one  has  recently  been.  When  the  Jews  are  fully  emancipated, 
as  they  almost  certainly  will  be,  every  field  of  Russian  life  is 
likely  to  be  enriched  by  the  efforts  and  contributions  of  this 
gifted  race. 

In  the  third  place,  Finland,  whose  ancient  liberties  were  taken 
from  her  and  whose  Diet  was  almost  deprived  of  legislative 
power  by  a  faithless  monarch,  will  again  receive  the  autonomous 
rights  granted  her  by  Alexander  I  a  century  ago. 

Finally,  the  Russian  revolution  in  its  relation  to  the  welfare 
and  progress  of  the  world  seems  likely  to  be  an  almost  unmixed 
blessing.  Not  only  will  it  sow  the  seeds  of  democracy  in  other 
despotically  governed  countries,  but  it  will  add  greatly  to  the 
world's  material  and  intellectual  resources.  Under  the  despotic 
regime  of  the  bureaucracy,  Russian  literature  has  recently  been 
almost  choked  to  death  by  the  strangling  noose  of  the  censor- 
ship; but  when  the  novelists,  essayists,  and  poets  of  the  present 
generation  shall  be  set  free  there  will  be  a  new  flowering  of 
national  culture.  The  Slavs,  moreover,  have  moral  as  well  as 
intellectual  power;  and  when  their  latent  capacities  are  fully 
developed  by  freedom  and  education  they  will  not  only  make 
great  contributions  to  science,  literature,  and  the  industrial  arts, 
but  will  exert  an  uplifting  and  ennobling  influence  in  the  realm 
that  we  call  spiritual. 

RUSSIA  IN  THE  THROES  OF  RE-BIRTH^ 

To  understand  the  seemingly  puzzling  events  in  the  new  Rus- 
sia since  the  revolution  last  March,  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in 
mind  one  cardinal  fact  which  was  disclosed  only  recently.  And 
this  is  that  the  Russian  revolution  was  not  the  work  of  the 
Duma  and  the  upper  classes,  but  wholly  of  the  labor  masses. 

This  was  not  made  clear  by  the  Petrograd  correspondents  at 
the  time  of  the  upheaval.  On  the  other  hand,  they  tried  to  con- 
vey the  idea  that  the  Duma  was  the  ring-leader  of  the  revolt. 
This  impression  became  so  deeply  rooted  that  the  minds  of  the 
world  were  utterly  confused  by  the  developments  of  April  and 
May. 

*  By  I.  D.  Levine.    Review  of  Reviews.  55:619-22.  June,   1917. 


RUSSIA  265 

Labor's  Initiative  in  the  Revolution 

Here  are  the  revised  facts  about  the  revolt:  Demonstra- 
tions occurred  in  Petrograd  the  first  week  in  March.  The  gov- 
ernment of  Protopopoff,  Minister  of  the  Interior,  provoked  the 
masses  to  further  excesses  in  order  to  spread  unrest  and  create 
a  basis  for  a  separate  peace.  When  the  demonstrations  first  oc- 
curred the  workers  said:  "This  is  not  a  Zabastovka,  but  a 
Protopovka,"  which  meant :  "This  is  not  a  strike,  but  a  trap  of 
Protopopoff."  However,  the  continued  provocations  of  the 
poHce  drove  more  and  more  workers  into  the  ranks  of  the 
strikers. 

On  March  10,  when  the  strike  assumed  the  proportions  of  a 
general  movement,  the  leaders  of  the  various  secret  Socialist 
and  revolutionary  organizations  met  in  conference  with  several 
labor  chiefs,  to  have  control  of  the  strike.  A  temporary  Coun- 
cil of  Labor  Deputies,  such  as  had  directed  the  revolution  of 
1905,  was  formed.  This  council  placed  itself  immediately  in 
charge  of  the  spreading  revolutionary  tide,  of  course,  without 
knowing  whither  this  tide  would  carry  it.  In  1905  the  Council 
had  been  swept  into  jail  and  Siberia.  The  Council  of  1917  was 
ready  for  the  same  fate. 

The  Duma's  Part 

While  this  was  going  on,  the  Duma  was  in  session.  Fiery 
speeches  were  being  made.  The  government  was  denounced 
from  every  quarter.  But  the  Duma  remained  inactive.  The 
Duma  was  rather  sure  that  any  attempt  at  revolution  would  be 
crushed  by  the  police.  As  Paul  Miliukoff  said,  when  informed  j 
of  the  first  revolutionary  outbreaks :  "The  revolution  will  be  ^ 
crushed  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour."  The  Duma  watched,  with 
fear  for  Russia  and  the  Allies  in  its  heart,  the  expanding  wave 
of  rebellion. 

The  only  revolutionary  act  of  the  Duma  was  its  refusal  to 
be  dissolved  after  the  Imperial  decree  calling  for  its  dissolution 
was  issued.  When  the  revolution  was  at  its  height — a  vast 
throng  of  rebel  soldiers  and  workers  marched  to  the  Duma  to 
find  out  where  it  stood.  After  that,  the  Duma  formed  on  its 
own  initiative  a  Committee  of  Safety.  But  all  the  time  there 
was  a  labor  council  in  charge  of  the  revolution  though  the  world 
was  informed  only  of  the  Duma's  Committee. 


266  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  Duma  and  Council  then  conferred  and  decided  upon  a 
provisional  government.  The  Council's  stand  was  not  to  par- 
ticipate in  any  government  till  the  Constituent  Assembly  met. 
Meanwhile,  the  Duma  pulled  all  the  time  to  "the  right."  The 
Council  and  the  masses  wanted  the  abolition  of  the  monarchy, 
but  the  Duma  decided  to  make  Russia  a  Constitutional  Mon- 
archy. When  Miliukoff  announced  to  the  waiting  multitudes 
that  Czar  Nicholas  would  be  deposed,  there  were  cheers;  but. 
when  he  added  that  the  Czarevitch  would  be  retained  and 
Grand  Duke  Michael  made  regent — there  were  cries:  "Again 
the  Romanoffs !     Down  with  the  Monarchy !  " 

The  masses,  therefore,  found  themselves  early  dissatisfied 
with  the  Duma.  Through  their  Council  they  urged  the  ending 
of  the  monarchy  altogether,  and  succeeded. 

Work  of  the  Council  of  Labor  Deputies 

The  labor  class  awoke  to  find  that  after  it  had  originated  and 
brought  to  a  successful  conclusion  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
revolutions  in  history,  the  power  was  really  taken  out  of  its 
hands  by  the  Duma — a  liberal  body,  but  not  radical  enough  to 
satisfy  the  revolutionists.  The  latter  grew  suspicious  of  the 
provisional  government.  The  Council  of  Labor  Deputies,  com- 
bined with  those  of  the  soldiery,  issued  appeals  to  the  masses  to 
be  on  guard  lest  "the  conquests  of  the  revolution"  be  wrested 
from  their  hands.  Intoxicated  by  the  sudden  rush  of  freedom, 
the  Socialists  composing  the  Council  imagined  that  the  millen- 
nium was  at  hand ;  that  a  revolution  in  Germany  was  imminent ; 
that  universal  peace  was,  therefore,  a  matter  of  days;  and  that 
a  new  social  order  for  humanity  was  about  to  be  inaugurated. 

The  Council's  function  was  to  preserve  the  "conquests  of  the 
revolution"  till  the  Constituent  Assembly,  elected  on  the  basis 
of  direct,  equal  and  universal  suffrage,  should  meet.  It  was  a 
laudable  function.  The  Council's  insistence  on  the  abolition  of 
the  monarchy  will  be  remembered  in  history  as  a  great  and 
glorious  achievement.  But  still  the  "conquests  of  the  revolu- 
tion" is  a  rather  uncertain  term,  which  cannot  be  defined  with 
exactitiideTj  This  resulted  in  many  complications,  mainly  spring- 
ing from  foreign  rather  than  internal  policies. 


/ 


RUSSIA  267 

Internal  Reconstruction 

The  internal  policies  certainly  presented  a  remarkable  rec- 
ord. Independently  or  under  pressure  of  the  Council,  the  pro- 
visional government  began  the  reconstruction  of  Russia  as  soon 
as  the  old  regime  fell.  A  political  amnesty  freed  more  than  a 
hundred  thousand  prisoners  and  exiles  in  Siberia.  Finland  re- 
gained her  autonomy;  the  Jews  were  fully  emancipated;  the 
Poles  were  promised  independence;  Armenia's  restoration  was 
pledged;  while  the  Lithuanians  and  Ukrainians  were  promised 
autonomy.  The  Czar's  and  Grand  Duke's  estates  were  con- 
fiscated. Many  radical  labor  laws  were  enacted,  including  an 
eight-hour  working  day.  The  police  were  superseded  by  mili- 
tia. The  peasants  were  promised  the  land.  Naturally,  all  the 
promises  relating  to  fundamental  legislation  will  be  carried  out 
only  by  the  Constituent  Assembly.  The  army  was  reorganized 
on  a  more  democratic  basis.  In  a  word — all  essential  reforms 
were  promulgated  promptly  and  through  the  proper  channels. 

Division  on  Foreign  Policy 

But  differences  soon  developed  between  the  Council  and  the 
provisional  government  on  matters  relating  to  foreign  policy. 
First,  the  Council  was  convinced  that  a  revolution  could  be  en- 
gendered in  Germany  through  the  Allies'  restatement  of  their 
war  aims  in  accordance  with  President  Wilson's  declaration  last 
January  in  his  famous  Senate  speech  that  all  peoples  should 
have  the  right  to  settle  their  own  fortunes  and  destinies.  The 
French  Socialists,  it  will  be  recalled,  made  a  similar  demand  on 
their  government  soon  after  President  Wilson's  address.  The 
Russian  Socialists  in  the  Council  believed  that  once  the  Allies  ' 
came  out  with  such  a  statement,  renouncing  annexations  and  ' 
indemnities,  that  the  German  proletariat  would  rise,  overthrow  the 
Hohenzollerns,  and  bring  about  the  end  of  the  world  slaughter. 

Certainly  there  was  nothing  dangerous  about  their  proposed 
experiment.  But  a  couple  of  episodes  occurred  which  lent  to 
their  demands  a  complexion  that  seemed  disturbing  to  the 
world.  First  there  was  the  case  of  Nikolai  Lenin,  the  noted 
Socialist  leader,  who  returned  to  Russia  from  Switzerland  via 
Germany,  and  who  is  an  extreme  radical.  Lenin's  view  is  that 
the  war  is  an  imperialistic  affair;  that  the  proletariat  of    the 


268  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

world  will  suffer  as  much  from  British  capitalism  as  from  Prus- 
sianism;  and  that  consequently  its  interests  demand  peace,  peace 
at  any  price,  so  that  it  can  devote  itself  to  a  European  social 
revolution.  Lenin's  point  of  view  was  not  understood  by  the 
Petrograd  foreign  correspondents,  and  they  proceeded  to  paint 
him  as  a  German  agent,  which  irritated  even  his  opponents. 

A  word  or  two  may  be  said  at  this  juncture  of  the  Russian 
attitude  toward  the  British  after  the  revolution.  The  British 
showed  little  rejoicing  at  the  fall  of  Czarism,  regarding  the 
revolution  only  from  the  point  of  view  of  its  effect  on  the  war. 
The  British  press  also  shed  crocodile  tears  over  the  fate  of  Czar 
Nicholas,  whom  the  Russian  democracy  considered  a  despot. 
Some  of  the  leading  London  papers  described  the  revolution- 
ists as  anarchists  and  outlaws.  This  British  stupidity  could 
have  had  but  one  effect  on  the  Russian  radical  masses.  The 
latter  felt  irritated  against  Britain  for  her  treatment  of  Ireland, 
and  for  her  former  agreement  with  Czarism  for  aggressive  pur- 
poses, as  in  the  case  of  Persia.  This  created  a  fertile  soil  for 
Lenin's  peace  propaganda. 

A  Separate  Peace  Never  in  View 

Misinformed  correspondents  and  German  agents  spread  the 
legend  that  the  new  Russia  was  ready  to  conclude  a  separate 
peace.  But  this  was  at  no  time  true.  There  never  was  any 
danger  of  such  an  occurrence.  Lenin  and  his  followers  were 
from  the  very  beginning  in  the  minority.  The  President  of  the 
Council  of  Labor  and  Soldiers'  Deputies,  Tcheidze,  declared 
soon  after  Lenin's  arrival  in  Petrograd  that  he  would  be  ab- 
sorbed by  the  new  Russia.  It  was  a  remarkable  prediction,  and 
came  true  within  a  ffew  weeks.  Lenin  lost  followers  by  the 
thousand.  The  Russian  masses,  like  the  British  and  French 
masses,  desired  universal  peace  on  certain  radical  conditions, 
but  no  separate  peace  under  any  circumstances. 

One  cannot  emphasize  too  much  the  statement  contained  in 
the  preceding  sentence.  It  explains  in  a  nutshell  the  real  stand 
of  the  Council  and  its  activities.  Thus  the  first  Miliukoff  inci- 
dent occurred  on  account  of  the  Council's  attitude  toward  peace. 
Paul  Miliukoff,  Foreign  Minister  in  the  provisional  govern- 
ment, had  always  favored  Russia's  acquisition  of  the  Dardanelles 
and  Constantinople.  In  April  he  made  a  statement  to  that  ef- 
fect to   a   newspaper   correspondent.    This   caused   violent   op- 


RUSSIA  269 

position,  since  the  masses  and  its  Council  wanted  no  annexa- 
tions. The  rest  of  the  Cabinet  hastened  to  announce  that 
Miliukoff  spoke  for  himself,  and  not  for  the  government,  thus 
averting  a  crisis. 

But  the  wedge  was  already  driven  between  the  Council  and 
the  Cabinet.  The  former  felt  that  Miliukoff  stood  in  the  way 
of  a  German  revolution,  and  did  not  express  the  will  of  the  ma- 
jority of  the  people,  which  undoubtedly  was  true.  The  Council, 
therefore,  assumed  a  more  watchful  attitude  than  ever  toward 
the  provisional  government.  At  the  same  time  it  began  to  ex- 
ercise authority  of  its  own,  thus  creating  a  duality  of  power.  A 
national  congress  of  all  the  Councils  of  Workmen's  and  Sol- 
diers' Deputies,  held  in  Petrograd  in  the  middle  of  April, 
adopted,  among  others,  the  following  resolution : 

The  Congress  calls  upon  the  revolutionary  democracy  of  Russia,  rallying 
around  the  Council,  to  be  ready  to  vigorously  suppress  any  attempt  by 
the  Government  to  elude  the  control  of  democracy  or  to  renounce  the  carry- 
ing out  of  its  pledges. 

The  Foreign  Minister  Opposed 

Two  weeks  later  the  Council  found  in  an  act  of  Miliukoff  an 
"attempt  by  the  government  to  elude  the  control  of  democracy." 
The  Foreign  Minister,  in  transmitting  to  the  Allies  the  govern- 
ment's earlier  repudiation  of  all  annexations  and  indemnities, 
said:  "The  provisional  government  .  .  .  will  maintain  a 
strict  regard  for  its  engagements  with  the  Allies  of  Russia." 
This  caused  a  storm.  What  those  engagements  were  was  un- 
known, but  that  they  provided  for  Russia's  acquisition  of  the  Dar- 
danelles was  divulged  last  year  by  Premier  Trepoff.  The  Coun- 
cil demanded  an  explanation  of  the  provisional  government.  The 
revolutionary  masses,  incited  by  extremists  and  German  agents, 
were  turbulent.  For  a  day  or  two  Petrograd  was  the  scene  of 
some  very  dramatic  events.  There  were  cries  of  "Down  with 
Miliukoff !  Down  with  the  provisional  government ! "  An- 
other revolution  was  in  the  air. 

Fortunately,  the  Council  had  full  control  of  the  situation. 
Its  orders  were  obeyed  by  the  populace.  Paul  Miliukoff  him- 
self courageously  came  out  to  defend  his  stand.  He  found 
many  supporters  in  the  crowds.  It  became  clear  to  the  Council 
that  on  its  decision  the  fate  of  Russian  freedom  hinged;  that 
civil  war  was  inevitable  in  case  it  voted  lack  of  confidence  in 


270  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

the  provisional  government;  and  the  radical  council  voted,  by  a 
small  majority,  it  is  true,  its  support  of  the  government. 

Demoralisation  in  the  Army 

At  the  same  time,  early  in  May,  a  serious  condition  devel- 
oped in  the  Russian  army  as  a  result  of  the  Socialist  peace  agita- 
tion. The  soldiers,  carried  aw^ay  by  beautiful  dreams,  began  to 
fraternize  with  the  Germans.  Discipline  was  rapidly  declining. 
The  authorities  were  powerless.  Only  the  Council  of  Deputies 
had  influence  over  most  of  the  soldiers.  And  the  Council  was 
obviously  not  in  full  harmony  with  the  provisional  government. 
It  even  adopted  a  resolution  calling  for  an  international  Social- 
ist Conference  for  the  purpose  of  forcing  the  Allies  to  restate 
their  war  aims  and  of  bringing  about  universal  peace.  The 
rank  and  file  of  the  army  interpreted  this  as  complete  license  to 
act  without  restraint.  This  afforded  the  Germans  an  oppor- 
tunity to  withdraw  large  forces  from  the  eastern  front  to  the 
western  during  last  month. 

The  demoralization  increased  so  rapidly  that  General  Kor- 
niloff,  the  man  who  arrested  the  Czarina,  resigned  from  the 
post  of  Petrograd  commandant,  protesting  that  the  Council  was 
interfering  with  his  duties.  The  popular  hero.  General  Brusiloff, 
and  General  Gurko  had  requested  to  be  relieved  of  their  offices, 
warning  against  the  disintegration  threatening  the  army. 

The  provisional  government  had  invited  the  Council  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  Cabinet  and  end  the  duality  of  authority,  but 
the  Socialist  Council  by  a  majority  of  one  rejected  the  proposal. 
The  situation  grew  desperate.  The  Council  had  the  power  and 
influence,  but  refused  responsibility.  The  government  had  all 
the  responsibility  but  lacked  power.  War  Minister  Gutchkoff 
resigned  in  protest.  The  Socialist  Minister  of  Justice  Kerensky 
made  a  passionate  appeal  to  the  people,  declaring  he  wished  he 
had  died  two  months  before,  when  the  revolution  was  still  a 
beautiful  dream,  rather  than  witness  the  reality  of  Russian  free- 
dom. He  addressed  bitter  words  to  the  democracy,  asking  if 
free  Russians  are  serfs  in  need  of  a  master's  whip  or  citizens 
realizing  their  responsibility.  The  masses  and  the  Council  then 
awoke. 

A  Coalition  Cabinet 

A  coalition  cabinet  was  noV  decided  upon  by  a  larg^  major- 
ity.   Paul  Miliukoff  resigned  as  Foreign  Minister  to  give  way 


RUSSIA  271 

to  M.  I.  Terestchenko,  who  held  the  post  of  Minister  of  Finance. 
Prince  George  E.  Lvoff  remained  Premier  and  Minister  of  the 
Interior.  Minister  of  Justice  Kerensky  became  Minister  of  War. 
Several  new  Ministries  were  created  for  the  Socialists.  Victor 
Tchernoff,  a  leader  in  the  Social-Revolutionary  party,  became 
Minister  of  Agriculture,  while  A.  Shingaroff,  who  had  held  that 
post,  was  slated  for  the  Ministry  of  Finance.  Skobeloff,  Vice- 
President  of  the  Council  of  Workmen's  and  Soldiers*  Deputies, 
entered  the  Cabinet.  Altogether  about  six  or  seven  Socialists 
became  members  of  the  government  in  a  total  of  thirteen  or 
fourteen. 

The  transfer  of  the  patriotic  and  socialistic  Minister  of  Jus- 
tice, A.  F.  Kerensky,  to  the  post  of  War  Minister  was  a  fortu- 
nate stroke.  The  masses  and  the  army  idolize  Kerensky.  A 
visit  of  his  to  the  front  will  do  a  great  deal  toward  the  restora- 
tion of  the  military  organization  and  its  fighting  spirit.  His 
knowledge  of  military  affairs  is,  to  be  sure,  very  negligible.  But 
his  passionate  love  for  the  people  may  prove  more  of  a  motive 
power  in  the  present  circumstances  than  actual  business  experi- 
ence. One  of  the  first  effects  of  Kerensky's  assuming  the  office 
of  War  Minister  was  the  return  of  Generals  Brusiloff  and  Gurko 
to  their  posts,  Michael  I.  Terestchenko,  the  successor  of  Miliu- 
koff  in  the  Foreign  Office,  is  only  thirty-two  years  old,  but  pos- 
sesses enormous  energy.  He  is  one  of  the  wealthiest  men  in 
Russia,  his  estates  being  worth  about  60,000,000  rubles.  His 
father  was  one  of  the  leading  sugar  manufacturers  in  Europe, 
and  perhaps  the  most  generous  philanthropist  in  all  Russia. 

During  the  present  war,  Terestchenko  has  been  Vice-Presi- 
dent of  the  War  Industries  Mobilization  Committee,  of  which 
the  resigned  War  Minister  Guchoff  was  president.  This  com- 
mittee was  one  of  the  leading  social  factors  in  the  rehabilita- 
tion of  the  army  after  the  military  disasters  of  1915.  The  new 
Foreign  Minister  was  also  a  member  of  the  Southwestern 
Zemstvo  Union  with  the  headquarters  in  Kieff.  Terestchenko's 
political  creed  is  not  very  different  from  that  of  his  distin- 
guished predecessor  in  the  Foreign  Office,  Paul  Miliukoff. 

This  new  Coalition  Cabinet  means  one  power  and  one  au- 
thority in  Russia.  It  means  the  end  of  uncertainty.  While  dis- 
agreements between  the  opposing  factions  are  yet  likely  to  occur, 
there  is  certainly  no  reason  to  despair  of  Russia.  The  Russian 
radicals  have  proved  that  they  are  not  insane  fanatics.    They 


272  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

can  rise  to  the  demands  of  the  hour.  The  new  Russia  to-day- 
holds  out  nothing  but  bright  promises.  She  stands  for  very- 
definite  things,  and  if  they  can  only  be  understood,  it  will  be- 
come clear  that  to  think  of  Russia  in  terms  of  anarchy  is  nothing 
short  of  a  crime.  Considering  the  vast  changes  wrought  in  her 
organism,  Russia  is  behaving  very  well  indeed.  And  those  who 
know  her  feel  that  she  will  yet  lead  the  world  to  true  democracy, 
humanity,   justice,    and   a    higher    civilization. 


THE  PASSING  OF  OLD  RUSSIA^ 

Such  a  stupendous  change  as  the  conversion  of  an  autocracy 
into  a  democracy  cannot  be  accomplished  in  a  week,  yet  it  ap- 
pears that  the  center  of  power  has  been  definitely,  and  we  be- 
lieve permanently,  shifted.  The  Russian  revolution  was  as 
sudden  and  promises  to  be  as  permanent  as  the  French.  In  spite 
of  the  fallacy  of  historical  parallels  one  cannot  avoid  comparing 
them. 

Nicholas  II  was  much  the  same  sort  of  monarch  as  Louis 
XVI,  well  meaning  and  weak,  stupid  and  stubborn,  a  good  hus- 
band and  a  bad  king.  Both  were  under  the  influence  of  a  for- 
eign wife,  distrusted  by  the  people,  Marie  Antionette,  the  Aus- 
trian, and  Alexandra  Alixe,  the  German.  Nicholas,  like  Louis, 
was  justly  suspected  of  secret  negotiations  with  the  enemies  of 
his  country,  Germany  and  Austria.  Nicholas,  like  Louis,  began 
by  concession,  then  turned  too  late  to  repression.  He  ordered 
the  Duma  to  disperse  as  did  Louis  the  States-General.  The 
Duma,  like  the  States-General,  refused  to  obey  and  declared  it- 
self the  rightful  government.  The  Czarevitch,  like  the  Dauphin, 
becomes  the  innocent  victim  of  his  royal  birth.  The  Russian 
revolution,  like  the  French,  was  the  offspring  of  two  forces, 
hunger  among  the  people  and  liberalism  among  the  educated.  So 
the  Russians  rose  like  the  French,  attacked  their  Bastille,  the 
Fortress  of  St.  Peter  and  Paul,  liberated  the  political  prisoners, 
and  made  bonfires  of  the  archives  of  the  secret  police,  as  the 
French  did  of  the  tax  rolls.  But,  fortunately  for  humanity,  his- 
tory does  not  have  to  repeat  itself,  and  we  have  good  reason  for 
hoping  that  in  the  Russian  revolution  neither  a  Robespierre  nor 
a  Napoleon  will  appear. 

*^  Independent.  89:523,  525.  March  26,  1917. 


RUSSIA  273 

The  charges  which  the  representatives  of  the  Russian  people 
brought  against  the  bureaucracy  for  its  conduct  of  the  war  were 
three : 

1.  Inefficiency. 

2.  Corruption. 

3.  Treachery. 

In  spite  of  the  stringent  censorship  enough  has  leaked  thru 
to  prove  that  there  are  abundant  grounds  for  these  accusations. 
We  have  heard  of  millions  misspent,  of  shells  that  would  not  fit 
the  guns,  of  munitions  piled  up  at  Archangel  or  shipped  to  Vladi- 
vostok when  needed  at  the  front,  of  the  complete  breakdown  of 
the  transportation  system,  of  regiments  sent  into  action  without 
ammunition  and  left  without  food.  Russia,  with  more  soldiers 
than  any  other  belligerent,  has  suffered  the  most  ignominious 
defeats.  Russia,  which  grows  grain  for  western  Europe,  has 
more  starving  people  than  insular  England  or  imprisoned  Ger- 
many. 

And  we  know  that  this  inefficiency  was  in  large  part  due  to 
the  venality  of  officials  who  filled  their  own  pockets  at  the  ex- 
pense of  their  country.  Contracts  were  let  to  the  highest  bidder 
— to  the  purchasing  agent.  Goods  were  ordered  that  were  never 
intended  to  be  delivered,  but  were  paid  for  just  the  same.  A 
long  chain  of  chinovniks  had  to  be  "seen"  before  business  could 
be  done.  Supplies  for  the  front  were  sometimes  sent  forward 
too  far  and  went  to  equip  or  feed  the  German  army.  Maps  and 
campaign  plans  also  went  over  the  line  in  the  same  way.  Hin- 
denburg  knew  the  disposition  of  the  Russian  troops  among  the 
Mazurian  Lakes  of  East  Prussia  before  he  made  his  attack,  for 
a  Russian  officer  supplied  him  with  the  information. 


ZEMSTVO  RUSSIA* 

"We  may  be  forced  to  have  a  revolution  in  order  to  win  the 
war."  This  statement,  made  to  me  by  many  Russians  last  sum- 
mer, was  often  supplemented  by  the  phrase,  "We  hope  America 
will  understand  that  any  such  revolution  is  a  political  revolution, 
and  one  which  will  not  weaken  Russia  for  the  prosecution  of  the 

*  By  S.  N.  Harper.   Independent,  90:22-3.  April  2,  19 17. 


274  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

war."  At  a  small  gathering  of  radicals,  which  was  called  speci- 
fically to  help  me  understand  what  was  going  on  in  Russia  last 
summer,  one  man  insisted  that  a  revolution  was  absolutely  neces- 
sary. The  others  unanimously  answered  him,  "If  you  can  guar- 
antee to  complete  the  revolution  within  a  month,  go  ahead;  but 
if  it  takes  more  than  a  month,  and  is  accompanied  by  serious 
disorders,  the  army  will  deal  with  you  according  to  your  de- 
serts." This  was  the  situation  the  Russian  patriots  had  to  face. 
As  at  other  crises  in  her  history,  Russia,  that  is  the  Russian 
people,  was  equal  to  the  emergency. 

The  revolution  was  therefore  first  and  foremost  a  war  meas- 
ure, and  was  justified  as  such.  All  reforms  that  will  be  intro- 
duced will  also  be  proclaimed  as  war  measures.  Justice  will  be 
done  to  the  Jews,  as  a  war  measure,  to  secure  and  maintain  the 
unity  of  the  country,  which  was  threatened  by  the  shortsighted — 
perhaps  deliberately  conceived — policy  of  the  former  rulers.  It 
might  be  added  that  the  real  Russia,  which  has  now  come  into 
its  own,  has  never  accepted  without  protest  the  policy  of  in- 
tolerance toward  the  non-Russian  elements  of  the  Empire. 

The  revolution  was  not  essentially  anti-dynastic.  The  mon- 
archial  idea  is  very  strong  in  the  broader  masses  of  the  people. 
Among  the  workmen  and  the  intellectuals  of  the  liberal  profes- 
sions, republicanism  is  theoretically  at  least  talked  and  accepted. 
But  if  the  coming  constituent  assembly  can  be  made  to  represent 
truly  the  majority  opinion  of  the  country — it  is  to  be  elected  on 
the  basis  of  universal  suffrage — the  present  writer  feels  that 
Russia  will  establish  definitely  responsible  government,  but  un- 
der the  form  of  a  constitutional  monarchy.  The  abdication  of 
Michael  is  only  suspended  until  the  opinion  of  the  country  is 
formally  stated. 

Will  the  new  government,  instituted  by  a  purely  political  rev- 
olution, conceived  and  carried  out  in  order  to  hasten  the  victori- 
ous conclusion  of  the  war,  be  able  to  accomplish  the  great  task 
it  has  to  face,  and  maintain  the  confidence  of  the  public?  The 
second  part  of  the  question  will  in  large  measure  be  answered  by 
the  solution  of  the  first  problem.  The  food  supply  problem  must 
be  solved  without  delay.  On  the  whole  it  is  a  comparatively 
simple  problem.  The  food  is  there,  and  only  has  to  be  dis- 
tributed.   The  means  of  distribution  are  at  hand. 

All  the  organizations,  especially  the  Zemstvo  Uniorf,  thru 
which  the  peasants  also  could  act,  were  originally  and  primarily 


RUSSIA  275 

started  to  support  the  army.  They  will  now  serve  to  control  and 
direct  public  opinion.  They  have  been  supplemented  by  pro- 
fessional unions,  which  will  bring  in  the  groups  which  before 
could  not  directly  participate  in  the  work  of  organizing — "organ- 
izing for  victory"  as  the  motto  read.  Thru  these  organizations 
the  new  government  will  work  to  solve  the  problem  of  food  sup- 
ply in  the  rear,  and  provide  for  adequate  equipment  and  support 
of  the  army.  The  vast  majority  of  the  lower  bureaucracy,  ex- 
cluding always  the  political  police — the  main  weapon  of  self-de- 
fense which  autocracy  perfected  and  employed — will  fall  into  line. 

Russia  has  not  been  further  disorganized  by  the  coup  d'etat. 
The  aim  of  the  revolution,  and  we  see  that  the  aim  is  already 
being  realized,  was  to  make  possible  the  most  thoro  organiza- 
tion of  all  the  resources  of  the  country  for  a  more  vigorous 
prosecution  of  the  war.  The  revolution  was  the  work  of  a  peo- 
ple facing  a  crisis  in  sober  seriousness  and  without  vindictive- 
ness.  Recalling  what  thousands  of  individuals  have  suffered  at 
the  hands  of  the  irresponsible  bureaucracy,  one  would  not  have 
been  surprised  at  manifestations  of  extreme  bitterness,  and  cor- 
responding excesses,  perhaps  even  acts  of  vengeance.  But  the 
Socialist  member  of  the  new  government,  Kerensky,  gave  an- 
other keynote  of  the  revolution  when  he  proclaimed  that  the  new 
Russia  would  not  have  recourse  to  the  methods  used  under  the 
old  regime.  As  Minister  of  Justice,  he  promised  that  every  one, 
including  the  former  ministers  now  under  arrest,  would  be  as- 
sured of  a  fair  and  public  trial. 

The  new  government  is  composed  of  representatives  of  vari- 
ous political  parties.  But  they  have  been  working  together  for 
over  a  year  in  the  Progressive  Bloc  of  the  Duma,  and  for  over 
two  years  in  the  various  organizations,  such  as  the  Zemstvo 
Union  and  the  War  Industries  Committee.  The  program  of  the 
Progressive  Bloc  has  been  formulated  and  discussed  for  eighteen 
months.  Every  measure  included  in  the  program  is  justified  as 
a  war  measure,  to  strengthen  and  unify  the  country.  The  head 
of  the  new  government  is  an  "organizer,"  known  not  as  a  purely 
political  leader,  but  as  the  feeder  of  the  armies,  the  leader  of 
Zemstvo  Russia.  For  it  must  be  always  emphasized  that  the 
first  aim  of  the  revolution — its  justification — was  to  create  con- 
ditions that  would  make  it  possible  for  Russia  to  put  forward 
the  full  measure  of  her  strength  in  the  coming  military  cam- 
paign of  these  next  months. 


276  SELECTED  ARTICLES 


RUSSIA  AND  THE  NEED  FOR  A  SUPREME 
AUTHORITY' 

The  Russian  position  at  the  beginning  of  March  was  a  double 
war.  Each  of  the  opposing  sides  in  the  internal  conflict  foresaw 
and  planned  a  revolution,  the  patriots  because  they  saw  no  other 
way  of  securing  free  national  action,  and  the  bureaucrats  be- 
cause they  believed  that  a  popular  outbreak  bloodily  suppressed 
would  force  the  Tsar  to  withdraw  from  the  external  war  and  to 
make  the  German  peace  which  would  perpetuate  their  own  in- 
fluence and  power.  The  revolution  came,  with  bread  scarcity  as 
its  proximate  cause  and  the  fraternising  of  troops  and  people  as 
its  deciding  factor.  We  can  see  how  each  side  had  prepared 
its  plans.  M.  Protopopoff,  who  had  promised  the  bureaucrats 
that  he  would  "see  them  through,"  had  his  police  well  posted 
and  well  supplied  with  machine  guns.  He  failed  completely  be- 
cause he  could  not  distinguish  between  a  popular  revolt  and  a 
national  resolve.  The  Duma  leaders,  on  the  other  hand,  had 
evidently  assured  themselves  beforehand  that  they  had  with 
them  all  the  main  forces  of  the  nation,  with  the  possible  excep- 
tion of  the  clergy.  It  was  very  naturally  remarked  that  in  all 
the  reports  from  Russia  we  had  heard  no  word  of  the  Orthodox 
Church :  but  now  we  know  the  Holy  Synod  has  approved.  The 
three  cities  which  have  successively  been  Russian  capitals,  and 
stand  for  the  successive  stages  of  Russian  history — Kieff,  Mos- 
cow, Petrograd — were  unanimous.  The  Council  of  the  Nobility 
and  the  Zemstvos  were  at  one  with  the  Duma,  and,  most  im- 
portant of  all,  the  army,  through  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  and 
Generals  Alexeieff  and  Brussiloff,  declared  itself  on  the  same 
side,  while  the  Germans  heard  the  Russian  soldiers  cheering  in 
their  trenches  as  James  II  heard  his  army  cheering  on  Hounslow 
Heath.  Unanimity  such  as  this,  of  princes,  nobles,  merchants, 
people,  and  army  could  certainly  not  have  been  secured  from  the 
"social  revolution,"  and  we  misconstrue  a  great  event  if  we  do 
not  perceive  that  its  genesis  is  in  the  national  resolve  to  win  the 
war.  "Without  doubt,"  says  the  Cologne  Gazette,  "England  has 
conquered  in  Petersburg."  We  can  smile  at  the  malicious  in- 
nuendo that  we  are  responsible  for  this  purely  Russian  move- 

1  Saturday  Review.  123:268-9.  March  24,  1917. 


RUSSIA  217 

■ment,  and  we  can  whole-heartedly  rejoice  that  Germany  has  been 
<iefeated  in  Petrograd. 

There  is  bitter  irony  in  Nicholas  II's  fate.  The  man  who 
created  the  Duma  is  compelled  by  the  Duma  to  abdicate;  the 
Tsar  who  incarnated  the  national  unity  in  the  first  flush  of  1914 
lays  down  his  power  because  a  united  nation  demands  the  sacri- 
fice. The  creator  of  the  Hague  Conference  retires  in  the 
midst  of  universal  war.  It  is  a  pitiful  thing  that  the  man  who 
seemed  to  be  the  great  Slav  Tsar  of  prophecy  and  dream  should 
have  been  unable  to  trust  his  people;  but  in  justice  to  him  we 
must  remember  that  to  the  Tsar  the  maintenance  of  autocracy 
was  no  grasping  after  prerogative  or  privilege,  but  a  sacred  trust. 
Russia  owes  a  large  part  of  her  greatness  to  the  autocracy  in 
the  past,  and  the  Tsars  have  many  times  shown  that  the  most 
generous  and  humane  policy  is  compatible  with  political  abso- 
lutism. When  people  compare  this  Russian  movement  with  the 
great  French  revolution  they  forget  that  the  principal  aim  of  the 
people  in  France  had  already  been  secured  in  Russia.  The 
French  revolution  freed  and  established  the  French  peasantry; 
in  Russia  the  peasants  had  already  been  emancipated  and  en- 
<iowed  by  the  Tsar.  But  all  forms  of  government  have  their 
special  limits,  and  the  weakness  of  autocracy  is  that  it  cannot 
always  act  directly,  but  must  use  agents  and  instruments  who 
can  elude  the  vigilance  of  the  ruler.  Russia  has  been  cursed 
and  thwarted,  not  by  her  Tsars,  but  by  her  local  Governors  and 
bureaucrats  and  police.  No  human  being,  not  even  a  Richelieu 
or  a  Napoleon,  could  possibly  supervise  the  actual  Governors  of 
the  Russian  Empire;  but  if  they  become  corrupt  and  tyrannical 
the  Tsar  is  made  to  expiate  all  their  crimes.  Nicholas  I  was  one 
of  the  strongest  and  ablest  men  who  ever  reigned  in  Russia,  but 
his  whole  system  of  government  crumbled  when  the  Crimean 
War  revealed  the  corruption  and  inefficiency  of  his  administra- 
tion. He  had  defeated  the  revolutions  in  Poland  and  Germany 
and  Austria,  he  had  been  hailed  as  the  Agamemnon  of  kings,  but 
autocracy  went  temporarily  bankrupt  when  the  bureaucrats  had 
been  exposed. 

We  have  written  of  this  Russian  drama  chiefly  as  the  proof 
of  the  Russian  will  to  conquer  in  this  war,  but  to  many  in  Eng- 
land it  has  seemed  chiefly  remarkable  as  a  great  stride  in  the 
direction  of  universal  democracy.  The  Premier,  always  impas- 
sioned in  his  enthusiasm  for  new  causes,  has  emphasised  this 


278  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

aspect  of  these  historic  days.  That  is  natural.  France  and 
England  are  the  liberal  nations  of  Europe;  the  most  Tory  of 
Englishmen  is  almost  a  "Red"  when  compared  with  a  Prussian 
Junker,  because  freedom  is  an  English  birthright,  while  France 
has  been  the  pioneer  of  democratic  ideas  as  she  was  formerly,, 
under  Louis  XIV,  the  paragon  of  absolutisms.  Nevertheless, 
our  feeling  about  Russian  internal  polity  is  that  it  would  be  folly 
to  dogmatise  and  impertinence  to  advise.  Russia  will  work  out 
her  own  salvation.  In  many  respects  she  is  a  mystery  to  West- 
ern Europeans,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  we  should  apply  our 
political  conclusions  to  her  utterly  different  conditions,  or  imag- 
ine that  she  will  not  evolve  some  quite  new  form  of  government 
distinct  from  Aristotle's  divisions,  or  Rousseau's  rights  of  man,, 
or  even  Tennyson's  crowned  republic's  crowning  common  sense, 
which  seems  so  inevitably  right  to  us  insular  Englishmen.  Many 
are  saying,  "Bliss  is  it  in  this  dawn  to  be  alive,"  and,  while 
others  of  us  feel  that  many  saviours  of  society  have  proved  to  be 
sadly  disappointing  people  in  the  end,  we  must  all  watch  with 
sympathy  and  hope  the  efforts  of  the  Russian  people  to  de- 
termine and  secure  the  best  form  of  polity  for  themselves.  As 
regards  the  war  we  trust  that  victory  in  the  field  will  consecrate 
the  new  Russia.  Englishmen  will  not  be  suspected  of  arrogance 
if  they  beg  Russians  to  be  warned  by  English  mistakes.  We 
have  learned  by  bitter  experience  that  only  authority,  discipline, 
organisation,  and  work  can  equip  our  armies  and  give  them  the 
chance  of  victory  in  the  field.  We  have  learned  also  that  con- 
centration in  the  one  purpose  by  all  classes  is  necessary  if  we  are 
to  defeat  our  powerful  foe.  Enthusiasm  and  idealism  are  the 
spiritual  motive  power,  but  railways,  ships,  guns,  shells  and  la- 
bour at  full  stretch  are  the  practical  means.  An  excellent  be- 
ginning has  been  made.  The  new  government  is  not  a  body  of 
mere  visionaries,  but  contains  the  best  organisers  in  Russia. 
With ''  Prince  Lvoff,  head  of  the  most  successful  Union  of 
zemstvos,  presiding  over  a  coalition  that  includes  Octobrists,  Ca- 
dets, and  Labour,  and  working  in  .co-operation  with  the  generals, 
there  is  no  reason  why  Russia's  mighty  resources  should  not  at 
last  enjoy  a  full  chance  of  proving  how  decisive  they  may  be  in 
this  great  crisis  of  human  destiny. 

The  new  Russia  is  not  the  creation  of  a  moment,  jDut  the 
product  of  forces  that  have  been  long  at  work.  Many  men 
have  laboured,  and  the  Russians  of  to-day  have  entered  into  their 


RUSSIA  279 

labour.  The  new  nation  is  born  amidst  the  havoc  and  upheaval 
of  universal  war,  and  how  necessary  it  is  that  it  should  play  a 
great  part  in  bringing  that  war  to  a  speedy  and  triumphant  end ! 
No  new  government  ever  began  its  life  with  such  tremendous, 
such  essential  tests  to  face,  or  with  such  great  opportunities  of 
immediate  influence. 

We  cannot,  however,  leave  the  subject  without  a  word  as  to 
the  absolute  necessity  of  having  a  supreme  authority.  Thete 
can  be  no  success,  no  hope  of  success,  in  war  without  Dictator- 
ship in  some  form.  Without  it,  Germany  might  have  gone  down 
ere  now :  without  it  Austria  would  not  have  survived  Lemburg. 
A  great  nation  in  war  must  have  a  Head,  or  its  limbs  will  fail 
it.  Without  a  ruling  personality,  chaos  will  rule.  It  must  be 
one  headed  to  act,  to  act  swiftly,  to  succeed:  a  dozen  heads  or 
twenty-two  heads — well  we  know  what  that  means.  We  shall 
rejoice  to  hear  that  our  noble  Ally,  Russia,  has  carried  through 
her  changes,  rid  herself  of  German  influence,  and  found  her 
ruler.  Great  Britain's  difficulties  in  the  near  past  through  lack 
of  a  clear  and  single  authority  and  leadership  are  an  object  les- 


THE  RISE  OF  RUSSIAN  DEMOCRACY' 

The  recent  revolution  in  Russia  was  the  logical  triumph  of 
forces  that  have  been  at  work  in  that  country  for  several  gen- 
erations. The  rapidity  with  which  the  change  of  government 
was  accomplished  is  evidence  of  the  fact  that  the  recent  events 
were  but  the  natural  culmination  of  a  long  process. 

Those  who  have  followed  the  course  of  Russian  internal  de- 
velopment at  first  hand  have  seen  clearly  what  was  coming. 
They  could  not  anticipate  the  exact  form  which  the  last  act 
would  assume,  nor  did  they,  perhaps,  expect  this  last  move  to 
come  so  soon,  and  with  such  completeness.  The  conditions 
of  war,  however,  had  hastened  the  process.  A  state  of  war  was 
responsible  for  the  rapid  and  energetic  manner  in  which  the 
final  establishment  of  responsible*  government  in  Russia  was 
secuVed.  The  recent  change  was  carried  through  with  a  unan- 
imity which  might  not  have  been  possible  in  normal  times  of 
peace.    But  nevertheless,  the  change  was  a  logical  one,  and  tHis 

*  By  S.  N.  Harper.  World's  Work.  34:52-62.  May,  1917. 

20 


28o  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

fact  should  be  emphasized  above  all  others.  This  fact  makes 
one  more  sure  of  the  permanency  of  the  new  regime. 

The  word  revolution  has  been  the  term  usually  employed  in 
speaking  of  the  recent  events  in  Russia.  This  word  has  always 
been  associated  with  Russia.  But  in  the  past  it  has  meant  acts 
of  violence,  political  assassinations,  agrarian  disorders,  and  spor- 
adic mutinies  in  the  army.  Again,  some  have  almost  instinctively 
thought  of  the  French  revolution,  and  have  attempted  to  give  an 
interpretation  in  terms  of  this  revolution.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  Russia  would  have  to  go  through,  for  a  whole  generation,  a 
readjustment  that  would  dislocate  conditions  of  life  and  thought, 
just  as  in  France  of  more  than  a  century  ago.  But  these  last 
apprehensions  are  based  on  a  failure  to  see  what  has  been  going 
on  in  Russia  during  the  last  years.  The  revolution  was  the  end 
of  a  period  which  the  Russians  call  "a  movement  for  liberation,** 
which  has  been  going  on  really  since  the  first  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  last  generation  of  Russians  has  already 
had  to  pass  through  a  period  of  radical  and  disturbing  readjust- 
ments. Acts  of  violence  and  excesses  accompanied  the  transi- 
tion. Antagonistic  interests  were  unable  to  find  any  basis  for 
compromise,  f  Many  elements  were  working  for  a  common  aim, 
but  they  could  not  find  a  common  ground  for  actiojuBut  all  this 
should  be  assigned  to  the  period  of  preparation.*/The  revolution 
of  March  was  the  triumph  of  Russian  democracy;  it  was  the 
final  emerging  of  the  Russia  that  has  been  educating  and  or- 
ganizing itself  to  this  end  for  more  than  a  generation^  The  last 
act  that  was  necessary  to  establish  in  physical  form  a  moral  vic- 
tory won  some  time  before  was,  it  is  true,  of  a  revolutionary 
character.  A  Sovereign  was  forced  to  abdicate.  This  was,  how- 
ever, simply  a  political  coup  d'etat.  The  popular  confirmation  of 
the  Grand  Duke  Michael  as  constitutional  sovereign — to  many 
this  appears  to  be  the  probable  final  solution — would  be  another 
indication  of  the  evolutionary  character  of  the  recent  chan^gj 

Russia's'  own  historians  always  emphasize  certain  funda- 
mental facts  of  early  Russian  history  which  account  for  the 
backwardness  of  her  political  development.  In  the  autumn  of 
1915,  when  I  was  at  the  Russian  front,  a  colonel  gave  me  this 
same  outline  of  early  Russian  history.  He  was  explaining  the 
handicaps  under  which  Russia  labored  to  meet  the  problems  of 
the  present  war.  In  a  word,  until  almost  the  very  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  Russia  had  to  struggle  with  all  her  might  to 


RUSSIA  281 

establish  the  territorial  security  of  the  empire.  All  the  strength 
of  the  country  was  required  to  win  this  struggle  against  hostile 
and  strong  neighbors.  In  the  course  of  the  struggle,  political 
power  was  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  a  central  authority.  All 
classes  were  subjected  to  varying  degrees  of  enslavement;  for 
the  peasants  the  enslavement  was  complete,  and  they  had  become 
definitely  a  serf  class.  But  with  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  process  of  enfranchisement  could  start,  and  the 
whole  of  that  century  was  devoted  to  this  task.  The  "move- 
ment for  liberation"  proceeded  haltingly. 

It  was  necessary  to  alter  a  firmly  established  social  system 
and  a  political  order  in  the  preserving  of  which  a  small  but  in- 
fluential group  was  selfishly  interested.  Certain  institutions  had 
become  firmly  intrenched,  especially  the  institutions  of  serfdom 
and  autocracy.  Both  had  clearly  outlived  their  time.  Serfdom 
was  the  first  to  go,  in  1861.  The  emancipation  of  the  serfs  was 
very  wisely  planned  so  as  to  proceed  in  a  gradual  manner.  One 
can  say  that  emancipation  was  not  finally  completed  until  the 
first  decades  of  the  present  century.  Then,  also,  in  the  middle 
of  the  last  century  the  first  steps  were  taken  to  change  the 
political  order;  a  gradual  limitation  of  the  autocratic  authority 
was  initiated  by  the  introduction  of  the  principle  of  local  self- 
government,  la  1864  Alexander  II  instituted  zemstvos — local 
provincial  councils,  elected  by  the  local  population.  The  zemstvos 
were  to  carry  on  what  one  might  call  the  beneficent  func- 
tions of  government.  They  opened  schools  and  hospitals,  intro- 
duced better  methods  of  agriculture,  and  improved  the  roads 
and  other  means  of  communication.  The  character  of  the  work 
done  by  the  zemstvos  was  liberal.  The  zemstvo  was  also  clearly 
a  liberalizing  institution.  It  was,  in  fact,  in  the  mind  of  Alex- 
ander II  that  the  zemstvos  should  serve  as  a  training  school  in 
public  affairs,  as  a  preliminary  step  toward  the  participation  of 
the  people  in  the  government  of  the  country;  as  a  preparation 
for  constitutional  government. 

In  1881  Alexander  II  was  on  the  point  of  calling  together  in 
a  central  body  representatives  of  the  zemstvos,  to  have  a  con- 
sultative voice  in  national  affairs.  This  was  not  constitutional- 
ism, but  was  one  more  step  in  that  direction.  There  were  ele- 
ments in  the  country  opposed  to  constitutionalism,  and  they  used 
all  their  influence  to  retard  the  natural  course  of  events.  They 
proclaimed  autocracy  to  be  a  political  tradition  of  Russia  which 


282  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

had  created  the  empire,  and  which  must  be  preserved  to  secure 
the  integrity  of  the  empire.  Also,  these  champions  of  autocracy 
insisted  that  the  Russian  people  were  not  as  yet  politically  de- 
veloped, not  yet  prepared  for  constitutional  government.  In 
actual  fact  autocracy  could  be  used  by  them  to  further  their  own 
selfish  interests,  and  they  organized  to  this  end. 

At  the  same  time  Russian  society  had  passed  through  the 
preliminary  stages  of  political  liberty,  and  was  beginning  to  de- 
mand the  logical  carrying  out  of  the  programme  of  reform. 
Some  grew  impatient  and  were  driven  by  the  policy  of  the  en- 
emies of  progress  to  resort  to  revolutionary  methods  to  hasten 
the  process.  Reaction  in  governmental  spheres  developed  radi- 
calism in  Russian  society.  The  revolutionists  assassinated  the 
Emperor ;  the  reactionaries  were  able  to  use  this  act  to  strengthen 
their  own  position.  The  middle  path  of  gradual  evolution  be- 
came very  difficult  to  follow.  But  despite  police  surveillance, 
strict  tutelage,  and  repression,  the  inevitable  movement  con- 
tinued. It  was  a  process  of  education  and  of  economic  and  po- 
litical development. 

The  Russo-Japanese  War  marked  another  stage  in  the  move- 
ment for  liberation.  During  this  period  there  were  revolutionary 
excesses  of  large  proportions.  The  police  regime  had  prevented 
any  compact  organization  of  society,  and  the  absence  of  organ- 
ization led  to  sporadic  and  excessive  violence.  Again  the  reac- 
tionary forces  were  able  to  use  the  anarchistic  character  of  some 
of  the  revolutionary  excesses  in  such  a  way  as  to  discredit  the 
movement  in  the  eyes  of  the  more  conservative.  Many  were 
estranged  from  the  movement  for  liberation,  which  in  their  inner 
consciences  they  knew  was  for  the  best  interests  of  the  country^ 
because  of  the  acts  of  violence  committed  in  the  name  of  reform. 
One  might  mention  that  it  later  became  known  that  some  of 
these  acts  of  violence  were  deliberately  planned  and  executed  by 
the  same  reactionary  group,  for  sporadic  acts  of  violence  discred- 
ited the  movement  in  the  eyes  of  many,  and  served  as  the  basis 
for  general  measures  of  repression.  In  their  last  trenches,  these 
men  did  not  hesitate  to  use  any  weapon. 

The  Duma,  which  came  as  the  result  of  the  1905-1906  period 
of  the  movement  for  liberation,  survived  the  reaction  that  fol- 
lowed that  period,  though  it  was  for  some  years  but  a  flickering 
flame.  This  flame  was  carefully  nursed,  however,  and  was  ready 
to  burst  forth  in  full  blaze  when  the  last  stage  of  the  movement 


RUSSIA  283 

for  liberation  came.  It  is  this  last  stage,  which  started  almost 
immediately  with  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  in  August,  1914,  that 
we  must  follow  in  detail,  to  understand  the  full  significance  of 
the  recent  events. 

But  again  it  must  be  emphasized  that  this  last  stage  was  made 
possible  by  the  preliminary  work  which  dated  back  to  1864.  The 
zemstvos  had  been  educating  the  people.  Zemstvo  workers  had 
been  gaining  experience  in  public  affairs.  The  revolutionists 
had  been  awakening  the  poHtical  consciousness  of  the  masses. 
The  Duma  had  been  of  the  greatest  value  from  1906  on,  con- 
tributing to  the  political  education  of  all  classes  of  the  country. 
All  this  educational  work  had  gone  on  despite  the  efforts  of  a 
small  ruling  group  to  block  progress.  The  methods  adopted  by 
this  small  group  in  their  frantic  attempt  to  preserve  autocracy, 
which  had  come  to  mean  irresponsible  bureaucracy,  became  trans- 
parent and  more  generally  known.  Many  who  before  had  sup- 
ported the  existing  political  regime  came  over  to  the  opposi- 
tion. They  saw  how  the  government  resorted  to  measures  of 
self-defense  which  no  real  patriot  could  accept.  Also  the  Duma 
had  offered  a  place  where  a  legal  struggle  for  genuine  constitu- 
tionalism could  be  developed. 

In  the  autumn  of  1915,  the  present  writer  went  to  Russia 
particularly  to  study  the  political  changes  brought  about  by  the 
war.  We  had  heard  that  a  "New  Russia"  was  emerging.  It 
was  clear  that  Russia  had  reached  another  stage  in  her  political 
development.  A  personal  experience  will  give  a  good  illustra- 
tion of  the  relation  of  the  last  events  to  the  previous  periods.  In 
the  course  of  my  study,  I  went  down  to  the  country  to  follow 
the  work  of  the  local  provincial  councils,  the  zemstvos.  I  went 
to  a  district  which  I  had  visited  on  previous  trips  to  Russia,  and 
where  I  would  find  friends.  I  looked  up  young  Michael  Baku- 
nin,  a  nephew  of  the  famous  revolutionist  of  the  same  name.  He 
was  working  in  the  Zemstvos  Union.  He  asked  me  to  accom- 
pany him  on  a  tour  of  inspection  to  a  group  of  villages,  where 
the  zemstvo  was  settling  some  of  the  refugees,  driven  East  by 
the  advance  of  the  Germans.  We  spent  a  whole  day  going  from 
village  to  village.  After  our  official  task  in  each  village  was 
completed,  we  talked  with  the  peasants  about  the  war,  and  the 
work  of  the  zemstvo,  and  about  the  Duma.  We  came  back  to 
the  old  Bakunin  house  to  spend  the  night.  That  evening  we 
went  over  our  experiences  of  the  day,  particularly  the  conversa- 


284  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

tions  with  the  peasants,  which  had  revealed  an  astonishing  de- 
gree of  "poHtical  consciousness."  At  one  point  in  our  talk, 
young  Bakunin  exclaimed:  "For  generations  this  house  has 
been  a  centre  of  the  movement  for  liberation  in  this  district. 
My  uncle  and  father,  and  my  brothers  and  cousins,  have  all 
worked  to  this  end,  and  I  am  reaping  the  fruits  of  their  efforts. 
We  have  won  at  last." 

For  the  uncle,  Michael  Bakunin,  had  started,  in  the  sixties  of 
the  last  century,  with  an  attempt  to  organize  a  revolutionary 
movement  in  Russia  through  the  recently  emancipated  peasants. 
The  movement  was  premature  and  failed.  Then  the  father  had 
gone  in  for  zemstvo  work,  and  for  thirty  years  he  had  devoted 
himself  to  this  work.  Because  of  the  efforts  of  such  men,  I 
found  in  that  district  many  villages  where  every  one  could  read 
and  write,  except  the  old  people  and  the  children  who  had  not 
reached  the  school  age.  Alexis  Bakunin,  a  cousin,  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Second  Duma,  which  had  attempted  to  secure  respon- 
sible government.  The  demand  then  put  forward,  in  1907,  was 
similar  to  the  demand  of  January,  191 7,  which  was  finally  se- 
cured in  March.  In  1907  again  the  demand  was  apparently  pre- 
mature. But  already,  in  191 5,  young  Michael  Bakunin,  working 
as  a  member  of  the  All-Russian  Zemstvos  Union,  recognized 
what  had  finally  come  in  the  political  evolution  of  the  country. 
He  knew  that  constitutionalism  was  bound  to  triumph. 

A  brief  sketch  of  the  political  changes  of  the  last  few  years 
will  show  how  clear  the  trend  of  events  had  become,  and  will 
thus  indicate  the  many  guarantees  of  permanency  behind  the  new 
government  in  Russia.  The  Duma  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
zemstvos,  later  organized  in  the  All-Russian  Zemstvos  Union, 
were  the  two  outstanding  elements,  as  evidenced  by  the  composi- 
tion of  the  new  government.  For  Prince  Lvoff,  the  new  Prime 
Minister,  is  the  president  of  the  All-Russian  Zemstvos  Union, 
and  Mr.  Milukoff,  the  new  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  is  the 
leader  of  the  "Progressive  Bloc"  of  the  Duma. 

The  years  1908-1914  were  a  period  of  political  reaction  in 
Russia.  As  already  pointed  out,  the  Duma  just  survived  as  a 
representative  legislative  body.  But  gradually  the  Duma  began 
to  exercise  more  influence,  and  all  the  time  it  was  of  great  ed- 
ucational value.  The  Duma  passed  certain  legislation  which  was 
of  a  progressive  nature,  though  the  majority  of  the  Duma  rep- 
resented the  conservative  landlord  class.    Such  progressive  legis- 


RUSSIA  285 

lation  was,  for  example,  the  law  on  land  settlement,  which  al- 
lowed the  peasants,  who  had  finally  redeemed  the  land  secured 
to  them  at  emancipation,  to  receive  the  land  as  private  property 
and  in  a  single  lot.  The  peasants  had  been  redeeming  and  hold- 
ing the  land  under  a  system  of  communal  tenure  which  had 
brought  with  it  a  system  of  distribution  of  the  land  in  a  large 
number  of  small,  scattered  lots.  The  Duma  law  was  a  modifica- 
tion of  an  administrative  measure  taken  by  the  government  when 
the  Duma  was  not  in  session.  The  amendments  introduced  by 
the  Duma  eliminated  some  of  the  worst  phases  of  the  administra- 
tive measure.  Though  one  may  criticize  the  method  used  to 
bring  about  this  reform  in  peasant  land  tenure,  one  must  admit 
that  it  did  in  actual  fact  introduce  economic  improvement  of  the 
greatest  importance  in  peasant  affairs.  The  Duma  in  191 1  passed 
a  law  providing  for  universal  and  obligatory  primary  education, 
to  be  introduced  in  the  course  of  ten  years.  One  does  not  need 
to  emphasize  the  importance  of  this  law,  which  was  on  the 
whole  an  excellently  formulated  measure  in  its  detailed  pro- 
visions. Finally  the  Duma  passed  a  progressive  Workman  In- 
surance Act  in  that  same  year.  The  Duma  thus  was  clearly 
contributing  to  the  movement  for  liberation,  of  which  it  was  it- 
self a  product. 

The  zemstvos,  during  these  same  years  1908-1914,  presented 
a  somewhat  similar  picture.  At  first  zemstvo  activity  almost 
ceased,  either  because  of  police  repression  or  because  the  reac- 
tionary elements,  under  the  panic  produced  by  the  revolutionary 
excesses  of  1905- 1906,  organized  to  disrupt  the  zemstvos  with 
their  liberal  traditions.  But  soon  zemstvo  work  was  resumed, 
for  it  was  vital  work.  And  the  zemstvos  were  needed,  to  se- 
cure the  success  of  the  land  reform  and  of  the  education  law  of 
the  Duma.  By  1912  the  zemstvo  was  once  mor-e  the  active  force 
which  it  had  been  from  the  very  beginning  of  this  institution  of 
local  self-government. 

In  the  meantime  general  economic  conditions  had  improved, 
and  in  all  classes.  A  series  of  exceptional  crops  contributed  to 
a  general  economic  boom.  Among  the  peasants,  the  develop- 
ment of  a  cooperative  movement  at  once  evidenced  and  con- 
tributed to  the  economic  development.  During  these  years  co- 
operative societies  grew  like  mushrooms.  The  police  watched 
this  growth  with  suspicion.  But  the  government  wished  to  put 
through  the  land  reform  law,  which,  as  we  saw,  was  originally 


286  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

a  government  measure,  and  the  government  saw  in  the  coopera- 
tive movement  a  guarantee  of  the  success  of  its  agrarian  policy. 
The  zemstvos  encouraged  and  assisted  the  cooperative  move- 
ment. And  most  interestingly,  the  radicals,  who  had  for  gen- 
erations been  trying  to  get  into  closer  touch  with  the  peasants, 
saw  and  seized  the  opportunity  offered  in  the  cooperative  socie- 
ties, which  were  springing  up  all  over  peasant  Russia.  Through 
the  cooperative  movement,  the  educated  classes  were  able  finally 
to  effect  a  union  with  the  peasants.  It  was  an  organic  union, 
and  one  based  on  constructive  work — the  organizing  of  cooper- 
ative societies.  In  the  seventies  of  the  last  century  the  same 
radicals  had  gone  down  to  the  villages  to  stir  up  agrarian  dis- 
orders. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  fact  in  Russian  life  of  these  last 
years  has  been  the  cooperative  movement.  By  the  beginning  of 
1914  there  were  more  than  30,000  cooperative  societies,  the  ma- 
jority of  them  organized  in  the  peasant  villages,  with  a  total 
registered  membership  of  more  than  13,000,000.  This  last  figure 
should  be  multiplied  by  five,  the  average  number  of  persons  in 
a  family,  to  give  the  number  of  individuals  in  this  cooperative 
world  that  had  grown  up  in  Russia  during  the  last  ten  years, 
from  the  very  modest  beginnings  of  an  earlier  period.  The 
communal  system  of  land  tenure  had  developed  in  the  peasants 
the  spirit  of  working  together,  which  contributed  to  the  success 
of  the  cooperative  movement. 

Another  important  series  of  facts  must  be  noted  as  one  looks 
back  over  the  last  years  of  Russian  internal  life.  The  economic 
boom  from  1908  on  developed  a  new  spirit  in  Russian  business 
circles.  New  enterprise  was  shown  in  all  branches  of  industry. 
The  enormous  natural  resources  of  the  country  had  been  hardly 
scratched,  and  at  last  attention  was  being  given  to  their  ex- 
ploitation and  development.  To  a  considerable  degree  the  econ- 
omic awakening  was  the  result  of  the  greater  measure  of  liberty 
that  came  with  the  institution  of  the  Duma.  The  business  world 
started  to  organize  and  also  to  protect  its  interests  before  the 
new  legislative  bodies.  As  this  organization  grew,  Russian  busi- 
ness men  came  to  recognize  that  arbitrary  bureaucratic  govern- 
ment was  clearly  inimical  to  their  interests.  Constitutionalism — 
the  standardizing  of  legal  norms — became  a  clear  condition  of 
further  economic  progress.  As  industries  developed,  this  class  of 
the  community  became  more  and  more  important  politically.  One  is 


RUSSIA  287 

inclined  to  think  of  Russia  as  a  predominantly  agricultural  coun- 
try. But  her  industrial  growth  has  been  going  on  at  a  rapid 
pace,  particularly  these  last  years;  and,  as  in  other  countries,  in- 
dustrial development  has  contributed  to  the  rise  of  democracy. 
The  workmen  of  Russia  have  been  organizing  under  the  Work- 
man Insurance  Act  mentioned  above,  again  despite  every  effort 
of  bureaucracy  to  prevent  such  a  movement.  For  bureaucracy, 
all  during  this  period,  was  continuing  to  police,  or  rather  to  at- 
tempt to  police,  the  whole  country.  It  wished  at  least  to  control, 
where  it  saw  that  it  could  not  prevent,  all  manifestations  of  in- 
itiative coming  from  society.  Though  these  efforts  were  in  the 
end  futile,  yet  they  vitiated  Russian  life,  and  cost  Russia  dearly 
in  time  and  in  energy. 

When  the  war  came  the  efforts  of  bureaucracy  to  keep  society 
under  surveillance  and  control  failed  completely.  From  the 
very  start  the  war  was  declared  to  be  a  national  war,  and  Rus- 
sian society  came  forward  to  help  win  the  war.  Then  there  de- 
veloped a  situation  which  it  was  difficult  even  for  the  Russians 
to  realize.  It  took  two  years  and  a  half  to  bring  the  situation 
into  the  clear  light  of  day  and  to  reveal  its  real  nature.  What 
some,  perhaps,  feared  at  the  beginning,  what  many  later  began 
to  suspect,  and  what  all  Russians  finally  to  their  dismay  dis- 
covered, was  that  bureaucracy,  in  its  last  struggle  against  con- 
stitutionalism, had  actually  gone  to  the  length  of  treason.  The 
German  influence  on  Russian  internal  politics  has  been  a  com- 
monplace in  discussions  of  Russian  politics  for  many  years. 
The  Russian  bureaucracy  looked  to  Berlin  for  its  lessons  in  au- 
tocratic and  bureaucratic  government.  We  have  had  specific  in- 
stances where  Berlin  definitely  brought  its  influence  to  bear,  to 
prevent  the  adoption  of  a  more  liberal  policy  by  the  Russian 
government.  These  facts  were  for  the  moment  overlooked 
during  the  first  months  of  the  war.  The  country  rallied  to  the 
support  of  the  government;  the  Duma  voted  its  confidence  in 
the  government,  and  the  appropriations  to  conduct  the  war.  The 
public,  through  the  zemstvos,  offered  to  assist  with  the  many 
problems  raised  by  the  war.  In  all  groups  of  the  community 
there  was  an  "organizing"  movement,  to  mobilize  the  resources 
of  the  country. 

It  was  remarked  by  all  that  the  bureaucracy  seemed  loath  to 
allow  all  this  organizing  work  to  develop.  But  it  was  thought 
that  the  attitude  of  suspicion  of  this  or  that  department— par- 


288  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

ticularly  the  Ministry  of  the  Interior  and  the  Department  of 
Police — was  due  simply  to  bureaucratic  routine  and  the  tradition 
of  the  administrative  system.  The  organization  work  accom- 
plished much  during  the  first  year  of  the  war.  The  All-Russian 
Zemstvos  Union,  and  the  All-Russian  Municipality  Union,  the 
latter  coordinating  the  municipal  councils  of  the  country,  first 
cared  for  the  wounded,  then  gradually  began  to  help  clothe  and 
feed  the  armies  and  care  for  the  refugees.  These  so-called 
"public"  organizations,  representing  the  Russian  public,  as  op- 
posed to  bureaucracy,  gave  to  thousands  of  Russians  an  oppor- 
tunity to  do  service  to  the  country  and  play  a  real  role  in  public 
life.  This  was  a  privilege  for  which  they  had  been  struggling, 
and  also  preparing  themselves,  for  many  years.  But  this  activity 
of  the  public  organizations  was  restricted.  Though  encouraged 
by  some  departments  of  the  government,  the  public  organiza- 
tions were  subjected  to  constant  interference  from  the  Ministry 
of  the  Interior.  Then  came  the  disasters  of  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer of  1915,  when  it  became  clear  that  bureaucracy  had  not  ad- 
equately provided  for  the  supply  of  the  army. 

At  the  same  time,  during  the  first  year  of  the  war,  the  min- 
isters responsible  for  the  internal  policy  of  the  government  had 
continued  the  attitude  of  suspicion  and  intolerance  toward  the 
non-Russian  elements  of  the  Empire,  the  policy  which  was  char- 
acteristic of  the  reactionary  regime  of  previous  years.  All  the 
non-Russian  elements  had  unequivocally  declared  their  loyalty 
to  Russia  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  had  proven  their 
loyalty  by  acts.  What  was  the  explanation  of  a  policy  which 
was,  on  the  one  hand,  preventing  Russia  from  organizing  to  the 
full  measure  of  her  resources,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  was- 
clearly  directed  against  the  unity  of  feeling  and  action  which 
marked  the  national  movement  at  the  beginning  of  the  war?  In 
September,  1915,  a  prominent  Russian  said  to  me :  "If  the 
Kaiser  had  controlled  the  appointment  of  some  of  our  ministers 
during  the  first  year  of  the  war,  he  could  not  have  chosen  better 
men  for  his  purposes."  This  phrase  expressed  the  opinion  of 
many  Russians.  A  few  months  before,  the  reactionary  ministers 
had  been  forced  to  resign  because  of  the  pressure  of  public  opin- 
ion. The  Duma  had  been .  convened  as  the  result  of  a  popular 
demand  now  clearly  articulate  through  the  public  organizations 
working  for  the  army.  To  the  two  organizations  already  men- 
tioned had  been  added  War-Industry  Committees,  opened  in  all. 


RUSSIA  289 

the  industrial  centres,  on  which  workmen  as  well  as  manufactur- 
ers were  represented.  The  cooperative  societies  have  succeeded 
in  coordinating  their  work,  despite  the  fact  that  a  Central  Coop- 
erative Committee,  which  they  had  organized,  was  closed  down 
by  the  Minister  of  the  Interior. 

In  September,  1915,  the  Duma  organized  a  "Progressive 
Bloc,"  representing  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the  Duma. 
The  Duma  drew  up  a  programme  of  measures  to  be  introduced 
immediately  as  war  measures,  to  unify  and  strengthen  the  coun- 
try for  the  more  vigorous  and  successful  prosecution  of  the 
war.  As  a  guarantee  that  this  programme  be  carried  out,  and 
that  the  public  organizations  be  allowed  to  work  to  the  full  ex- 
tent of  their  resources,  the  Duma  demanded  a  government  en- 
joying the  confidence  of  the  public.  It  wished  a  pledge  that  the 
government  would  cooperate  with  the  country  to  win  the  war. 
A  majority  of  the  ministers  then  in  office  did  enjoy  the  con- 
fidence of  the  Duma.  But  their  colleagues,  though  a  minority, 
were  distrusted.  For  it  was  this  small  reactionary  group  that 
was  responsible  for  the  deliberate  restriction  of  public  initiative, 
and  for  the  measures  clearly  tending  to  disrupt  the  unity  of  the 
country.  The  Duma  demand  was  answered  by  a  dissolution  of 
the  Duma;  the  reactionary  minority  had  won  the  day,  persuad- 
ing the  Sovereign  not  to  listen  to  the  demands.  The  challenge 
to  the  country  was  clear  and  direct.  How  did  the  country  an- 
swer? 

I  have  indicated  the  active  work  being  done  by  the  zemstvos, 
organized  in  the  Zemstvo  Union,  with  the  illustration  of  young 
Bakunin.  This  represented  the  general  picture  of  "Russia  or- 
ganizing for  victory,"  trying  to  mobilize  all  her  forces  in  the 
rear,  to  support  the  army  fighting  at  the  front.  But  an  internal 
struggle  was  going  on  during  all  last  year,  which  can  be  sum- 
marized in  a  few  sentences.  A  reactionary  group  in  Petrograd 
controlling  the  all-powerful  Ministry  of  the  Interior  was  at- 
tempting to  confine  public  efforts  to  narrow  limits,  and  to  con- 
trol where  it  was  unable  to  restrict.  But  the  public  organizations 
were  working  for  the  army,  and  the  army  knew  that  it  would 
starve  without  these  public  organizations.  The  public  organiza- 
tions were  developing  with  every  month  of  the  war,  despite  the 
now  frantic  efforts  of  the  reactionary  group.  The  Duma  was 
again  convened,  under  the  pressure  of  public  opinion,  and  again 
from  its  tribune  revealed  to  the  public  what  was  going  on.  Then 


290  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

at  the  last  the  situation  became  transparent  and  it  was  realized 
that  a  treasonable  intrigue  was  going  on.  Members  of  the  gov- 
ernment were  associated  with  the  intrigue.  Every  effort  was 
made  to  save  the  Sovereign,  by  convincing  him  that  he  was  being 
betrayed  by  some  of  his  own  ministers,  as  well  as  by  extra-gov- 
ernmental influences.  But  it  was  impossible  to  reach  his  ear. 
With  the  facts  of  the  intrigue  made  public,  the  Russian  people 
finally,  after  generations  of  education  and  preparatory  work, 
came  forward  and  took  over  the  government  of  the  country. 
The  ministers  were  arrested,  the  Sovereign  forced  to  abdicate 
and  later  put  under  arrest;  and  the  leaders  of  the  public  were 
established  as  a  provisional  government.  And  the  change  was 
brought  about  in  eight  days  with  practically  no  bloodshed.  Was 
it  a  revolution?  Was  it  not  rather  the  final  stage  of  a  move- 
ment for  liberation,  the  first  stages  of  which  can  be  seen  as  far 
back  as  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  and  which  took  more 
definite  form  from  the  middle  of  the  last  century? 

The  political  leadership  in  the  recent  events  came  from  the 
Duma,  which  was  introduced  ten  years  ago  as  the  first  step  to- 
ward constitutional  government.  For  ten  years  the  Duma  had 
been  working  toward  responsible  government,  which  would  defin- 
itely secure  a  constitutional  regime.  But  the  Duma  could  not 
have  assumed  the  leadership,  had  it  not  been  supported  by  an 
organized  public.  And  the  public  was  organized  in  the  Zemstvos 
Union,  Municipal  Union,  War-Industry  Committees,  and  Co- 
operative Societies.  Through  these  four  kinds  of  public  organ- 
izations every  group  of  the  community  was  represented  in  the 
movement.  In  the  new  government  each  group  was  given  its 
representative :  landlord,  manufacturer,  merchant,  lawyer,  doc- 
tor, writer,  peasant,  and  workman.  The  public  organizations 
were  working  for  the  army,  feeding  and  clothing  it,  and  sup- 
plying it  with  ammunition.  The  army  knew  this — the  soldier 
would  see  the  emblem  of  the  Zemstvos  Union  when  he  put  on 
his  coat.  Also  the  army  had  become  a  national  army,  for  the 
reserves  of  all  classes  had  been  called  to  the  colors,  and  the 
Russian  army  was  the  Russian  people  in  arms,  supported  by  the 
Russian  people  working  in  the  public  organizations.  The  change 
has  been  accomplished  so  easily  because  of  this  preliminary  or- 
ganizing of  the  country.  The  local  representatives  of  the  Min- 
ister of  the  Interior,  the  governors  of  the  province,  the  head 
"policemen,"  have  very  simply  been  replaced  by  the  elected  head 


RUSSIA  291 

of  the  zemstvo  councils  of  the  province.  No  further  disorgan- 
ization resulted  from  the  change,  because  the  aim  of  the  revolu- 
tion was  to  put  an  end  to  the  deliberate  attempts  to  disorganize 
the  country.  All  groups,  especially  the  workmen,  refrained  from 
acts  of  violence  and  excesses  because  all  knew  that  there  bad 
been  a  deliberate  attempt  by  some  of  the  ministers  now  under  ar- 
rest to  provoke  such  excesses.  The  plan  of  the  reactionaries 
was  seen  to  have  been  the  following:  By  curtailing  the  public 
organizations  the  army  would  be  left  without  adequate  supplies. 
The  industrial  centres  would  be  allowed  to  run  short  of  food, 
and  agitators — police  agents — would  try  to  stir  up  strikes  among 
the  workmen.  If  the  plan  had  worked  out,  there  would  have 
been  a  revolution,  that  is,  disorders  and  rioting.  Should  the 
enemy  then  propose  another  peace  conference,  it  would  have 
been  possible,  because  of  the  internal  situation  in  Russia,  to  urge 
England  and  France  to  consider  the  German  proposal. 

Faced  with  such  treasonable  activity  on  the  part  of  members 
of  the  government,  the  Russian  people  had  to  act  to  save  not  only 
their  honor  in  the  pledge  to  their  Allies,  but  to  save  themselves 
from  being  "sold  out." 

FACTORS  IN  THE  RUSSIAN  REVOLUTION^ 

The  great  revolution  in  Russia  is  only  the  epilogue  to  the  great 
drama  played  in  Russia,  one  act  after  another,  for  the  last  twelve 
/ears.  The  first  act  of  this  drama  was  the  revolution  of  1905, 
which  came  at  the  conclusion  of  peace  with  Japan.  As  the  re- 
sult of  the  revolutionary  movement  which  in  October,  1905, 
culminated  in  a  general  political  strike,  when  all  industrial  life 
and  railroad  transportation  was  stopped  in  Russia,  came  the  fam- 
ous Czar's  manifesto  of  Oct.  17,  (30.) 

In  this  manifesto  the  Czar  promised  in  the  most  categorical^ 
form,  that  the  people  of  Russia  would  enjoy  the  highest  form  of 
political  freedom,  that  the  suffrage  law  governing  election  to  the 
Duma  would  be  changed  so  that  voting  would  become  universal, 
that  the  legislative  power  of  the  empire  would  be  vested  from 
then  on  in  the  Imperial  Duma,  the  Imperial  Council  and  the 
Czar,  and  that  without  the  consent  of  the  Duma  no  new  law 
could  be  introduced  nor  any  existing  law  be  changed. 

*  By  A.  J.  Sack.  Current  History  Magazine  of  the  New  York  Times. 
6:473-8*  June,   19 1 7. 


292  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

On  April  27  (May  10)  the  First  Duma  was  convened.  The 
entire  country  showed  its  opposition  to  the  old  regime  by  choos- 
ing as  Deputies  people  most  prominent  in  the  liberal  movement. 
The  Socialists  did  not  participate  in  the  campaign  for  the  First 
Duma,  declaring  a  boycott  because  of  their  disapproval  of  the 
undemocratic  suffrage  laws.  The  majority  in  the  First  Duma 
was  held  by  the  Constitutional  Democrats.  This  fact,  in  view 
of  the  undemocratic  suffrage  system  and  the  refusal  of  the 
Socialists  to  participate  in  the  election,  shows  that,  although  the 
First  Duma  was  in  strong  opposition  to  the  old  regime,  the 
country  was  even  more  radically  opposed  to  the  Czar's  govern- 
ment than  the  Duma. 

The  first  act  of  the  First  Duma  was  a  demand  for  general 
amnesty  for "alTpoliticai  Qtrendprs  itL_.K-Ussia.  Ihe  hrst  Russian 
Parliament  solemnly  recognized  the  revolt  against  the  old  gov- 
ernment as  a  legitimate  fight  for  the  rights  of  the  nation,  pro- 
nouncing every  participant  a  hero.  The  main  political  demand  of 
the  First  Duma  was  the  demand  for  the  responsibility  of  the 
Ministers  to  the  legislative  bodies.  "The  executive  power  should 
be  subordinate  to  the  legislative  power" ;  this  was  the  conclusion 
of  the  famous  speech  made  by  Deputy  V.  D.  Nabokoff,  who  gave 
perfect  expression  to  the  fundamental  political  desires  of  the 
first  Russian  Parliament. 


First  Duma's  Reform  Plans 

In  an  address  presented  to  the  Czar  the  First  Duma  outlined 
a  full  program  of  reforms  urgently  needed  for  the  country.  The 
Parliament  demanded  full  political  freedom,  responsibility  of  the 
Cabinet  of  Ministers  to  the  legislative  bodies,  autonomy  for 
Poland  and  Finland,  democratization  of  the  suffrage  law  govern- 
ing election  of  members  to  the  Imperial  Duma,  democratization 
of  the  local  self-governing  bodies,  (municipalities  and  zemstvos,) 
radical  changes  in  the  social  legislation  referring  to  the  workers, 
increased  land  holdings  for  the  peasants,  etc.  If  the  program  of 
the  First  Duma  had  been  carried  out  Russia  would  have  become 
a  constitutional  monarchy  of  the  English  type,  with  very  progress- 
ive social  legislation. 

The  First  Duma  was  dismissed,  although  its  demands  were 
quite  moderate  in  view  of  the  spirit  of  the  country.  The  Second 
Duma  was  called,  and  in  this  campaign  the  Socialist  factions  in 


RUSSIA  293 

Russia  participated  in  full.  As  a  result  the  country,  angered  by 
the  opposition  of  the  old  regime,  sent  to  Parliament  about  120 
Socialists.  The  Constitutional  Democrats  came  into  the  Second 
Duma  again  as  a  very  strong  faction,  although  this  time  they  did 
not  hold  the  majority. 

The  Second  Duma,  which  gathered  in  the  Fall  of  1906,  was 
the  culminating  point  in  the  first  Russian  revolution.  The  revo- 
lutionary forces  of  the  country  seemed  to  be  at  their  fullest 
strength  at  that  time,  and,  nevertheless,  certain  symptoms  of  the 
coming  reaction  were  already  visible.  The  demands  of  the 
Socialists  had  been  terrorizing  the  moderate  liberal  elements  so 
that  these  finally  gave  their  support  to  the  Czar's  government, 
which  began  to  fight  the  revolution  openly. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  summer  of  1907  the  Second  Duma 
was  dismissed;  part  of  the  Socialist  Deputies  were  sentenced  to 
Siberia,  and  the  suffrage  laws  were  changed  by  the  Czar,  so  that 
Russian  democracy  was  practically  deprived  of  representation, 
although  in  the  manifesto  of  Oct.  17  (30)  it  had  been  solemnly 
promised  that  no  law  would  be  changed  or  introduced  in  the  em- 
pire without  the  consent  of  the  legislative  bodies  represented 
by  the  Duma  and  Imperial  Council. 

Failure  of  the  Movement 

The  principal  revolutionary  forces  during  the  first  uprising  in 
Russia  were  the  workers,  who  demanHen  p9lit^i<^aLlI^jJ-9!IlL.I!^ 
right  to  organize,  and  progressive  rgpn^inrpt;  in  gnrial  Ipp-kl^Hnn ; 
the  peasants,  whose  chief  demand  was  land  and  equality  of  rights 
with  all  r)t^(^r  Haggpc  in  Kiissia*  the  ditterent  naiioflalities,  thfe 
Polish,  Finnish,  Jewish,  and  other  elements,  who  demanded 
autonomy  or  equal  rights ;  and  the  capitalistic^class,  the~!)ourgeoi- 
sie.  wTio  had  becomfe-an.inflnpnfinl  fartor  in  Russia's  economic 
life  with  the  development  of  capitalism.  None  of  these  groups 
was  satisfied  with  the  results  of  the  revolution.  The  country 
did  not  receive  even  elementary  political  rights,  the  workers  did 
not  receive  the  right  to  organize,  tl^?  p^^a^antg  rprpivpfi  np  |an3. 
Finland  was  deprived  of  her  Constitution.  Ppland  was  as  op- 
oressed  as  before,  tb^  gnff^nngs  nf  thp  Jpwg  daily  bf^eajtne'mofg 
and  more  unbearable. 

The  first  Russian  revolution  brought  the  country  no  gains, 
and  the  reaction  which  came  at  the  beginning  of  1907  was  a  re- 
action more  of  psychological  than  of  sociological  nature.    The 


il)J^' 


294  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

great  country  quieted  down  almost  completely,  not  because  the 
great  tasks  of  the  first  revolution  were  accomplished,  but  be- 
cause the  country  was  exhausted  from  the  battle  with  the  old 
regime.  The  demands  made  by  the  First  Duma,  very  much  more 
moderate  than  the  country  it  represented,  showed  that  the  entire 
nation  was  opposed  to  the  Czar's  government.  But  the  nobility 
was  still  with  the  Czar,  and  the  government  had  at  its  service  the 
powerful  machinery  of  the  police  and  almost  the  entire  army, 
officered  mostly  by  Russian  noblemen,  blindly  devoted  to  the 
throne. 

The  reaction,  the  darkest  reaction  in  Russia's  national  history, 
began  at  the  beginning  of  1906.  It  is  interesting  to  observe  that 
the  culminating  point  of  this  reaction  was  the  Fall  of  1907,  when, 
in  October,  Professor  S.  A.  Mouromtzeff,  the  President  of  the 
First  Duma,  the  most  respected  citizen  of  Russia,  the  symbol 
of  the  longing  for  freedom  in  Russia,  died,  and  in  November, 
Leo  Tolstoy,  the  greatest  genius  Russia  has  contributed  to  the 
world's  culture.  These  deaths  seemed  to  awaken  the  great  coun- 
try. The  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  on  the  streets  of 
Moscow  at  the  funeral  of  Professor  Mouromtzeff,  the  thousands 
of  people  and  delegates  coming  from  all  parts  of  Russia  on 
special  trains  to  the  little  village  where  Tolstoy  was  to  be  buried, 
the  public  speeches  made  in  these  days,  significant  for  Russia's 
culture — all  these  showed  that  the  country  was  awakening  from 
its  deep  sleep  to  new  political  and  cultural  activities. 

The  New  Reform  Movement 

The  Fall  of  1910  may  be  marked  as  the  beginning  of  the  new 
movement  against  the  Czar's  government.  It  had  taken  four 
years  for  the  reaction  to  reach  its  lowest  mark — from  the  begin- 
ning of  1906  to  the  end  of  1910 — and  it  took  another  four  years 
for  the  country,  awakened  to  political  activities,  to  reach  again 
the  boiling  point  of  revolution.  In  July,  1914,  just  before  the 
war,  400,000  Petrograd  workers  went  out  on  political  strike  and 
the  streets  of  Petrograd  were  covered  with  barricades. 

This  time  the  united  country  again  faced  the  government  as 
an  enemy.  The  same  elements  that  had  participated  in  the  first 
revolution  faced  the  Czar's  government,  ready  to  fight,  only  now 
they  were  more  educated  and  the  moderate  elements  among  them 
more  determined  than  during  the  first  revolution.  The  cruel 
policy  of  the  government  during  the  time  of  reaction  and  the 


RUSSIA  295 

illuminating  speeches  in  the  Duma,  from  day  to  day,  explaining 
to  the  people  the  dramatic  political  situation  in  the  country,  bore 
great  results.  The  moderate  elements,  who,  terrified  at  the 
Socialists^  demands  during  the  first  revolution,  had  given  their 
support  to  the  government,  now  abandoned  it.  In  July,  1914,  the 
government  again  faced  a  united  front  of  all  the  progressive 
forces  of  the  country,  a  powerful  coalition  led,  as  in  1905,  by  the 
fighting  vanguard  of  the  revolution,  the  Petrograd  workers. 

Policy  of  Russian  Democracy 

Then  suddenly  came  the  war,  which  was  immediately  recog- 
nized by  all  the  revolutionary  forces  in  Russia  as  the  war  of 
justice  on  the  side  of  the  Allies,  as  the  war  for  freedom  and  civi- 
lization in  Europe.  The  revolutionary  elements  decided  tem- 
porarily to  abandon  the  internal  conflict  and  to  concentrate  all 
the  attention  of  the  democratic  forces  on  carrying  on  the  war  till 
German  militarism  should  be  broken.  This  was  an  invaluable 
service  rendered  in  this  critical  moment  by  Russian  radical  and 
Socialist  leaders  to  their  country  and  to  all  humanity.  Such 
prominent  leaders  as  the  old  Prince  Kropotkin,  as  George 
Plechanov,  the  founder  of  Russian  Social-Democracy,  as  Vladi- 
mir Bourtzeff,  indorsed  the  war  on  the  side  of  the  Allies  from  the 
very  beginning  and  helped  the  Allies'  cause  with  their  powerful 
influence  on  the  democratic  masses  of  Russia.  For  the  same 
end  was  that  famous  Socialist  appeal  made  to  the  country,  the 
appeal  signed  by  Plechanov,  Deutsch,  Alexinsky,  and  Arkseniew. 

Russian  deTnorrary  stopped  the  rpvninfinn  in  JiilV)  TQTrj  hpnimf> 
of  the  war.  Russian  democracy  again  started  the  revolution  and 
gloriously  accomplished  it,  also  for  the  sake  of  the  war.  The 
Czar's  government  showed  itself  incapable  not  only  of  governing 
but  also  of  defending  the  country.  Inefficiency,  grave  and  in 
many  cases  direct  treachery,  marked  the  activities  of  the  Czar's 
government,  which  was  not  very  enthusiastic  in  the  war  for 
democracy  and  justice  in  Europe.  When  it  became  evident  that 
under  the  old  government  the  defeat  of  Russia  was  inevitable, 
Russian  democracy  raised  its  hands  and  took  into  them  the  fate 
of  the  country. 

Among  the  events  occurring  in  Russia  immediately  after  the 
revolution,  one  of  the  most  important  was  the  National  Confer- 
ence of  the  Constitutional-Democratic  Party,  the  leader  of  which. 
Professor  Paul  Miliukoff,  became  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs 

21 


296  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

after  the  revolution.  As  I  have  said  before,  the  Constitutional- 
Democratic  Party  held  the  majority  in  the  First  Duma,  and  had 
strong,  influential  factions  in  the  Second,  Third  and  Fourth 
Dumas. 

This  party,  led  by  such  prominent  men  as  the  late  Professor 
S.  A.  Mouromtzeff,  Professor  Paul  Miliukoff,  A.  L  Shingareff, 
Prince  Paul  Dolgoroukoff,  Prince  D.  Shakhovskoy,  M.  M.  Vina- 
ver,  and  others,  rendered  invaluable  service  to  the  cause  of  Rus- 
sian liberty.  It  would  surprise  no  one  in  Russia  if,  out  of  the 
about  600  proposed  seats  in  the  future  Constituent  Assembly,  the 
Constitutional  Democratic  Party  hold  from  300  to  350. 

About  1,500  delegates  from  all  parts  of  Russia  came  to  the 
National  Conference  of  the  Constitutional-Democratic  Party. 
Prince  Paul  Dolgoroukoff,  the  Chairman  of  the  Central  Com- 
mittee of  the  party,  opened  the  conference,  presided  over  by 
M.  M.  Vinaver,  the  newly  appointed  Jewish  Senator. 

Two  Important  Reports 

There  were  two  important  events  at  this  conference.  The 
first  was  the  report  by  Professor  F.  F.  Kokoshkin,  member  of 
the  First  Duma  and  one  of  the  greatest  authorities  on  constitu- 
tional law,  who  insisted  that  the  party  abandon  the  principle  of 
constitutional  monarchy  and  proclaim  for  a  republican  form  of 
government.  Professor  Kokoshkin  declared  himself  in  favor  of 
Presidential  election  by  direct  vote  and  responsibility  of  the 
Cabinet  to  the  Parliament,  as  in  France. 

Professor  Kokoshkin's  report  was  eagerly  supported  by  Prince 
Eugene  Troubetzkoy,  one  of  Russia's  leading  men,  former  Pro- 
fessor of  the  University  of  Moscow  and  member  of  the  Imperial 
Council,  who,  as  a  big  landowner  thoroughly  acquainted  with 
conditions  in  the  Russian  villages,  reflected  the  spirit  of  the  Rus- 
sian peasantry  toward  the  revolution.  Prince  Troubetzkoy  re- 
ported that  under  the  terrible  experiences  of  the  war  the  peasants 
had,  during  the  last  two  and  a  half  years,  lost  entirely  their 
former  almost  religious  belief  in  the  Czar.  According  to  Prince 
Troubetzkoy's  report,  "the  Czar  is  now  for  the  peasants  only  a 
symbol  of  police,  graft,  and  all  kinds  of  vice."  The  convention 
accepted  unanimously  the  recommendations  of  Professor  Ko- 
koshkin and  Prince  Eugene  Troubetzkoy,  proclaiming  for  a 
republican  form  of  government. 


RUSSIA  297 

It  may  be  expected  that,  aside  from  the  Constitutional-Demo- 
crats, with  their  300  or  350  seats  in  the  Constituent  Assembly, 
150  to  200  seats  will  belong  to  different  Socialist  factions.  The 
decision  of  the  Constitutional-Democratic  Party  practically  de- 
cides the  question  of  the  form  of  the  future  government  of  Rus- 
sia. If  not  unanimously,  then  by  an  overwhelming  majority  the 
Constituent  Assembly  will  proclaim  a  republican  government 
for  Russia. 

The  other  significant  moment  in  this  National  Conference 
occurred  when  Professor  Paul  Miliukoff,  the  leader  of  the  party 
and  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs,  made  his  speech.  Probably, 
for  the  first  time  in  his  political  career,  Professor  Miliukoff  paid 
tribute  to  his  political  adversaries,  the  Russian  Socialists.  In  a 
speech  enthusiastically  greeted  by  the  entire  conference.  Professor 
Miliukoff  pointed  out  the  invaluable  service  rendered  the  country 
by  the  Socialists  during  these  critical  days.  The  Socialists  were 
the  fighting  power  of  the  revolution ;  they  bravely  faced  the  police 
and  the  troops,  and  paid  with  their  blood  for  Russian  freedom. 
In  addition,  it  was  Socialist  organization  that  kept  order  in  Rus- 
sia after  the  revolution  and  saved  the  country  from  the  worst 
kind  of  anarchy.  In  the  same  spirit  as  Professor  Miliukoff's 
speech  was  the  speech  of  Mr.  Nekrasov,  a  prominent  leader  of 
the  Constitutional-Democratic  Party  and  the  new  Secretary  of 
Means  of  Transportation. 

Result  of  a  Coalition 

The  revolution  in  Russia  was  accomplished  by  a  coalition  of 
liberal  and  Socialist  forces.  And  this  coalition  will  build  the 
new  Russia.  To  understand  Russian  political  life  at  the  present 
time  means  to  understand  the  real  nature  of  liberalism  and 
socialism  in  Russia.  Russian  liberalism,  as  represented  by  the 
Constitutional-Democratic  Party,  is  quite  well  known  in  this 
country.  As  for  Russian  socialism,  until  now  it  has  been  terra 
incognita  for  the  American  public. 

First  of  all,  socialism  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  factors 
in  Russian  political  life.  In  the  United  States  the  labor  move- 
ment and  socialism  are  two  distinct  forces,  whereas  in  Russia 
these  two  forces  are  united  in  one.  In  the  United  States  the 
Federation  of  Labor,  representing  over  2,000,000  workers,  has 
no  relation  to  the  socialist  movement  of  the  country,  whereas 


298  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

in  Russia  every  organized  worker  is  a  Socialist  and  all  the  labor 
unions  are  socialistic. 

The  Socialist  Party  of  the  United  States  has  only  one  repre- 
sentative in  Congress,  whereas  Russian  socialist  factions  had 
120  representatives  in  the  Second  Duma  and  about  thirty  in  the 
Third  and  Fourth  Dumas,  chosen  during  the  time  of  darkest  re- 
action under  the  most  undemocratic  suffrage  system. 

Hence,  we  have  the  difference  in  the  nature  of  the  Russian 
and  American  socialism.  Socialism  in  the  United  States  is  a 
small  movement,  without  any  real  influence  on  the  political  life, 
and  therefore  I  would  venture  to  say  without  any  sense  of 
responsibility  for  its  actions.  If  it  were  an  influential  factor  it 
would  probably  not  have  accepted  resolutions  of  the  kind  passed 
by  the  last  conference  of  the  American  Socialist  Party  at  St. 
Louis. 

Russian  socialism  is  more  like  Belgian  and  French  socialism. 
As  Belgian  and  French  Socialists  from  the  very  beginning  in- 
dorsed the  war  on  the  side  of  the  Allies,  so  did  the  Russian 
Socialists.  As  the  Belgian  and  French  Socialists,  who,  under- 
standing their  responsibility  toward  their  countries  and  humanity, 
delegated  Vandervelde,  Guede,  Semba,  and  Toma  as  their  rep- 
resentatives in  the  Cabinets,  so  did  the  Russian  Socialists,  send- 
ing as  their  representative  the  new  Secretary  of  Justice,  Deputy 
Kerensky. 

Authority  of  Present  Cabinet 

Several  facts  in  connection  with  the  recent  revolution  really 
illumine  the  present  political  situation  in  Russia.  The  first  fact 
is  that  the  present  Russian  Cabinet  was  appointed  at  a  joint  ses- 
sion of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Duma  and  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Petrograd  Council  of  Workingmen  and 
Soldiers.  It  was  at  the  moment  when  all  Petrograd  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  revolutionists,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  at  that 
moment  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Council  of  Workingmen 
and  Soldiers  had  sufficient  power  to  take  all  the  political  ma- 
chinery in  its  own  hands.  At  this  critical  moment  the  Russian 
Socialists  showed  real  statesmanship.  They  agreed  to  a  Coalition 
Cabinet  and  to  the  appointment  of  A.  I.  Gouchkoff  as  Secretary 
of  War  and  Navy.  This  appointment  was  very  significant.  Mr. 
Gouchkoff  until  the  revolution  was  a  very  conservative  man,  very 
unpopular  in  Russia   for  his  political  views,  but  everybody  in 


RUSSIA  ^ 

Russia  respected  his  sincere  patriotism  and  his  organizing  ability.* 
Russian  Socialists  consenting  to  the  appointment  of  Mr. 
Gouchkoff  indorsed  thereby,  once  more,  the  war  against  Germany, 
and  the  necessity  of  strong  discipline  on  the  fighting  lines.  Con- 
senting further  to  the  appointment  of  Professor  Paul  Miliukoff 
as  Foreign  Secretary,  Russian  Socialists  consented  to  the  prin- 
ciple that  no  separate  peace  is  possible  for  Russia,  that  the  only 
peace  she  will  conclude  will  be  a  general  peace  in  full  accordance 
with  her  allies. 

The  latest  events  in  Petrograd  do  not  contradict  this  state- 
ment. We  may  disagree  with  this  movement  entirely,  or  we  may 
see  certain  weak  points  in  it,  but  it  is  only  fair  to  recognize  that 
this  is  a  movement  not  for  a  separate  but  for  a  general  peace. 
One  of  the  leaders  of  this  movement  is  Prince  Tzeretelli,  the 
former  leader  of  the  Social-Democratic  faction  in  the  Second 
Duma.  Prince  Tzeretelli  is  one  of  the  most  noble  figures  in 
Russian  life.  A  brilliant  speaker,  always  enthusiastic,  always 
idealistic,  he  is  respected  in  Russia  by  all  factions. 

Career  of  Tzeretelli 

When  the  Second  Duma  was  dismissed  and  it  became  known 
that  the  Socialist  Deputies  would  be  arrested  and  tried,  some 
of  the  influential  friends  of  Prince  Tzeretelli  prepared  every- 
thing for  his  escape  abroad,  but  Tzeretelli  flatly  refused  to  go. 
"I  am  a  representative  of  the  people,"  he  answered  his  friend 
in  a  quiet  but  determined  tone.  "I  work  for  the  people  and  do 
not  see  why  I  should  escape  if  the  police  want  me."  He  was 
arrested,  tried,  and  sentenced  to  hard  labor.  He  was  sent  to 
Siberia,  and  then  from  time  to  time  news  came  to  Petrograd 
that  he  was  dying  of  tuberculosis  in  his  prison  cell.  In  spite 
of  many  petitions  the  Czar's  government  refused  to  do  anything 
to  ease  Tzeretelli's  fate,  and  nobody  in  Russia  expected  to  see 
him  again  leading  the  democratic  masses. 

Being  liberated  after  the  revolution,  Tzeretelli  went  directly 
to  Petrograd.  Knowing  from  dispatches  that  the  Council  of 
Workingmen  and  Soldiers  in  Petrograd  was  engaged  at  a  special 
meeting  preparing  a  resolution  which  would  show  the  council's 
position  toward  the  provisional  government  and  the  war,  Tzere- 
telli sent  a  telegram  to  the  meeting  introducing  his  own  resolu- 

•  Mr.  GouchkofT,  Secretary  of  War,  resigned  from  the  Cabinet  on  May 
14,  1917. 


300  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

tion.  The  resolution  insisted  on  support  for  the  provisional 
government  and  the  war  until  German  militarism  be  entirely 
broken,  and  it  was  enthusiastically  accepted  by  the  council. 

Tzeretelli's  name  is  almost  holy  for  the  Petrograd  workers 
and  for  the  Russian  workers  in  general.  He  is,  together  with 
his  friends,  Chkheidze  and  Skobeleff,  practically  the  ruling  spirit 
of  the  movement  in  Petrograd.  Neither  Tzeretelli  nor  Chkheidze 
or  Skobeleff  is  for  a  separate  peace.  According  to  their  views 
the  allied  democracy  must  fight  until  not  a  single  German  soldier 
is  left  in  Belgium,  in  the  northern  provinces  of  France,  in  Serbia, 
or  in  Russian  Poland.  Peace  is  impossible  for  them  without  the 
full  restoration  of  all  parts  of  the  Allies'  territories  occupied  by 
the  Central  Powers. 

The  future  peace  for  Russian  Socialists  is  a  general  peace 
that  will  bring  peace  for  all  Europe  and  bring  it  forever.  Their 
peace  program  is  quite  misunderstood  in  this  country,  although 
probably  it  possesses  all  the  qualities  which  should  make  it  meet 
with  approval  here.  The  allied  countries  need  not  fear.  The 
Russian  democracy  is  not  thinking  of  and  would  never  consider 
a  separate  peace.  As  for  a  general  peace,  Russian  democracy  de- 
sires the  kind  of  peace  outlined  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States  in  his  famous  address  to  Congress. 


RUSSIA'S   FUTURE:  THE  BASIS   OF  HOPE 

FOR  HER  PERMANENT  DEMOCRATIC 

DEVELOPMENT 

The  development  of  Russian  economic  life  during  the  ten 
years  between  the  Russo-Japanese  and  the  present  war  has  been 
very  remarkable  even  under  the  most  adverse  circumstances. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  these  ten  years  were  the  years  of 
darkest  reaction  in  Russia,  probably  the  most  pitiful,  the  most 
unfortunate  years  in  Russian  national  history.  Nevertheless, 
during  these  ten  years  the  national  wealth  of  Russia  had  almost 
doubled. 

Before  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  in  1901,  Russia  produced 
16,750,000  tons  of  coal.  Ten  years  later,  in  191 1,  Russia  yielded 
31,116,667  tons  of  coal,  about  eighty-six  per  cent  more' than  in 

*By  A.  J.  Sack.    Outlook.  115:691-2.  April  18,  1917. 


RUSSIA  301 

1901.  Just  before  the  present  war  Russia  was  producing  more 
than  40,000,000  tons  annually. 

The  amount  of  copper  smelted  in  Russia  in  1901  was  only 
9,633  tons.  In  191 1  this  amount  had  increased  to  26,060  tons. 
Just  prior  to  the  war  it  totaled  about  40,000  tons.  The  progress 
in  copper  production  is  analogous  with  the  development  in  all 
the  metallic  industries  in  Russia.  The  quantity  of  pig  iron  pro- 
duced was  almost  doubled  during  the  last  three  years,  reaching 
an  amount  more  than  5,000,000  tons  just  before  the  war. 

Agricultural  production  in  Russia  developed  along  the  same 
lines.  In  1901  an  area  of  214,500,000  acres  was  sowed  in  main 
agricultural  products,  whereas  in  1910-11  the  number  of  acres 
planted  was  246,000,000.  The  yield  in  1901  was  54,167,000  tons, 
and  in  1910-11  it  amounted  to  74,168,000  tons. 

Naturally,  with  the  development  of  Russian  industries  Rus- 
sian trade  developed  also.  The  number  of  Russian  commercial 
houses  increased  from  862,000  in  1901  to  1,177,000  in  1911.  Just 
preceding  the  war  the  number  of  commercial  houses  amounted 
to  about  1,500,000. 

The  joint  stock  company  is  a  very  important  feature  of  Rus- 
sian industrial  development.  Many  Russian  manufacturing  es- 
tablishments are  organized  in  the  form  of  joint  stock  companies. 
During  the  five  years  1903-7,  419  joint  stock  companies  be- 
gan operating  in  Russia,  with  a  capital  of  $180,540,000.  Dur- 
ing the  following  five  years,  1907-11,  778  joint  stock  companies 
were  in  action,  with  a  capital  of  $453,900,000.  Just  prior  to  the 
war,  in  1913,  235  new  joint  stock  companies  were  organized,  with 
a  capital  of  about  $204,000,000.  The  capital  of  the  joint  stock 
companies  has  increased  about  half  a  billion  dollars  since  191 1, 
reaching  a  total  of  $2,022,150,000  before  the  war.  Of  this 
$299,370,000  was  foreign  capital. 

Simultaneously  with  the  wonderful  economic  and  trade  de- 
velopment in  Russia  there  developed  also  the  finance  of  the  vast 
country.  The  money  in  Russian  banks  and  in  circulation  multi- 
plied from  $918,000,000  to  $1,938,000,000  during  the  last  ten 
years,  an  increase  of  about  one  hundred  and  eleven  per  cent. 
The  amount  of  securities  in  circulation  grew  from  $4,233,000,000 
to  $6,783,000,000,  an  increase  of  about  sixty  per  cent.  The  de- 
posits in  the  Russian  State  Bank,  Societies  for  Mutual  Credit, 
share  banks  and  city  banks  on  January  i,  1913,  amounted  to 
$1,669,230,000 — about  one  billion  dollars  more  than  on  January 


302  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

I,  1903.  The  deposits  in  the  Russian  savings  banks  multiplied 
from  $399,840,000  in  1903  to  $812,940,000  in  1913.  During  the 
ten  years  between  the  Russo-Japanese  War  and  the  present  war 
Russia's  wealth  had  doubled. 

The  giant  whose  name  is  Russia  has  been  developing  remark- 
ably in  spite  of  the  chains  holding  him  down.  You  can  imagine 
how  great  will  be  his  development  now  that  the  chains  are  torn 
off  and  the  most  powerful  factor  of  efficiency,  the  sacred  prin- 
ciples of  democracy,  are  established. 

Our  new  cabinet,  our  new  government,  is  the  flower  of  our 
country.  The  existence  of  local,  self-governing  bodies  for  a 
period  of  more  than  fifty  years  and  the  existence  of  the  Duma 
during  the  past  ten  years  have  enabled  our  country  to  produce, 
among  the  elements  opposing  the  old  regime,  real  statesmen — 
men  of  sound  education,  broad-minded,  with  deep  and  noble 
souls,  great  workers  for  a  great  Russia.  No  country,  even  with 
hundreds  of  years  of  parliamentary  regime,  could  create  more 
able  statesmen  than  Prince  George  Lvoff,  Professor  Paul  Miliu- 
koff,  A.  L.  Shingaref,  A.  I.  Guchkoff,  A.  A.  Manuilloff,  and 
others  of  the  new  cabinet. 

These  are  the  leaders  of  the  new  Russia.  Russia,  eifervescing 
with  enthusiasm,  breathing  creative  energy,  looking  forward 
as  a  boy  of  nineteen,  joyous,  healthy,  with  a  bright  future  ahead. 
Watch  this  Russia  growing.  Watch  Russia  developing  her  im- 
mense natural  resources.  Watch  Russia  repeating  the  wonderful 
industrial  development  of  the  United  States  since  the  Civil  War. 

Four  elements  combined  made  possible  the  development  of 
the  United  States.  The  first  element  was  its  youth,  energetic  and 
eager  for  work.  The  second  was  the  natural  resources  of  the 
country.  The  third,  the  sacred  principles  of  democracy,  which 
recognize  for  everybody  a  certain  amount  of  right  and  give 
everybody  his  chance.  The  fourth  was  the  foreign  capital  which 
flowed  into  the  United  States  after  the  Civil  War,  and,  with  the 
work  of  the  free  democracy,  made  possible  the  development  of 
its  natural  resources. 

Two  of  these  elements  we  Russians  have  always  possessed. 
I  take  the  liberty  to  say  that  we  always  possessed  a  wonderfully 
talented  people;  a  people  with  great  latent  power;  a  people 
which,  under  the  strain  of  the  most  unfortunate  national  iiistory, 
produced  a  wonderful  culture;  a  people  which,  under  the  strain 
of  the  most  barbarous  despotism  trjdng  to  kill  every  bit  of  spirit 


RUSSIA  303 

in  Russia,  gave  to  the  world  during  the  nineteenth  century  alone 
such  writers  and  poets  as  Pushkin,  Gogol,  Turgenev,  Tolstoy, 
and  Dostoievsky;  such  musicians  as  Glinka,  Mussorgsky,  Tchai- 
kowsky,  Rimsky-Korsakoff,  and  Scriabin;  such  scientists  as 
Mendeleyev,  Lebedeff,  Timiraseff,  and  Metchnikoff ;  such  philos- 
ophers as  Vladimir  Solovieff  and  Prince  Sergius  Troubetzkoy. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  possess  almost  endless  and  priceless 
natural  resources.  Well-informed  Americans  know  what  promise 
there  is  in  our  Caucasus,  Turkestan,  and  Siberia,  not  to  mention 
other  parts  of  vast  Russia.  We  desire  to  work,  we  have  ground 
to  work,  and  we  are  going  to  work  for  our  country. 

These  two  elements,  a  capable  people  and  immensely  rich 
natural  resources,  we  have  long  possessed.  Only  recently  there 
has  been  bom  the  third  element  necessary  for  the  proper  devel- 
opment of  every  country.  Like  a  burst  of  sunshine  after  a  ter- 
rible storm  came  the  news  of  Russian  freedom.  Russia  is  free, 
as  all  the  countries  of  Europe  will  be  free  after  this  terrible 
struggle. 

All  we  now  need  is  the  fourth  element,  foreign  capital,  which, 
together  with  the  work  of  the  free  Russian  democracy,  will  help 
us  to  develop  the  immense  natural  resources  of  our  country.  In 
this  time,  in  this  trying  time  in  our  national  history,  our  eyes 
are  turning  to  the  United  States,  to  our  old  friend,  to  the  great- 
est and  wisest  democracy  in  the  world,  which  certainly  will  not 
refuse  to  help  and  to  work  together  with  the  new-born  democracy 
of  Russia.  European  capital  developed  your  country.  During  the 
war,  from  a  nation  debtor  you  have  become  a  nation  creditor. 
With  the  immense  concentration  of  capital  in  your  country  you 
have  a  noble  opportunity  to  play  in  our  industrial  development 
the  same  most  important  role  which  foreign  capital  has  played 
in  your  own  industrial  development  since  the  Civil  War. 

Will  Americans  lose  this  opportunity?  We  believe  they  will 
not.  We  believe  that  the  glorious  Russian  revolution  has  re- 
moved the  last  barriers  in  the  way  of  the  American-Russian 
economic  rapprochement  and  strengthened  forever  the  bonds  of 
friendship  between  the  great  Republic  of  the  United  States  and 
the  new-born  Democracy  of  Russia. 


304  SELECTED  ARTICLES 


"BOLSHEVISM"  AS  A  WORLD  PROBLEM^ 

A  new  enthusiasm  is  arising  among  the  Russian  masses.  A 
war  for  the  defense  of  a  sacred  principle,  the  principle  of  free 
self-definition  of  all  nations,  is  looming  on  the  eastern  horizon. 
And  it  becomes  more  and  more  probable  that  the  "pacifist"  revo- 
lution, brought  about  by  the  Bolsheviki,  will  lead  to  a  resumption 
of  a  passionate  warfare  by  the  revolutionary  armies  of  Russia. 
And  who  knows  whether  a  Russian  army,  electrified  by  these 
newly  acquired  principles,  will  not  work  miracles,  just  as  the 
French  troops  did  during  the  great  French  Revolution? 

In  the  meantime,  several  parts  of  Russia  have  declared  their 
independence.  Among  the  many  mushroom  "republics"  which 
have  appeared,  only  to  vanish  in  a  few  days,  there  remain  five 
instances  of  a  stable  self-assertion  of  separate  governments 
within  Russia.  Siberia,  the  Caucasus,  the  Don  region  (of  the 
Cossacks),  Ukraine,  and  Finland.  All  of  them  have  been 
prompted  by  the  fear  of  a  Bolshevist  chaos. 

Finland — ^besides  having  always  been  a  practically  separate 
state,  only  loosely  connected  with  Russia  in  her  spiritual  and 
economic  development — ^has  fallen  under  the  influence  of  the 
kindred  Swedish  culture,  which  in  its  turn  is  closely  related  to 
German.  Moreover,  Finnish  currency,  having  been  comparatively 
little  depreciated  during  the  war,  runs  a  risk  of  being  drawn 
into  the  whirlpool  of  Russian  financial  difficulties. 

Siberia  is  a  land  of  sturdy  farmers  and  practically  no.  indus- 
trialism. She  will  not  be  swayed  by  extreme  socialistic  doctrines. 
The  Cossacks  of  the  Don,  through  all  their  history,  were  strongly 
inclined  to  find  some  single  leader  and  to  follow  him  with  great 
loyalty.  The  youthful  General  Kaledine  enjoys  at  present  their 
unswerving  allegiance  and  support,  which,  however,  would  not 
go  as  far  as  the  renunciation  of  democratic  and  republican  prin- 
ciples. 

The  Ukraine  is  a  country  which  deliberately  joined  Russia 
in  the  seventeenth  century.  It  had  previously  been  a  province  of 
Poland.  Being  Greek  Catholic,  it  suffered  many  persecutions 
from  the  Roman  Catholic  Poles.    It  never  was  sufficiently  strong 

1  By  Nicholas  Goldenweiser.  In  Review  of  Reviews.  57:188-90.  Febru- 
ary,   19 18. 


RUSSIA  305 

to  stand  alone,  and  in  the  future  it  also  will  have  to  join  some 
larger  federation. 

The  Caucasus  consists  of  small  nations  tied  together  only  by 
the  common  Russian  culture.  It  cannot  fail  to  join  Russia.  In 
fact,  it  never  seceded  from  Russia,  but  merely  from  Bolshevist 
Petrograd. 

A  "United  States  of  Russia" 

Whenever  the  chaotic  conditions  within  Russia  proper, 
created  by  the  Bolshevist  extreme  radicalism,  finally  abate,  and 
a  ground  for  a  federated  republic  is  firmly  established,  there  is 
no  doubt  that  all  thesfe  "independent"  states  will  readily  join  in 
a  "United  States  of  Russia." 

Even  Poland  is  economically  interested  in  having  the  Rus- 
sian market  open  for  its  flourishing  industries,  and  in  being  pro- 
tected by  high  duties  against  German  competition.  Finland  may 
stay  out  if  Germany  succeeds  in  drawing  the  three  Scandinavian 
kingdoms  within  her  sv/ay. 

At  any  rate,  here  again  the  Bolshevist  policy  of  letting  all 
nations  choose  freely  their  own  lot  may  prove  the  most  effective 
means  of  eliminating  emotional  nationalism  and  of  making  all 
parts  of  Russia  realize  in  cold  blood  the  principle  of  all  political 
wisdom,  "united  we  stand,  divided  we  fall." 

In  the  meantime,  the  only  honest  and  reasonable  policy  which 
can  be  pursued  by  those  who  intend  to  serve  the  democratic  de- 
velopment of  Russia  and  of  the  world  is  to  abstain  from  any 
violent  opposition  to  the  present  de  facto  Russian  Government, 
and  to  join  their  efforts  in  helping  Russia  (irrespective  of  her 
government)   to  get  back  on  her  feet. 

The  Failure  of  Lvoff  and  Kerensky 
The  government  of  Prince  Lvoff  was  too  abstractly  "con- 
stitutional" to  satisfy  the  masses.  Patient  waiting  for  a  far-away 
Constitutent  Assembly,  without  taking  a  step  toward  the  coveted 
peace  and  the  redistribution  of  land,  was  too  much  to  expect  of  a 
population  exasperated  by  two  centuries  of  talentless  and  sense- 
less tyranny. 

Lvoff  resigned.  Kerensky  took  his  place,  only  to  attempt  (to 
use  a  Russian  expression)  to  "sit  between  two  chairs."  He  de- 
parted from  the  "constitutional  method"  of  postponing  all  re- 
forms until  the  coming  Assembly.     He  introduced  fundamental 


3o6  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

reforms  without  consulting  the  elected  representatives  of  the 
people — as,  for  instance,  his  proclamation  of  a  republican  form 
of  government. 

At  the  same  time  he  stuck  to  the  old  principles  of  inter- 
national diplomacy  and  opposed  an  immediate  change  of  social 
order.  The  slogan  "Peace  with  the  German  people,  over  the 
heads  of  the  German  Government,"  overthrew  Kerensky.  The 
Russian  masses,  having  disengaged  themselves  with  seeming  ease 
from  their  own  oppressors,  could  not  and  would  not  believe  that 
the  German  people  should  support  Kaiserism.  And  the  natural 
conviction  arose  among  them  that  a  stubborn  continuance  of  the 
war  was  due  exclusively  to  the  imperialistic  tendencies  of  Rus- 
sia's allies  and  the  Russian  capitalists,  whereas  a  direct  appeal  to 
the  German  workmen  and  farmers  would  make  them  immediately 
lay  down  their  swords. 

Peace  Negotiations  with  Germany 

This  conviction  was  bound  to  lead  to  some  sort  of  direct  nego- 
tiations with  the  Germans.  Men  like  Lenine  and  Trotsky,  who 
were  plucky  enough  to  pledge  themselves  for  an  immediate 
armistice  and  an  opening  of  direct  peace  negotiations,  could  not 
fail  to  win  support  of  an  army  bluntly  believing  in  the  immediate 
advent  of  a  "reunion  of  all  the  proletarians  of  the  world"  (the 
famous  formula  of  Marx  and  Engels). 

The  revelation  of  a  bitter  truth  awaited  them  in  Brest-Litovsk. 
The  German  delegates — who  could  be  recognized  as  representing 
not  the  workmen  and  farmers,  but  the  army  headquarters  and 
the  palace  at  Potsdam — readily  consented  to  the  principle  of  no 
annexations  and  no  indemnities  for  Russia  and  her  Allies,  but 
politely  declined  to  renounce  annexations  by  Germany  and  re- 
fused to  evacuate  occupied  Russian  territory.  In  their  brutal 
cynicism  they  did  not  stop  even  before  a  grim  joke,  declaring 
that  the  population  of  the  occupied  Russian  provinces  had  already 
pledged  its  allegiance  to  the  German  Empire  by  its  tacit  acqui- 
escence in  being  severed  from  Russia  by  German  troops !  They 
also  refused  to  transfer  the  conference  to  a  neutral  place,  in- 
sisting upon  a  continuance  of  negotiations  in  a  fortress  occupied 
by  the  Germans. 

Not  only  the  Allied  nations,  but  the  peoples  of  the  Central 
Powers  themselves,  were  officially  enlightened  at  last  as  to  the 


RUSSIA  307 

true  spirit  of  German  peace  proposals.  The  results  were  not 
slow  to  follow.  A  passionate  battle  between  the  Pan-Germans 
(reactionary  annexationists)  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  reasonable 
majority  of  the  middle  classes  and  socialists  on  the  other,  is 
now  raging  within  Germany,  thus  adding  a  powerful  new 
adherent  to  the  principles  proclaimed  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States. 

Lenine  (who,  by  the  way,  comes  from  an  old  and  respected 
family  of  Russian  noblemen)  and  Trotsky  (who  is  a  revolution- 
ary of  long-established  standing  among  the  fighters  for  Russian 
freedom)  have  succeeded  in  what  seemed  impossible  for  their 
moderate  predecessors.  They  have  diverted  the  attention  of  the 
nations  inhabiting  Russia  from  internal  dissensions  towards  the 
burning  questions  of  the  hour — the  struggle  against  Imperialistic 
aspirations  and  Militarism,  and  for  the  self-definition  of  all  na- 
tions on  a  democratic  basis.  They  have  also  raised  high  above 
diplomatic  evasiveness  the  issue  of  war  aims,  thus  forcing  the 
German  government  to  a  strict  accountability  before  the  German 
people. 

At  the  same  time,  they  started  on  a  large  scale  the  contamina- 
tion of  the  German  soldiers  with  the  same  ideas  which  brought 
about  the  disintegration  of  the  Russian  army. 

What  Is  "Bolshevismr 

Lenine  and  Trotsky,  as  well  as  the  majority  of  their  parti- 
sans, are  by  no  means  traitors  or  cowards.  They  are  honest 
men,  with  good  intentions.  Their  main  fault  lies  in  their  dis- 
regard of  human  nature  and  of  the  fundamentals  of  the  doctrine 
of  historical  materialism,  which  is  their  main  hobby. 

They  do  not  think  of  the  vast,  undeveloped  sparsely  populated 
areas  within  the  Russian  boundaries  which  clamor  for  individual 
enterprise  and  the  concerted  action  of  highly  centralized  organi- 
zations. They  waive  aside  the  obvious  impossibility  of  an  in- 
dustrial development,  and  of  the  improvement  of  agricultural  pro- 
duction in  Russia  without  the  help  of  foreign  credit  and  foreign 
experience.  They  do  not  consider  the  fact  that  in  a  socialized 
Russia — with  all  industries,  financial  institutions  and  land  tenure 
"nationalized" — each  individual  workman  or  farmer  will  be  in- 
finitely worse  off  than  he  has  been  even  under  the  Czar. 


3o8  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  world  will  never  be  without  its  visionaries  and  dreamers, 
who  do  not  notice  the  imperfections  of  human  nature  and  whose 
aim  is  to  right  immediately  all  the  wrongs,  to  brush  aside  in  one 
sweeping  movement  all  the  inequalities,  and  to  remedy  at  once 
all  the  shortcomings  of  modern  human  society. 

"Bolshevism"  is  nothing  but  a  combination  of  both  of  those 
elements :  an  irresponsible  multitude  of  long  oppressed,  humble 
laborers  and  tillers  of  the  soil,  driven  into  frenzy  by  a  handful 
of  uncompromising  idealists ;  a  vision  at  the  top,  supported  by  an 
elementary  emotion  at  the  bottom;  a  crowd  of  youngsters,  armed 
with  bayonets  and  machine  guns,  led  by  a  group  of  fanatical 
reformers. 

The  former  Russian  army  has  been  suddenly  transformed  into 
a  conglomeration  of  full-fledged,  though  very  youthful  citizens 
with  rifles  in  their  hands  and  an  extremely  exaggerated  notion 
of  their  rights  and  privileges  in  their  heads. 

One  would  hardly  expect  anybody  who  might  remind  them 
that  rights  and  privileges  entail  duties  and  obligations  to  be  very 
popular  with  those  freshly  baked  republicans.  On  the  other 
hand,  those  who  declare  their  will  to  be  supreme  and  their  de- 
mands to  be  sacred  cannot  fail  to  win  unflinching  support. 

The  rest  of  the  country — the  vastly  greater  part  of  the  un- 
armed "civilians" — does  not  count,  because  no  arguments  or  con- 
victions are  sufficiently  strong  to  oppose  machine  guns  and  bayo- 
nets. 

Undoubtedly  these  Bolshevists  are  narrow,  but  it  is  equally 
certain  that  they  are  perfectly  honest  and  straightforward,  per- 
haps too  straightforward  for  practical  use.  Why,  then,  oppose 
their  narrowness  with  a  still  greater  partisanship?  Why  declare 
that  everything  which  is  connected  with  Lenine  and  Trotsky  is 
bound  to  be  rotten  to  the  core  and  utterly  unacceptable  to  polite 
society?  Why  imitate  the  Pharisees  and  their  famous  sneer: 
"Can  there  any  good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth?" 

Lenine  and  Trotsky  have  so  far,  against  all  expectation,  solved 
one  problem  which  seemed  insoluble  under  Lvoff  and  Kerensky. 
They  have,  by  sheer  force,  eliminated  all  class  struggle.  They 
proclaimed  one  class  supreme.  They  introduced  the  undisputed 
"dictatorship  of  the  proletariat." 

Intoxication  from  unbounded  freedom  will  pass.  The  armed 
youngsters  will  return  to  their  villages  and  lay  aside  their  rifles. 


RUSSIA  309 

Experience  will  soon  teach  them  the  difference  between  the  de- 
sirable and  the  possible,  the  natural  limit  of  all  aspirations. 
They  will  learn  that  by  dividing  private  lands  and  private  for- 
tunes among  all,  they  will  never  reach  any  improvements  in  their 
own  conditions  of  life,  but  just  the  opposite.  They  will  under- 
stand that  a  2  or  3  per  cent,  increase  in  their  holdings  will  not 
bring  the  advent  of  a  Golden  Age.  They  will  comprehend  the 
importance  of  long  experience,  education,  technique,  traditions, 
organization,  concentrated  creative  energy,  of  the  qualities  of 
that  hateful  state  of  things  which  is  called  "capitalism."  The 
older  and  saner  elements  will  come  into  their  own  and  become, 
through  sheer  numbers,  the  controlling  element  of  Russia's 
future  destinies. 

MASS  RULE  IN  RUSSIA^ 

Absolutism  is  dead,  yet  the  black  shadows  of  the  old  regime 
are  still  hovering  over  the  vast  Russian  plains.  Absolutism  col- 
lapsed in  March,  1917,  yet  the  sinister  inheritance  of  the  Roman- 
offs will  press  its  dead  weight  on  the  minds  and  actions  of  the 
people  for  many  a  year  to  come.  Absolutism  left  the  country  in 
a  state  of  chaos.  Transportation  was  crippled.  Industries  were 
half  ruined.  Finances  were  shattered.  The  army  was  de- 
moralized. Order  and  prosperity  had  to  be  brought  out  of  this 
monstrous  condition.  Such  was  the  task  that  confronted  the 
Revolution. 

Yet  absolutism  left  its  black  inheritance  also  in  the  minds 
of  the  people.  The  great  mass  of  the  people  were  not  used  to 
self-control  and  to  concerted  action  for  the  benefit  of  all, — which 
is  the  sign  of  real  freedom.  The  intellectual  groups  were  wont 
to  fight  over  details  of  written  programs  and  shades  of  theoretical 
opinion,  though  they  had  no  experience  in  actual  political  life 
and  no  habits  of  leadership  on  a  national  scale.  The  entire  coun- 
try lacked  culture,  efficiency,  organization,  and  that  broad-minded 
tolerance  which  overlooks  insignificant  differences  for  the  sake 
of  the  common  task.  With  this  inheritance  and  with  the  great  war 
on  its  hands,  the  young  democracy  started  its  singular  race  which 
has  kept  the  world  astir  for  the  last  ten  months. 

1  By   Moissaye  J.    Olgin.     Asia.    18:188-94.    March,    19 18. 


310  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  forces  that  overthrew  the  Romanoffs  and  that  seemed 
to  be  so  wonderfully  unanimous  in  the  beautiful  days  of  the 
"bloodless"  March  Revolution,  were  in  reality  far  from  being 
united.  The  revolution  itself  was  simply  the  work  of  two 
heterogenous  camps,  similar  in  dissatisfaction  but  wide  apart 
in  aims.  When  the  party  leaders  denounced  the  old  regime  for 
criminal  negligence  in  the  conduct  of  the  war,  the  masses  of  the 
people  were  getting  tired  of  the  war  itself.  While  Liberals  and 
Radicals  in  and  outside  of  the  Duma  branded  absolutism  as  trea- 
son to  the  country,  the  hungry  population  of  Petrograd  and  Mos- 
cow were  simply  clamoring  for  bread.  In  the  crucial  days  of 
March,  the  Constitutional  Democrats  and  the  Trudoviki  were 
hastily  forming  a  provisional  government  and  working  out  a 
program  of  action.  At  the  same  time  the  throngs  that  jammed 
the  streets  of  Petrograd  had  one  goal  in  mind;  to  save  them- 
selves from  misery  and  starvation.  Thus  from  the  very  begin- 
ning two  factors  were  discernible  in  the  turmoil  of  the  revolu- 
tion: those  who  reasoned,  who  tried  to  adapt  means  to  ends, 
having  at  heart  the  interest  of  the  nation;  and  the  uncontrollable 
masses  who  acted  on  the  spur  of  material  needs  or  political 
passion.  In  days  of  the  youth  of  the  Revolution,  every  true 
adherent  of  it  strongly  hoped  that  the  two  camps  would  become 
one:  that  the  spirit  of  caution  and  deliberation  would  restrain 
the  people,  transforming  them  into  organized,  clear-sighted  units, 
— and  that  the  fresh  breath  of  genuine  popular  emotion  would 
keep  the  leaders  alive  to  the  real  needs  of  Russia.  In  the  spring- 
tide of  the  new  order,  it  seemed  almost  certain  that  mass-move- 
ment and  reasoning  would  form  a  happy  alliance,  to  the  advan- 
tage of  the  country  and  the  benefit  of  democracy  at  large.  Soon, 
however,  bad  omens  became  quite  frequent.  The  discrepancy 
between  far-sighted  national  aims  and  blind  gropings  of  uncon- 
trollable forces  was  evident  in  every  realm  of  life.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  understand  new  Russia  without  distinguishing  clearly 
between  the  two  great  factors  already  mentioned. 

The  country  needed  food.  This  was  the  first  prerequisite  to 
a  new  life.  Agricultural  Russia,  which  prior  to  the  war  pro- 
duced foodstuffs  far  in  excess  of  her  own  requirements,  ought 
not  to  have  suffered  hunger.  The  interests  of  the  nation  de- 
manded that  all  available  land  be  planted  and  cultivated  with 
the  utmost  care.    True,  the  peasants  had  expected  from  the  revo- 


RUSSIA  311 

lution  an  increase  in  their  land  holdings.  True,  a  radical  solu- 
tion of  the  agrarian  problem  was  imminent  for  the  young  democ- 
racy. But,  first  of  all  and  above  all,  the  country  had  to  be 
provided  with  food.  Agricultural  production  had  to  be  increased* 
Rural  Russia  had  to  help  the  nation  through  the  most  dangerous 
crisis. 

Reasoning  Russia,  in  the  persons  of  the  provisional  government 
and  the  organized  political  parties,  urged  the  peasants  to  abstain 
from  arbitrary  settlement  of  their  land  claims,  from  violence 
against  the  landlords  and  from  hoarding  their  grain.  "Work  your 
fields  and  await  the  agrarian  legislation  of  the  Constitutent  As- 
sembly," was  the  slogan.  To  adjust  temporary  difficulties  be- 
tween landlord  and  peasants,  land  committees  were  established, 
whose  main  task,  however,  was  the  collection  of  data  for  the 
great  land  reform.  The  land  committees  were  also  authorized 
to  fix  rents  and  wages  pending  the  final  adjustment.  All  this 
provisional  machinery  was  created  to  keep  agricultural  produc- 
tion going  up.  The  Russian  peasant,  however,  was  impatient. 
He  was  anxious  to  get  hold  of  the  landlord's  estate.  The  local 
land  committees,  composed  largely  of  local  peasants,  with  a  slight 
sprinkling  of  radical  party  agitators,  became  active  in  agrarian 
revolts.  "It's  our  land,"  declared  the  free  villager,  and  without 
hesitation  he  took  possession  of  the  landlord's  cattle  and  agri- 
cultural machinery, — sonrefimes  of  his  furniture  and  kitchen 
utensils.  The  proprietor's  land  was  in  many  cases  taken  over 
and  divided  among  the  peasants,  model  estates  under  high  cul- 
tivation not  excluded.  In  other  cases,  wages  for  farm  hands 
were  fixed  so  high  that  it  was  impossible  for  landlords  to  work 
their  estates.  Prisoners  of  war  used  for  agricultural  labor,  were 
removed  from  the  rich  estates  and  put  at  the  disposal  of  the 
peasants.  Nor  was  this  movement  wholly  unorganized.  Conven- 
tions of  peasants*  representatives  were  held  in  various  provinces ; 
radical  party  agitators  of  all  kinds  were  given  a  hearing ;  an  All- 
RMssian  Council  of  Peasants'  Delegates  was  formed.  Yet  all  the 
decisions,  both  of  the  local  and  of  the  central  peasants'  councils, 
tended  towards  one  demand :  that  the  land  should  be  given  over 
to  the  local  land  committees  for  distribution  among  the  peasants. 

This  was  a  local  solution  of  the  problem.  Each  community, 
or  group  of  neighboring  communities,  were  supposed  to  seize 
the  estate  of  "their  own"  landlord,  whether  large  or  small.    No 


312  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

member  o£  another  community  was  allowed  to  share  in  the 
newly  acquired  land.  Thus,  inequality  in  land  distribution  was 
introduced  from  the  very  start.  Communities  with  large  land- 
lords' estates  became  owners  of  great  stretches  of  land,  while 
other  communities  could  hardly  increase  their  holdings.  Should 
the  government — any  kind  of  a  government — try  now  to  dis- 
possess the  happy  holders  of  new  land,  great  struggles,  bitter- 
ness and  even  civil  war  might  ensue.  It  is  easy  for  the  peasant 
to  seize  land,  but  hard  for  him  to  give  it  up.  The  agricultural 
production  of  the  rich  estates  was  enormously  decreased;  agri- 
cultural machinery  was  left  idle;  model  farms,  with  highly  in- 
tensive agriculture,  were  completely  destroyed.  Chaos  took  the 
place  of  the  previous  order,  which,  although  a  bad  order  indeed, 
secured  enough  food  for  the  country.  As  a  rule  the  peasant,  hav- 
ing only  a  limited  supply  of  labor,  preferred  to  sow  that  piece 
of  land  which  he  took  over  from  the  landlord,  leaving  his  own 
untilled.  The  underlying  motive  was  clear:  "My  old  land  is 
mine  anyway,  while  here  I  have  to  establish  my  new  property 
rights." 

In  the  noise  and  clatter  of  the  land  revolution,  the  national 
aims  were  entirely  lost  sight  of.  There  was  no  reason  for  this 
haste.  Nobody  threatened  the  revolution.  A  popular  govern- 
ment was  secured.  The  Constitutent  Assembly  was  not  far  off. 
Yet  the  unbound  millions  were  not  governed  by  sound  consid- 
erations. The  Russian  peasants  were  hardly  thinking  at  all. 
The  ministers  of  supplies  and  agriculture, — among  them  famous 
revolutionaries  and  Socialists  such  as  Peshichonov  and  Tcher- 
nov, — repeatedly  appealed  to  the  peasants  to  help  the  nation  in 
her  distress.  The  Socialist  Revolutionary  Party,  enjoying  the 
greatest  influence  among  the  advanced  peasants,  conducted  a 
vigorous  propaganda  in  favor  of  national  as  opposed  to  selfish 
local  aims.  But  voices  of  reason  were  of  no  avail.  The  peas- 
ants actually  destroyed  the  productivity  of  land.  The  crop  of 
191 7  was  considerably  smaller  than  that  of  the  previous  years. 
The  sugar  beet  plantations  of  Southern  Russia  were  greatly  re- 
duced. Revolutionary  Russia  was  unable  to  feed  herself.  The 
critics  of  the  provisional  government  put  the  blame  on  its  in- 
efficiency and  weakness.  Could  a  "strong"  government  have  im- 
proved the  situation?  Could  it  have  mastered  millions  of  peas- 
ants who  saw  their  dream  of  generations  become  real  and  whose 


RUSSIA  313 

soldier  sons  were  backing  them,  rifle  in  hand?  Was  there  a 
power  on  earth  strong  enough  to  keep  the  peasant  patiently  wait- 
ing for  the  decisions  of  the  Constitutent  Assembly? 

When  the  crop  was  harvested  the  peasant  refused  to  part  with 
it  for  the  sake  of  the  city  population.  Industrial  products  became 
scarce  and  their  prices  jumped  up  madly.  Money  lost  its  value 
in  the  eyes  of  the  rural  population.  Prices  fixed  by  the  govern- 
ment seemed  to  the  peasant  to  be  unjust.  As  a  result,  hoarding 
became  the  practice.  In  many  instances  barter  began  to  flourish 
on  the  ruins  of  the  money  exchange.  The  peasants  were  willing 
to  give  flour  for  cotton  goods  or  nails,  but  not  for  money.  The 
committee  of  supplies  of  the  city  of  Nishni-Novgorod  decided 
to  manufacture  boots  in  order  to  barter  them  in  the  villages  for 
grain.  The  peasant  was  inclined  to  blame  the  city  workingmen 
for  the  high  prices  of  commodities ;  high  wages  and  fewer  hours 
of  labor,  he  thought,  were  the  causes  of  the  evil.  Antagonism 
between  village  and  city  become  rampant. 

The  industries  of  the  country  underwent  a  similar  process. 
After  absolutism  was  swept  away,  the  workingmen  began  to 
organize, — which  was  good.  They  formed  trade  unions,  co- 
operative organizations  and  Councils  of  Workmen's  Deputies, — 
which  was  advantageous  for  their  class  as  well  as  for  the  coun- 
try. They  tried  to  improve  their  conditions, — which  was  legiti- 
mate. As  a  result,  however,  the  productivity  of  labor  decreased ; 
which  became  an  ever  increasing  menace  to  the  safety  of  the 
country.  The  output  of  mines,  foundries  and  factories  showed 
an  alarming  tendency  to  diminish.  In  the  first  half  of  1916  the 
average  output  of  coal  in  the  Donetz  region,  which  feeds  the 
greatest  part  of  Russian  industry  with  fuel,  was  656  pood  (a 
pood  is  equal  to  36.07  lbs.)  per  workingman;  in  the  first  half  of 
191 7,  it  was  only  485, — a  decrease  of  over  25  per  cent.  This  was 
partly  due  to  the  lack  of  repair  of  worn  out  machinery,  also  to 
the  lack  of  wood  for  stanchions  and  to  other  technical  causes. 
To  a  large  extent,  however,  it  was  due  to  the  unrest  among  the 
labor  masses.  Similar  tendencies  were  evident  in  other  indus- 
tries. As  early  as  June,  1917,  the  Minister  of  Labor,  Skobelev, 
a  Social-Democrat  and  by  no  means  an  opponent  of  organized 
labor,  reminded  the  workingmen  in  a  stirring  appeal  that  "ele- 
mental movements  often  drowned  organized  activities;"  that 
workingmen  "often  ignored  the  situation  of  the  state  as  a  whole, 


314  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

overlooked  the  specific  conditions  of  the  enterprise  in  which  they 
were  employed,  and  to  the  detriment  of  their  own  class  interests 
demanded  an  increase  in  wages  which  disorganized  industry." 
Even  the  Isvestia,  the  central  organ  of  the  executive  committee 
of  the  All-Russian  Labor  Council,  called  attention  to  unorganized 
movements  resulting  in  a  decrease  in  the  productivity  of  labor, 
which  "makes  the  enterprise  reach  the  limits  of  exhaustion." 
"The  workingmen  ought  to  have  the  courage  to  admit,"  the 
Isvestia  wrote,  "that  the  accusations  against  labor,  as  far  as 
diminution  of  productivity  is  concerned,  are  not  always  un- 
founded." 

It  was  natural  that  the  peasants  should  become  impatient. 
They  had  suffered  too  long  under  pressure  of  the  landlords, — 
who  were  protected  by  the  bureaucracy  of  the  Romanoffs.  It 
was  natural  that  labor  should  overstep  the  limits  drawn  by  eco- 
nomic necessity.  Labor  had  been  too  long  restricted  by  a  gov- 
ernment both  ignorant  and  cruel.  It  was  natural,  yet  it  was  dis- 
astrous for  the  new  republic.  Russia  was  paying  heavily  for  the 
sins  of  her  former  oppressors. 

Transportation  difficulties  were  added  to  the  other  miseries. 
The  railroads  had  been  brought  to  ruin  under  the  old  system. 
Rolling  stock  deteriorated,  tracks  were  not  repaired,  terminals 
became  overcrowded.  After  the  revolution,  lack  of  fuel  became 
acute.  The  collapse  of  the  old  and  the  lack  of  experience  of 
the  new  government,  increased  the  tangle.  Abused  liberty  was 
by  no  means  the  smallest  of  the  handicaps  of  transportation. 
Armed  soldiers  became  practically  masters  of  the  situation. 
Priority  in  shipments,  fixed  schedules,  obedience  to  legal  authori- 
ties, were  often  put  aside  by  arbitrary  decisions  of  army  units. 
The  "soldier  train"  has  become  a  familiar  sight  in  present-day 
Russia.  The  soldiers  mount  the  first  and  best  train  they  can  get 
hold  of,  fill  the  cars  and  platforms,  sit  on  the  buffers,  and  climb 
on  the  roofs.  The  train  runs  madly  with  no  time  schedule  at 
all.  The  car  windows  are  broken;  the  brakes  work  with  dif- 
ficulty. While  passing  a  bridge  many  of  the  roof  riders  are 
killed  or  wounded.  Under  such  conditions  hardly  any  well 
ordered  transportation  can  be  established. 

The  tangle  was  growing,  industries  were  closing  down;  lack 
of  employment  became  widespread  towards  the  end  of  the  sum- 
mer.   The  SociaHst  press  put  part  of  the  blame  on  the  "sabotage" 


RUSSIA  315 

of  the  employers,  who  purposely  let  their  affairs  go  from  bad 
to  worse  so  as  to  teach  their  employees  a  lesson.  There  is  truth 
in  these  accusations  of  sabotage,  yet  this  only  adds  to  the  list 
of  uncontrollable  forces  that  did  not  rise  above  their  selfish  group 
conceptions.  The  country  as  a  whole  suffered  increasing  hard- 
ship. In  the  first  seven  months  prior  to  1916  the  amount  of  rye 
(grain  and  flour)  that  passed  Rybinsk — the  central  point  of  the 
Mariinski  canal  system,  through  which  a  large  portion  of  the 
southern  crop  passes  yearly  to  Northern  Russia — was  over 
seventeen  million  pood.  In  the  first  seven  months  of  191 7,  it 
was  only  4.6  millions.  The  figures  for  wheat  in  these  periods 
are  11.5  and  2.4  millions;  the  figures  for  oats,  10.2  and  2.9,  a  de- 
crease of  nearly  75  per  cent.  That  meant  hunger  and  starvation 
for  the  North. 

In"  the  first  weeks  of  the  new  order  the  masses  had  believed 
that  the  millenium  was  at  hand.  Hadn't  they  overthrown  the 
old  hated  enemies  of  the  people?  Hadn't  they  become  the  sole 
masters  of  their  fate?  As  time  passed,  however,  a  heavy 
gloom  began  to  spread  over  the  country.  The  enthusiasm  died 
down.  Practical  everyday  matters  loomed  up.  The  unstable 
situation  made  people  nervous.  It  may  sound  like  a  joke,  yet  it 
is  a  fact  that  the  peasants  of  the  village  of  Tatarka,  province  of 
Stavropol,  in  village  council  assembled,  decided :  first,  to  elect  no 
representatives  to  the  circuit  council ;  second,  to  dissolve  all  com- 
mittees, such  as  the  land,  supply,  and  public  safety  committees; 
third,  to  ask  for  the  appointment  of  a  Zemski  Natchalnik,  or 
country  chief  of  police  with  judicial  functions  under  old  regime. 

Absolutism  had  not  taught  Russia  to  be  patriotic  in  the  demo- 
cratic sense  of  the  word.  When  the  fetters  were  broken,  two 
processes— organization  and  disruption— began  to  cross  each 
other.  On  one  hand,  thinking  elements,  party  units,  democratic 
organizations,  governmental  offices,  individuals  of  authority  and 
knowledge  were  doing  the  great  work  of  organizing,  enlighten- 
ing and  uniting  the  country ;  on  the  other,  the  vast  millions,  now 
shaken  up  to  new  life,  were  trying  in  their  own  crude  ways  to 
improve  their  conditions.  The  grave  problem  was:  Which  of  these 
two  processes  would  prevail? 

The  attitude  of  the  small  nationalities  in  Russia  was 
an  instance  in  point.  Autocratic  Russia  had  roused  nation- 
alist  feelings   among   the   Poles,   the  Lithuanians,   the   Ukrain- 


3i6  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

ians,  the  Caucasians  and  the  Finns;  but  she  had  not  taught 
the  small  nationalities  to  distinguish  between  Russia  and  the  Rus- 
sian yoke.  When  the  dynasty  was  overthrown,  the  process  of 
disintegration  began. 

Thinking  Russia,  both  liberal  and  radical,  was  opposed  to  an 
independent  Ukrainian,  Don  Cossack,  Kuban  Cossack,  Siberian 
State.  Those  provinces  are  essentially  connected  with  the  main 
body  of  Russia;  how  can  Russia  give  them  up?  How  can  Rus- 
sian industry  exist  without  the  coal  of  the  Donetz  region?  How 
can  the  Ukraine  exist  without  the  metal  or  cotton  goods  of 
Nishni-Novgorod,  Yaroslav  and  Moscow?  And  is  not  Kiev  as 
much  a  Russian  as  it  is  a  Ukrainian  city?  Democratic  Russia 
pledged  herself  to  secure  for  each  nationality  in  Russia  the  right 
to  receive  education  in  its  own  language,  to  develop  its  national 
culture,  and  to  enjoy  national  autonomy  within  the  boundaries  of 
the  Russian  State.  Yet  democratic  Russia  could  not  permit  the 
Russian  State  to  be  torn  to  pieces  to  the  detriment  of  the  Rus- 
sian as  well  as  the  other  nationalities.  The  inheritance  of  the 
old  regime,  however,  prevailed.  The  non-Russian  nationaHties 
mistrusted  Russian  democracy.  Russia  witnessed  the  springing 
up  of  new  republics,  which,  as  was  the  case  with  the  Don  Cos- 
sacks, even  threatened  the  liberty  of  Russia  herself. 

Confronted  with  these  processes,  what  ought  the  provisional 
government  to  do?  Could  it,  for  example,  send  soldiers  to  quell 
the  peasant  upheavals?  Could  it  put  workingmen  in  jail  for  ex- 
cessive demands  ?  Could  it  declare  railroads  under  martial  law  ? 
Could  it  declare  war  on  Finland  or  Ukraine?  It  was  a  revolu- 
tionary government,  and  it  was  confronted  with  an  enormous, 
heterogenous  country  taking  its  first  draughts  of  freedom.  Was 
it  not  doomed  to  inaction?  Only  from  this  angle  can  we  judge 
the  attitude  of  Russia  towards  the  war;  and  this,  perhaps,  will 
give  us  a  clue  to  an  understanding  of  the  present  situation.  The 
war  was  an  inheritance  of  the  old  regime ;  this  was  the  sentiment 
that  prevailed  among  the  masses.  The  country  had  not 
wanted  war.  The  Tsar  had  joined  the  war  with  an  aim  of 
conquest  and  had  brought  misery  on  the  people.  The 
Tsar  was  gone;  why  should  the  soldier  still  remain  in  the 
trenches?  This  was  an  overwhelming  instinct,  a  sentiment 
stronger  than  reason,  an  elemental  motive  of  tremendou's  power. 
It  was  particularly  the  attitude  of  the  soldiers.     The  sentiment 


RUSSIA  317 

was  an  inheritance  of  the  old  regime.  Russian  absolutism  had 
taught  the  Russian  people  to  look  with  suspicion  at  every  meas- 
ure that  came  "from  above;"  it  held  the  Russian  masses  in 
ignorance  of  its  real  motives  and  aims  in  international  affairs. 
The  Russian  people  were  not  wont  to  think  in  broad  political 
terms.  When  absolutism  finally  gave  way  to  unrestricted  free- 
dom, the  current  of  popular  emotion  turned  against  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  war. 

"Why  fight?  We  have  no  quarrel  with  anyone  in  the  world. 
We  do  not  want  to  rob  the  Germans  of  their  land.  We  have 
plenty  of  it  at  home.  Why  should  the  Germans  do  harm  to  us?" 
In  this  naive  way  the  mind  of  the  Russian  moujik,  which  is  fun- 
damentally religious,  decided  the  problem  of  war  and  peace. 
Besides,  the  new  freedom  had  a  bewitching  lure  for  the  peasant, 
calling  him  out  of  the  trenches.  Over  there  his  village  was  divid- 
ing the  land  of  the  Count.  Over  there  a  new  life  was  shining  in 
glorious  colors.  Ought  he  to  stay  in  the  "muddy  hole"  and  die 
for  things  he  knew  nothing  about? 

Many,  a  grave  controversy  has  arisen  concerning  the  inter- 
national policies  of  the  provisional  government.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  Constitutional  Democratic  Party,  which  formed 
the  first  Cabinet  and  whose  influence  was  strong  with  the  Coali- 
tion Cabinet,  never  abandoned  the  idea  of  annexations.  At  the 
eighth  convention  of  the  party,  in  May,  1917,  Paul  Milukov  de- 
clared amid  great  applause  that  it  was  "his  great  pride,  never 
till  the  very  moment  of  his  resignation  from  the  post  of  Foreign 
Minister,  to  have  given  the  Allied  Powers  an  occasion  to  think 
that  Russia  had  disclaimed  the  Straits."  There  is  no  doubt  that 
the  Constitutional  Democratic  Party  cherished  ideas  of  diplomacy 
that  were  far  from  democratic.  As  late  as  October,  191 7,  less 
than  two  months  before  the  declaration  by  President  Wilson  of 
an  open  covenant  of  nations  as  a  guarantee  of  international 
peace,  the  Retch,  the  official  organ  of  the  Cadets,  declared  the 
abolition  of  secret  diplomacy  to  be  a  "monstrous  levity,"  a  "ridicu- 
lous product  of  upripe  amateurish  thought."  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  uncertain  position  of  the  provisional  government  in  in- 
ternational policies  added  fuel  to  the  fire  of  radical  dissatisfaction 
with  the  war.  The  failure  of  the  Allied  Powers  to  state  their 
war-aims  in  definite  terms  soon  after  the  Revolution,  and  the  ap- 
parent reluctance  of  the  provisional  government  to  insist  on  such 


3i8  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

a  statement,  gave  occasion  to  the  Extremists  to  denounce  the 
entire  war  as  a  war  of  conquest  and  the  Provisional  Government 
as  captured  by  the  Russian,  EngUsh  and  American  imperialists. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  some  of  those  ideas  leaked  down  to  the 
masses  and  added  to  the  general  repugnance  of  the  war. 

It  is  very  doubtful,  however,  whether  any  statement  of  war 
aims,  however  definite  and  democratic,  would  have  stopped  the 
decay  of  the  Russian  army.  After  all,  not  the  Bolsheviki  alone 
were  trying  to  influence  the  masses.  "Save  the  Revolution" — 
"Defend  Russian  freedom  against  German  autocracy" — these  are 
sentiments  that  can  appeal  to  every  Russian  heart  and  make  it 
throb  with  patriotic  enthusiasm.  Why,  then,  did  they  not  give 
that  mental  intoxication  that  moves  masses  to  heroic  exploits? 
Why  were  the  clarion  calls  of  Russian  revolutionary  veterans 
a  voice  in  the  wilderness?  Why  was  a  pathetic  appeal  of 
Korolenko,  a  man  rightly  called  "the  conscience  of  Russia,"  less 
effective  than  the  appeal  of  a  Bolshevik?  Why  were  Krapotkin 
Plechanov,  Breshkovskaya,  repeatedly  warning  the  nation  to 
"beware  of  the  German  danger,"  less  heeded  than  Lenin  and 
Trotzky?  Why  were  the  Social  Revolutionary  Party,  the 
People's  Socialist  Party,  the  Menshevik  Social  Democratic 
Party,  the  Council  of  Peasants'  Delegates,  the  various 
other  factions,  groups  and  organizations  favoring  a  vigorous 
defense  of  the  Russian  revolution  against  German  invasion, — 
why  were  they  all  less  successful  than  the  sole  faction  of  the 
Bolsheviki?  Wasn't  Russian  territory  occupied  by  Ger- 
man arms?  Weren't  Russian  peoples  suffering  under  the  Ger- 
man yoke?  Wasn't  it  the  duty  of  democratic  Russia  to  restore  to 
herself  the  torn  members  of  her  body?  Wasn't  it  a  task  worthy 
of  a  free  and  freedom-loving  nation?  Why,  then,  was  the  de- 
nunciation of  the  war  as  imperialistic  more  convincing  to  the 
masses  than  all  the  other  appeals? 

It  was  because  the  masses  did  not  want  to  fight.  The  de- 
moralization of  the  army  had  begun  even  under  the  old  regime. 
Centrifugal  forces  had  developed  long  before  the  revolution. 
The  new  order,  necessarily  shaking  the  very  foundations  of  mili- 
tary discipline,  only  increased  the  confusion.  Army  committees 
sprang  up  in  every  unit.  The  commanding  officers  were  put 
under  control  of  the  ordinary  soldiers.  Old  generals  vfere  dis- 
missed,  and  their  successors  spoke  a  language  that  made  the 


RUSSIA  319 

soldiers  feel  their  own  power.  Soon  they  became  aware  that 
they — the  soldiers — were  the  actual  rulers.  They  could  make  and 
unmake  governments;  they  could  impose  their  will  on  the  coun- 
try. Why  should  they  continue  fighting?  Why  should  they  face 
mortal  danger? 

The  Constitutional  Democratic  Party  put  forth  the  slogan, 
"Keep  the  army  out  of  politics !"  It  was  easy  to  dream  about  a 
non-political  army ;  it  was  impossible,  however,  to  shut  off  politi- 
cal propaganda  from  the  army  and  in  the  very  midst  of  a  revolu- 
tion. Moreover,  it  would  have  been  a  dangerous  venture.  Left 
without  political  enlightenment,  the  army  would  have  necessarily 
become  an  obedient  tool  in  the  hands  of  ambitious  generals  whose 
natural  inclination  was  toward  an  aristocratic  order.  The  Cadet 
agitation  against  politics  in  the  trenches  added  greatly  to  popular 
resentment  against  this  party. 

The  history  of  the  army  since  May-June,  1917,  is  a  history 
of  an  increasing  deterioration.  It  suggests  something  fataL 
Lack  of  food,  lack  of  munitions,  lack  of  management,  lack  of 
transportation  facilities — these  defects  only  added  to  the  inherent 
destructive  forces.  The  Galician  drive  headed  by  Kerensky  in 
June  was  the  last  attempt  to  attain  the  impossible.  The  drive 
was  a  complete  failure.  The  attack  of  the  Liberal  press  on  the 
army  for  its  humiliating  retreat,  the  epithets  "cowards,"  "trai- 
tors," "rascals"  applied  to  the  soldiers  by  over-zealous  patriots, 
only  increased  the  hatred  of  the  army  towards  war  partisans. 
Under  such  conditions,  no  government  favoring  a  war  policy 
could  meet  with  success.  Anything  that  the  provisional  govern- 
ment did  was  wrong.  Anything  that  had  even  a  flavor  of  "peace" 
was  right.  Any  measure  that  tried  to  stem  the  current  of  popu- 
lar sentiment  was  doomed  to  failure.  Any  measure,  including 
the  overthrow  of  the  government,— if  it  only  promised  cessation 
of  war, — commanded  a  hearty  support.  Herein  lay  the  cause  of 
Kcrensky's  weakness.  He  strove  against  elemental  forces.  The 
Korniloff  affair  was  the  last  drop  in  the  cup.  It  gave  the  anti- 
Coalition  propaganda  a  new  momentum.  The  revolution  was  in 
danger!  Kerensky's  government  was  declared  to  be  the  gov- 
ernment of  treason !  The  people  ought  to  take  their  fate  in  their 
own  hands,  the  Bolsheviki  urged.  The  collapse  of  the  Coalition 
was  imminent.  In  the  meantime  the  mass  of  the  people  became 
disgusted  with  the  revolutionary  clatter.    Anarchy  was  spread- 


320  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

ing.  Industries  were  collapsing.  Unemployment  assumed  men- 
acing propositions.  Famine  stared  whole  provinces  in  the  face. 
Mob  violence,  pogroms,  robberies,  lynchings  became  every-day 
occurrences.  No  power  in  the  world  could  have  stopped  this 
mad  rush  of  the  nation  down  hill  to  misery,  suflfering  and  des- 
pair. 

The  Central  Committee  of  the  army  loyal  to  the  provisional 
government  thus  describes  the  situation  in  an  appeal  to  Ker- 
ensky  and  the  Soviet  at  the  end  of  October,  1917: 

"The  material  and  spiritual  forces  of  the  army  are  exhausted. 
The  attempts  of  the  committee  to  keep  up  the  fighting  spirit  of 
the  army  meet  with  insurmountable  obstacles  which  increase  every 
day.  There  can  be  no  fighting  spirit  in  an  army  which  is  naked, 
hungry,  forsaken  and  forgotten  by  its  own  country  and  which 
receives  no  reinforcements  from  the  rear.  There  can  be  no 
fighting  spirit  in  the  army  when  in  the  rear  there  is  no  authori- 
tative power,  when  the  land  is  in  the  grip  of  anarchy,  when  the 
peasants  hide  their  grain  from  military  requisitions,  when  the 
workingmen  refuse  to  make  munitions,  when  the  bourgeoisie 
refuse  to  pay  war  taxes,  and  the  reserve  regiments  refuse  to  go 
to  the  front.  There  can  be  no  fighting  spirit  in  an  army  which 
is  called  to  defend  freedom  and  the  revolution,  when  freedom  has 
degenerated  into  disorder  and  the  revolution  into  pogroms.  We 
know  that  it  is  impossible  to  conclude  an  immediate  peace  which 
would  secure  Russian  freedom,  yet  we  know  also  that  the  con- 
tinuation of  war  under  given  conditions  is  a  thing  impossible" 
{Isvestia,  No.  195,  October   12-25,   iQi?)- 

In  the  weeks  preceding  the  Bolsheviki  revolution  it  became 
more  and  more  apparent  that  the  army  was  gone.  Delegation 
after  delegation  of  army  units  appeared  before  the  Council  of 
Workmen's  Delegates  stating  that  the  army  was  unable  to  fight. 
On  October  17  a  delegation  from  the  Rumanian •  front  stated: 
"The  army  is  tired  of  fighting.  Conditions  are  intolerable.  There 
is  no  food.  There  are  no  necessary  clothes.  The  soldiers  are 
freezing  and  hungry.  They  are  utterly  fatigued  after  three  years 
in  the  trenches.  The  soldiers  demand  that  immediate  peace  be 
concluded  without  any  delay  under  any  pretext  whatsoever."  A 
delegation  of  the  thirty-third  army  division  declared  before  the 
same  body :  "If  the  Council  gives  no  guaranty  that  the  campaign 
in  favor  of  peace  is  making  progress,  the  soldiers  may  conclude 


RUSSIA  321 

an  armistice  of  their  own  accord."  Similar  warnings  Were  made 
nearly  every  day.  The  Menshevik  Tcherevanin,  a  well-known 
economist,  in  a  report  to  the  Workmen's  Council  on  the  economic 
situation  of  Russia,  said:  "We  cannot  continue  the  war  until 
spring,  1918.  The  economic  situation  of  Russia  imperatively  de- 
mands the  immediate  conclusion  of  peace.  Otherwise,  economic 
death  is  facing  the  country." 

Thus  the  morale  of  the  army,  the  general  sentiment  of  the 
people  and  the  economic  and  financial  situation  made  continua- 
tion of  war  impossible,  notwithstanding  any  ideal  the  government 
might  have  cherished.  The  Bolsheviki  propaganda  only  gave 
utterance  to  what  lurked  in  the  minds  of  the  people. 

The  Bolsheviki  were  in  a  favorable  situation.  For  years  this 
faction  had  been  denouncing  any  kind  of  compromise  between 
the  working  class  and  the  bourgeois  parties  of  Russia.  For  years 
they  had  been  preaching  a  "dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  and 
the  peasantry"  as  the  only  means  to  secure  democracy  in  Rus- 
sia. As  early  as  1905  and  1906  many  of  the  Bolsheviki  had 
already  laid  the  foundations  of  their  theory,  though  at  that  time 
it  could  not  be  put  into  practice.  Since  the  beginning  of  the  war 
they  had  belonged  to  the  InternationaHsts,  whose  programme  was 
framed  at  the  Zimmerwald  conference  of  the  Socialist  minorities 
of  the  belligerent  countries.  The  Bolsheviki  saw  now  a  vast  field 
open  before  them  to  apply  their  theories  to  real  political  life. 
Theoretic  conceptions  of  a  group  of  idealists  and  strong  un- 
reasoning emotions  of  the  masses  met  together  in  the  maze  of  the 
revolution.  The  result  was  the  November  upheaval.  Bolshevism 
in  theory  became  Bolshevism  in  practice. 

The  Bolsheviki  were  in  a  position  to  find  a  theoretical  foun- 
dation for  all  the  elemental  movements  that  were  shaking  the 
country.  The  peasants  were  illegally  seizing  land :  the  Bolsheviki 
approved  of  their  actions,  declaring  the  land,  together  with  the 
houses  of  the  landlords,  to  be  the  property  of  the  people  and 
urging  the  peasant  communities  to  take  possession  of  the  new 
national  acquisition.  The  workingmen  decreased  the  productivity 
of  labor  by  unreasonable  demands  and  by  lack  of  discipline  and 
foresight;  the  Bolsheviki  found  no  fault  in  this,  proclaiming  the 
country  to  be  ready  for  a  social  revolution  and  urging  the  work- 
ingmen to  assume  control  over  production.  The  finances  of  the 
country   were   ruined   and  the  country  was   shaking   in  violent 


322  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

economic  convulsions;  the  BolshevikI  nationalized  the  banks  of 
the  country,  declared  foreign  debts  null  and  void,  and  undertook 
a  series  of  encroachments  upon  the  private  savings  of  individuals. 
The  country  was  disintegrating,  numerous  portions   of  Russia 
proclaiming  their  independence;  the  BolshevikI  approved  of  it 
on  the  principle  of  self-determination  of  each  nationality  in  the 
world.      The    soldiers    were    fraternizing    with    their    German 
enemies  at  the  front;  the  BolshevikI  hailed  this  breach  of  dis- 
cipline as  a  manifestation  of  the  brotherhood  of  man.    The  army 
was  unwilling  to  fight,  the  masses  loathed  the  war,  which  the 
Bolsheviki  branded  as  a  war  of  English  against  German  capital- 
ism;  the  Bolsheviki  proclaimed  their   readiness  to   conclude   a 
general  democratic  peace  between  the  nations  over  the  heads  of 
the  existing  governments.    The  provisional  government  was  des- 
perately striving  to  maintain  a  semblance  of  order  and  authority; 
the  Bolsheviki  whipped  the  provisional  government  with  merciless 
accusations,  blaming  It  for  all  the  chaos,  misery,  poverty  and  an- 
archy, past  and  present,  that  held  the  country  In  an  iron  grip. 
The  Bolsheviki  were  bold  enough  to  put  on  the  provisional  gov- 
ernment even  the  blame  for  disorders  caused  by  the  propaganda 
of  the  Bolsheviki  themselves.    It  was  unfair, — ^yet  it  appealed  to 
the  masses.     The  masses  gave  their  support  to  the  Bolsheviki. 
Kerensky  was  wrong,  because  he  tried  to  swim  against  the  cur- 
rent.   Lenin  was  right,  because  he  expressed  In  terms  of  ideal 
aspiration    the    uncontrollable    popular    sentiments    that    spread 
among  the  masses.    Lenin  became  the  leader  because  he  allowed 
himself  to  be  led  by  the  people. 

It  Is  futile  to  approach  the  BolshevikI  movement  with  measures 
of  moral  estimation.  It  is  useless  to  make  Individuals  respon- 
sible for  what  has  turned  out  to  be  the  new  phase  of  the  Rus- 
sian Revolution.  The  Socialists  and  other  radical  parties  that  had 
for  years  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  people  wished  to  see  the 
road  of  the  Russian  revolution  a  road  of  amicable  cooperation 
of  all  progressive  forces  for  the  sake  of  a  free,  healthy,  demo- 
cratic future.  Thinking  revolutionary  Russia  hoped  to  find  the 
shortest  and  least  painful  way  to  secure  a  free  development  of 
the  people.  Had  the  BolshevikI  joined  the  other  representatives 
of  revolutionary  Russia  the  revolution  might  have  taken  a  totally 
different  aspect. 


RUSSIA  323 

It  is  too  early  to  speak  of  the  success  or  failure  of  the  Bol- 
sheviki  program.  The  peace  negotiations  have  taken  a  turn,  un- 
foreseen, perhaps,  by  the  Bolsheviki  themselves.  A  division  of 
opinion  among  the  Bolsheviki  is  reported:  one  faction  is  said 
to  favor  the  conclusion  of  peace  under  all  circumstances;  an- 
other is  for  the  declaration  of  a  **holy  war"  against  German  au- 
tocracy. Whatever  the  decision  may  be,  it  is  apparent  that  Rus- 
sia has  no  army  to  continue  the  war. 

The  internal  situation  seems  to  represent  a  series  of  difficul- 
ties of  unheard-of  magnitude.  Lenin  has  dissolved  the  Con- 
stitutent  Assembly  and  declared  parliamentary  rule  to  be  obsolete. 
How  is  he  going  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  State  with  the 
support  of  only  one  class?  How  long  will  the  other  classes, 
especially  the  peasantry,  suffer  the  hegemony  of  the  Workmen's 
Councils?  Lenin  has  announced  the  beginning  of  a  Socialist 
order  in  Russia.  How  is  he  going  to  introduce  communistic  pro- 
duction and  distribution  in  a  backward,  war-ridden  and  dis- 
organized country?  How  is  he  going  to  make  Russian  labor 
efficient  and  productive  and  Russian  industries  to  flourish? 
Lenin  has  proclaimed  a  stupendous  land  reform  which  ought  to 
secure  justice  in  agrarian  relations.  How  is  he  going  to  over- 
come the  inherent  aversion  of  the  peasant  to  things  Socialistic 
and  that  strong  spirit  of  private  ownership  that  is  most  stubborn 
in  the  village? 

Russia  seems  to  be  on  the  threshold  of  a  long  era  of  novel 
social  experiments.  Internal  strife  is  inevitable.  Confusion, 
suffering,  even  periods  of  stagnation  probably  will  follow.  What 
ought  to  be  the  attitude  of  all  the  friends  of  the  Russian  people? 
Shall  one  wish  the  reactionary  Cossacks  to  come  and  break  the 
new  revolutionary  forces?  Shall  one  turn  away  with  disgust  and 
disdain  and  declare  Russia  unworthy  of  the  aid  of  the  civilized 
world?  Both  ways  have  been  suggested,  and  either  would  con- 
tradict the  best  democratic  traditions.  Whatever  the  difficulties 
may  be,  Russia  is  a  free  democratic  country;  Russian  liberty  is 
so  far  the  greatest  achievement  of  humanity  since  the  beginning 
of  the  world  conflagration;  young  Russian  democracy,  notwith- 
standing mistakes,  has  become  one  of  the  greatest  champions  of 
the  world's  freedom.  Along  with  fantastic  hopes  and  impractical 
plans,  which  are  natural  in  times  of  revolution,  the  Russian 
genius  manifested  a  great  human  love   for   freedom   and  that 


324  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

inflexible  devotion  to  an  ideal  which  moves  men  to  great  sac- 
rifices and  great  deeds. 

BIRTH  OF  THE  UKRANIAN  REPUBLIC' 

The  first  peace  compact  in  the  world-war,  signed  by  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Central  Allied  Powers  and  the  Ukrainian  Peo- 
ple's Republic  on  February  9,  at  2  a.  m.,  is  recognized  by  some 
editorial  observers  as  a  shrewd  stroke  of  German  diplomacy,  and 
a  distinct  blow  to  the  diplomacy  of  the  Allies.  How  it  seems  to 
the  Austro-Germans  at  home  is  shown  by  Geneva  dispatches, 
which  state  that  the  news  sent  the  Viennese  "mad  with  joy." 
The  city  was  dressed  with  flags  and  business  came  to  a  stand- 
still. In  the  crowded  streets  women  wept  for  happiness,  men 
embraced  one  another.  Special  editions  of  the  newspapers  were 
sold  out  instantly.  The  people  cheered  for  the  Emperor  and 
Count  Czernin  and  shouted :  "Now  we  shall  have  plenty  of 
food !"  Schools  were  closed  for  the  day.  The  same  exultation 
greeted  the  news  at  Budapest,  Prague,  and  Innsbruck,  although 
the  people  were  less  demonstrative  than  the  Viennese.  The  New 
York  Evening  Mail  thinks  that  the  Ukraine  peace  means  in  all 
probability  the  solution  of  the  most  pressing  food  problems  of 
the  Central  Empires,  wherefore  the  ringing  of  joy-bells  in  Ber- 
lin and  Vienna.  Ukrainia  means  southern  Russia,  the  "black- 
earth"  country,  the  granary  that  drains  through  a  funnel  at 
Odessa,  and  this  journal  reports  that  peasants  there  hold  plenty 
of  grain,  unwilling  to  part  with  it  for  worthless  Russian  cur- 
rency. The  Mail  goes  on  to  say  that  no  one  must  minimize  the 
significance  of  the  victory  of  the  Central  Powers,  who  see  before 
them  "food,  relief  from  the  terrible  strain  of  starvation,  an  in- 
crease of  thirty  per  cent,  in  their  fighting  forces  against  the  main 
Allies,  over  a  million  war-prisoners  returned,  an  enemy  pulled 
off  their  backs."  Germany's  adroit  the  brutal  diplomatic 
moves,  backed  by  military  power,  remarks  the  Baltimore  Ameri- 
can, add  to  the  confusion  and  the  difficulties  of  the  task  that  lies 
before  the  Allies  and  will  make  the  peace  conference  "fraught 
with  many  opportunities  for  trading  and  evasion  that  will  be 
peculiarly  irritating  to  the  straightforward  policies  of  the  United 
States." 

1  Literary    Digest.    56:7-8.    February    23,    1918. 


RUSSIA  325 

Press  dispatches  advised  us  that  the  Ukrainian  Rada,  whose 
representatives  signed  the  peace  agreement  with  the  Central 
Powers,  is  the  bourgeois  legislature  established  by  the  Ukrain- 
ians, a  few  weeks  before  they  declared  their  independence  of  the 
Russian  republic.  The  Bolsheviki  attempted  to  overthrow  the 
Rada  administration  and  establish  their  own  form.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  peace  negotiations  at  Brest-Litovsk  the  Bolshevik 
delegates  allowed  Ukrainians  at  the  conferences,  but  later  re- 
pudiated them  on  the  ground  that  the  Ukraninians  were  acting 
independently.  The  distinction  drawn  in  the  New  York  Times's 
news-columns  between  the  Ukrainians  and  the  Bolsheviki 
is  that  the  Ukrainian  movement  is  partly  a  national  and 
partly  a  land  question.  The  Bolsheviki  who  believe  in 
a  re-distribution  of  the  land,  emphasize  this  question, 
while  the  Rada  group  stand  alone  on  their  separate  and 
proclaimed  nationality.  A  correspondent  of  the  Manchester 
Guardian  informs  us  that  the  Ukrainian  question,  well  known 
to  the  political  student,  has  been  obscured  from  the  gaze  of  the 
public  because  of  the  clever  maneuvers  of  the  ethnographical  and 
historical  "science"  of  the  old  Czarist  regime,  which  turned  the 
Ukrainians  into  a  subordinate  branch  of  the  Russian  people  under 
the  name  of  "Little  Russians,"  proclaimed  its  language — despite 
the  findings  of  its  own  Academy  of  Science — to  be  a  mere  local 
dialect,  and,  above  all,  had  with  unparalleled  coolness  appro- 
priated the  entire  Ukrainian  history  as  part  of  the  history  of  its 
own   Empire.     We  read  then : 

"As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Ukrainian  people — at  present  count- 
ing, in  Russia  alone,  about  thirty  million  souls — though  akin  to 
the  Russians,  was  and  has  ever  been  as  distinct  from  them, 
physically,  mentally,  and  culturally,  and  for  many  centuries 
politically,  as  the  Poles  or  the  Bulgarians,  and  its  history  was, 
down  to  the  seventeeth  century,  that  of  an  independent  political 
community  whose  earlier  stages  figure  in  the  Russian  historical 
text-books  as  the  Kief  period  of  Russian  history. 

"For  Kief,  with  its  long  list  of  princes — from  St.  Vladimir, 
who  adopted  Christianity  in  988,  through  Vladimir  Monomachos, 
whose  wife  was  Gytha,  a  daughter  of  Harold  of  England,  down 
to  Danilo,  the  father  of  Lev,  who  founded  the  city  of  Lvoff 
(Lemberg) — was  never  the  capital  of  a  Russian  state.  It  was 
the  capital  of  a  Ukrainian  feudal  state,  extending  from  the  Don 


326  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

to  the  Karpathians,  and  from  the  Pripet  to  the  Black  Sea— an 
agglomerate  as  large  as,  or  even  larger  than,  present  France  or 
Germany.  The  Tatar  invasion  of  the  thirteenth  century  was  a 
mortal  blow  inflicted  on  that  state,  whose  center  of  gravity  now 
shifted  to  the  west,  to  the  present  Galicia  and  Volhynia,  with 
its  capital  cities  of  Halicz  (hence  the  corrupted  name  of  Galicia) 
and  Vladimir.  This  part  continued  its  independence  for  another 
hundred  years,  until  it  fell  under  the  power  of  the  princes  of 
Lithuania,  and,  finally,  through  the  union  of  Lithuania  with 
Poland  in  1536,  under  that  of  the  Polish  kings. 

"What  became  of  eastern  Ukraine?  For  a  long  time  trampled 
under  foot  by  Tatar  horses,  it  gradually  evolved  a  military  state, 
the  republic  of  the  Cossacks — the  real,  the  original  Cos- 
sacks, of  which  the  subsequent  Cossacks  of  Russia  were 
mere  imitations — which,  in  incessant  fighting  against  the 
Tatars,  then  the  Turks  and  the  Poles,  gradually  recov- 
ered for  that  part  of  the  Ukrainian  people  security  and  in- 
dependence. Kief  once  more  blossomed  forth — this  time  chiefly 
as  a  cultural  center  with  a  remarkable  academy,  libraries,  and  a 
host  of  savants — and  hetmans  of  the  Cossacks  became  the  rulers 
of  the  non-Polish  Ukraine.  The  pressure  of  Poland  was,  how- 
ever very  great,  and  in  the  end  the  Hetman  Bogdan  Klhmelnitsky, 
in  1654,  applied  to  the  Czar  of  Moscow  for  protection  and  con- 
cluded with  him  a  treaty  for  joining  the  Ukraine  to  the  Muscovite 
state  on  the  basis  of  a  personal  union  and  with  the  preservation 
of  the  full  autonomy  of  the  Ukraine. 

"That  was  the  end  of  the  Ukrainian  state,  because  no  sooner 
was  the  Muscovite  Czar's  protectorate  established  than  he  began 
to  encroach  upon  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  Ukrainian  peo- 
ple." 

No  matter  what  the  terms  of  the  peace  contract  may  be,  says 
the  Providence  Journal,  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  Ukraine  will 
become  a  German  province  in  everything  but  name,  and  would 
remain  so  if  the  war  were  to  end  without  compelling  Germany 
to  abandon  her  Mitteleuropa  dream — the  nightmare  of  democ- 
racy, and  it  is  explained  : 

"With  Poland  as  a  Teutonic  appanage  and  the  Ukraine  also 
in  the  Kaiser's  grip,  Germany  would  gain  an  alternative  route 
to  Persia  and  India.  Just  one  glance  at  the  map  shows  that  it 
is  a  shorter  cut  from  Berlin  to  the  Far  East  than  the  original 


RUSSIA  327 

route.  Odessa,  the  great  port  on  the  Black  Sea,  is  in  the 
Ukraine,  and,  with  that  for  an  outlet  by  water  to  Constantinople, 
the  Kaiser  could  console  himself,  even  if  he  were  to  be  shut  off 
in  the  Balkans  or  if  he  should  fail  to  reach  Asia  by  another  all- 
rail  route  through  Poland,  the  Ukraine,  and  the  Caucasus.    .    .    . 

"But  unless  Germany  is  to  indicate  the  fate  of  all  the  nations 
arrayed  against  her,  she  can  not,  even  with  Russian  consent,  be 
suffered  to  dominate  the  region  to  the  north  of  the  Black  Sea, 
which  would  give  her  a  pathway  to  world-dominion  in  the  Far 
East.  Through  whatever  countries  that  route  leads,  civilization, 
for  its  own  security,  must  impose  a  barrier." 

The  New  York  Evening  Sun  also  gets  from  the  treaty  the 
impression  that  the  Ukraine  is  to  subserve  the  Central  Empires 
just  as  these  subserve  Hohenzollern  Prussia,  and  thinks  "the 
outcome  in  itself  is  worth  to  Prussia  the  whole  war  to  date;  but 
the  gainers  need  peace  in  order  to  realize  their  winnings.  To 
permit  them  to  have  it,  save  on  terms  acceptable  to  the  sense 
of  security  and  justice,  would  be  to  do  the  world  a  grave  disad- 
vantage."    Says  the  Brooklyn  Eagle: 

"The  signing  of  such  a  peace  treaty  is  a  victory  for  the  Cen- 
tral Powers,  regardless  of  its  ultimate  value.  It  enables  the  Teu- 
tonic governments  to  exhibit  one  concrete  result  of  the  peace 
pourparlers  at  Brest-Litovsk  and  strengthens  their  hand  in  deal- 
ing with  all  questions  in  the  East.  It  is  a  significant  first  step 
in  the  complete  disintegration  of  Russia  preparatory  to  the  ex- 
tension of  Teutonic  domination  over  the  vast  territory  of  the  old 
Slav  empire.  And  the  worst  of  it  is  that  Ukrainians  themselves 
have  sold  their  birthright  to  get  peace." 

The  New  York  Sun  points  out  that  there  are  two  distinct 
parties  in  the  new  Ukraine,  one  opposed  to  any  terms  that  the 
Germans  and  Austrians  have  offered,  the  other,  from  the  first 
under  German  influence  as  the  result  of  German  propaganda. 
Evidently  the  latter  party,  at  present  nominally  in  charge  of  the 
government,  The  Sun  thinks,  is  the  one  with  which  the  German 
peace  negotiations  have  been  successful.  Again,  the  Central 
Powers  face  the  difficult  fact  that  the  Ukraine  is  merely  a  mem- 
ber of  the  confederation  of  states  which  the  Bolsheviki  have 
sought  to  establish  in  Russia.  The  negotiations,  to  become  effec- 
tive, therefore,  must  be  accepted  by  the  government  at  Petrograd, 
and  The  Sun  believes  that  it  is  very  likely  that  they  will  refuse 

28 


328  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

to  recognize  the  treaty  made  by  the  Ukrainian  Rada.  The  gain 
announced  by  the  Central  Powers  will  thus  be  of  very  uncertain 
value,  and  "it  is  doubtful,  in  fact,  if  it  results  in  any  material 
advantage  to  them."  On  this  point  a  Washington  dispatch  to 
the  New  York  American  says : 

"Administration  officials  predict  that  Germany's  separate 
peace  with  Ukraine  will  be  a  boomerang.  They  say  it  will  tend 
further  to  increase  the  distrust  of  the  German  people  for  their 
masters,  as  the  great  grain  stocks  of  Ukraine  do  not  exist.    .    .    . 

"In  the  face  of  this,  figures  on  the  Ukrainian  food  resources 
were  made  public.  They  were  compiled  by  J.  Ralph  Picket,  a 
Chicago  grain  expert,  who  made  a  four-months'  study  of  the  Rus- 
sian food  situation.  Kerensky  wanted  to  make  Mr.  Picket  food 
dictator  of  all  the  Russians.  His  figures  have  been  submitted 
to  Herbert  C.  Hoover.    They  show: 

"i.  That  Ukraine  produced  in  1915,  70,000,000  bushels  of 
wheat.    Of  this  Russia  got  about  10,500,000  bushels. 

"2.  In  1916  the  production  fell  to  41,000,000  bushels.  There 
was  no  surplus  for  Russia. 

"3.  In  1917  the  production  was  only  37,000,000  bushels. 
Ukrainia  herself  lacked  grain. 

UKRAINE  THROWS   OFF  THE  SHACKLES   OF 
SERFDOM  AFTER  263  YEARS' 

"Ukraine  has  formed  a  definite  alliance  with  the  Cossacks." 
This  statement,  recently  published,  introduces  into  the  war- 
situation  a  nation  little  known  and  seldom  heard  of  in  America. 
And  yet  it  numbers  fully  30,000,000  people  who  for  263  years  had 
been  in  subjection  to  the  Czars  of  Russia.  George  Raffalovich, 
the  son  of  an  Ukrainian  father  and  a  French  mother,  an  author 
of  repute  under  the  pen-name  of  Bedwin  Sands,  is  an  authority 
on  Ukrainian  history.  In  an  article  in  the  New  York  Sun  he 
gives  some  enlightening  and  interesting  facts  concerning  the 
reborn  nation: 

Ukraine  covers  850,000  square  kilometers,  an  area  greater 
than  that  of  France  and  only  a  little  less  than  that  of  Italy,  Spain, 
and  Portugal  together. 

^Literary   Digest.    56:47,   50.  January   12,    1918. 


RUSSIA  329 

Taking  the  figures  usually  given  by  European  writers  of 
repute,  there  are  to-day  29,000,000  Ukrainians  in  the  southwest- 
ern provinces  of  Russia,  between  one  and  two  millions  in 
Siberia,  where  they  have,  especially  in  the  Amur  region,  exten- 
sive settlements;  three  and  a  half  millions  in  eastern  Galicia, 
four  hundred  thousand  in  northern  Bukowina,  and  pefhaps  half 
a  million  in  northern  Hungary  on  the  southern  slopes  of  the 
Karpathian  Mountains.  To  these  figures  should  be  added  the 
half-million  Ukrainians  who  are  at  present  in  the  United  States, 
probably  as  many  in  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  a  few  thousand 
in  Australia,  and  about  fifty  thousand  in  Brazil.  There  are 
Ukrainian  settlements  in  Turkey,  in  the  Dobrudja,  and  in  south- 
ern Hungary,  but  they  are  very  small. 

The  bulk  of  the  Ukrainians  consists,  therefore,  of  those  in 
Ukrainian  Russia,  in  Galicia,  and  in  Bukowina,  for  they  inhabit 
the  compact  territory  which  is  only  artificially — or  shall  we  say 
politically? — divided  between  Russia,  Austria,  and  Hungary. 
Leaving  out  the  Rusniaks,  or  Ukrainians  of  Hungary,  who  ex- 
press no  desire  to  work  politically  with  the  other  members  of 
their  nation  and  who  insist,  even  in  America,  upon  societies  of 
their  own,  we  have  a  population  of  over  33,000,000  stretched 
between  the  Caucasus,  the  Black  Sea,  the  Karpathian  Moun- 
tains, and  the  San  River. 

The  purely  Ukrainian  governments  of  Russia  are: 

I.  Ukraine  of  the  Right  Bank  (of  the  Dnieper),  Podolia, 
Volhynia,  Kief,  and  Kholm. 

2.  Ukraine  of  the  Left  Bank  (of  the  Dnieper),  Tchernihov, 
Poltava,  Kharkov,  southwest  Khursk,  Voronezh,  and  the  region 
of  the  Don  Cossacks  to  the  Sea  of  Azov. 

3.  On  both  sides  of  the  Dnieper  lies  the  Steppe  Ukraine, 
comprising  Ekaterinoslav,  Kherson,  and  the  eastern  parts  of 
Bessarabia,  and  Tauris. 

4.  North  Caucasus,  adjacent  to  the  region  of  the  Don 
Cossacks,  comprising  Kuban  and  the  eastern  parts  of  the  Stavro- 
polskoi  and  Therska  governments. 

In  all  these  districts  the  Ukrainians  form  from  76  to  99  per 
cent,  of  the  total  population,  the  rest  being  Jews,  Poles,  and 
lastly  Russians. 

Ukraine's  popular  form  of  government  attracted  settlers  from 
near-by  countries,  and  the  fame  of  the  freedom  of  its  institu- 


330  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

tions  reached  as  far  as  Ireland,  as  is  shown  by  the  Celtic  names 
that  are  still  preserved  in  Ukraine.    The  writer  says ; 

The  Rurik  dynasty  founded  Ukraine.  When  it  disappeared, 
as  all  monarchies  must,  the  next  organization  that  kept  the 
Ukraine  lands  together  was  the  republic  of  the  Cossacks,  whose 
dominion  overlapped  Lithuania  and  Poland,  who  occupied  much 
of  the  Ukraine  soil. 

The  Cossacks  were  organized  something  on  the  lines  of  the 
chivalry  of  Western  Europe.  Their  precepts  were  obedience, 
piety,  chastity,  and  equality.  The  Assembly  was  the  only  au- 
thority they  recognized.  The  Hetman  (headman)  was  elected 
by,  and  was  responsible  to,  the  Assembly  for  his  actions.  If 
he  offended  he  was  incontinently  deprived  of  office. 

The  Assembly,  called  Rada,  was  periodical  and  comprised  rep- 
resentatives of  all  classes  of  the  community  who  often  criticized 
freely  the  policy  of  the  Hetman.  In  the  interval  between  Radas 
the  Hetman  ruled  the  country  by  a  series  of  decrees.  When  any 
section  of  the  Ukrainian  community  was  dissatisfied  with  the 
person  or  the  policy  of  the  Hetman  it  was  entitled  to  call  to- 
gether a  Rada,  which  in  such  cases  was  called  a  Black  Rada. 
If  the  Black  Rada  happened  to  be  representative  enough, 
and  the  complaint  met  with  the  approval  of  the  majority,  the 
Hetman   might   be    compelled   to    resign. 

While  the  Muscovites  lived  under  an  absolute  monarchy, 
while  the  Poles  were  ruled  by  a  haughty  and  exclusive  aristoc- 
racy, in  Ukraine  all  were  free  under  the  Lithuanian  kings,  and 
republican  institutions  were  gradually  taking  root.  Many  people 
would  leave  the  surrounding  countries  and  go  to  settle  in 
Ukraine.  Such  names  preserved  in  the  Ukraine  as  O'Brien  and 
O'Rourke  tend  to  prove  that  people  came  from  much  farther 
to  settle  in  the  happy  land. 

"It  has  been  said  that  the  Ukrainian  race  seemed  qualified  to 
put  into  practise  the  idea  of  universal  equality  and  freedom.  The 
science  of  war  was  there  brought  to  high  perfection.  At  the 
same  time  a  literature  was  produced  which  glorified  the  Cossack 
life  in  attractive  ballads  and  tales.  The  Slavonic  world  is  proud 
of  the  history  of  this  free  State. 

It  is  on  the  Poles  that  lies  the  stigma  of  wrecking  t)iis  prom- 
ising nation,  since  it  was  under  Poland  that  Ukraine  was  at 
that  time.     The  whole  of  Ukraine,  or  rather  all  that  was  left 


RUSSIA  331 

of  it  after  the  Tatar  incursions,  was  easily  conquered  by  Lithu- 
ania, and  the  principalities  of  Kief,  part  of  Podolia,  and  Volhynia 
became  part  of  the  Lithuanian  kingdom.  Being,  however,  of 
higher  culture  than  the  conquerors,  the  conquered  provinces  gave 
their  language  and  their  laws  to  Lithuania. 

After  various  social  and  political  disturbances  the  situation 
in  Ukraine  grew  worse  and  worse.  She  lost  all  her  rights  one 
by  one,  and  finally  her  name  was  almost  forgotten  by  men.  Then, 
says  the  writer: 

Came  the  Japanese  war  and  the  first  revolution. 

The  Constitution  of  1905  was  a  sincere  act  of  the  Czar.  It 
was  not  perfect,  it  left  many  restrictions  which  should  have  been 
removed,  but  it  was  a  good  beginning.  The  first  and  second 
Dumas  contained  an  important  proportion  of  nationalist  deputies 
elected  by  the  Ukrainian  peasantry. 

The  bureaucratic  clique,  the  Black  Hundreds,  and  the  pan- 
Russians  set  their  minds  to  the  solving  of  two  new  problems — 
how  to  poison  the  minds  of  the  Czar  and  his  advisers  and  how 
to  explain  the  Constitution  in  such  a  way  that  its  effect  could 
be  nullified. 

They  succeeded  with  the  help  of  an  unlooked-for  ally.  The 
Socialist  parties  showed  fierce  opposition  to  the  Ukrainian 
nationalist  movement.  The  result  of  this  unholy  alliance  for  the 
crushing  of  a  people  was  that  the  Constitution  was  gradually 
explained  away  and  lost  all  its  meaning. 

For  instance,  in  the  first  Duma  there  was  a  Ukrainian  club 
composed  of  forty-four  nationalist  deputies.  It  worked  through 
the  first  and  second  Dumas,  when  the  members  exceeded  sixty. 
This  was  too  much  for  the  government.  The  regulations  con- 
cerning the  electoral  system  were  revised.  In  the  third  Duma 
there  was  no  such  nonsense  as  a  Ukrainian  party.  As  if  by 
magic  the  problem  of  how  to  deal  with  rebels  had  disappeared. 
The  anti-Ukrainian  press  took  what  comfort  it  could  in  the 
thought  that  these  sixty  Ukrainian  members  elected  to  represent 
29,000,000  people  enslaved  by  Russia  had  been  a  bad  dream. 

Confiscations,  prohibitions,  arrests,  exiles  followed.  The  anti- 
Ukrainian  propaganda  was  resumed  in  Galicia  and  spread  even 
to  France  and  England,  where  writers  and  journalists  otherwise 
sober-minded  were   led  to  believe  that  there  was  no   Ukraine 


332  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

nation,  no  Ukraine  nationalism.  "There  was  not  even  such  a 
word  in  the  Russian  dictionary,  unless  it  meant  frontier." 

The  new  nation  will  not  bear  the  stamp  "made  in  Germany," 
as  many  writers  have  asserted,  for  says  Raffalovich: 

The  newly  won  independence  of  Russian  Ukraine  does  away 
with  the  charge  of  pro-Germanism  which  was  freely  leveled  at 
all  those  who  advocated  this  autonomy. 

The  birth  of  the  nationalist  movement  in  Russian  Ukraine 
was  automatic.  Its  life  was  fostered  by  the  Ukrainians  them- 
selves, financed  by  Ukrainians  of  all  classes. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Ukrainians  who  know  the  Germans 
best  like  them  least.  Muscovites  of  Great  Russia  may  admire 
the  Teuton  system  of  efficiency.  The  Ukrainians  are  too  much 
of  an  artistic  nation  to  care  overmuch  for  Kultur  without 
polish.  If  there  are  pro-Germans  in  Russia  they  are  cer- 
tainly not  the  individualistic,  essentially  democratic  Ukrainians. 
Americans  need  not  fear  betrayal  from  that  quarter. 

Of  the  great  natural  resources  of  the  new  nation  the  writer 
says: 

The  famous  black  soil  of  Ukraine  covers  three-quarters  of 
the  country.  To  the  north  as  well  as  in  the  Karpathian  Moun- 
tains are  some  110,000  square  kilometers  of  forests.  The  agri- 
cultural soil  covers  53  per  cent,  of  the  aggregate  territory  of 
Ukraine  and  32  per  cent.,  if  we  take  in  the  whole  of  European 
Russia,  which  is,  however,  six  times  greater  than  the  Ukraine 
itself. 

The  annual  production  of  cereals  in  Ukraine  is  two-thirds  of 
the  whole  production  in  the  Russian  Empire.  It  is  greater  than 
that  of  Germany  or  France.  The  exportation  of  grains  from 
Ukraine  amounts  to  27  per  cent,  of  the  production,  and  of  all 
the  wheat  exported  from  Russia  nine-tenths  comes  from  Ukrain- 
ian lands.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  trade  of  Ukraine  is  mere 
developed  than  that  of  any  part  of  the  empire. 

Ukraine  ranks  highest  amCng  all  the  countries  that  comprise 
the  vast  Russian  Empire  as  to  the  annual  agricultural  production. 
Wheat,  rye,  and  barley  are  the  staple  crop  of  Russia's  agriculture, 
and  the  annual  production  in  Ukraine  of  these  products  amounts 
to  one-third  of  Russia's  output.  As  to  other  farm  products, 
Ukraine's  position  is  also  very  conspicuous. 


RUSSIA  333 

Beet-root,  for  instance,  is  especially  cultivated  in  the  Ukraine 
provinces  of  Podolia,  Volhynia,  Kief,  and  Kherson;  those 
provinces  together  yield  five-sixths  of  the  sugar-beet  production 
of  all  Russia.  Ukraine  produces  almost  all  the  tobacco  of  the 
empire,  and  she  has  the  largest  and  finest  orchards  and  vine- 
yards of  European  Russia. 

The  immense  natural  resources  of  Ukraine  furnish  splendid 
opportunities  for  the  development  of  manufacturing  industries. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  62  per  cent,  of  Russia's  annual  production 
of  pig  iron  and  58  per  cent,  of  Russia's  production  of  steel  comes 
from  Ukraine.  These  few  facts  may  furnish  sufficient  indication 
of  Ukraine's  economic  significance  to  Russia. 


POLITICAL   PARTIES   IN   RUSSIA^ 

The  following  is  an  attempt  to  formulate,  first,  the  more  im- 
portant, and  second,  the  less  important,  of  the  questions  and 
answers  characteristic  of  the  present  situation  in  Russia,  and 
of  the  attitude  the  various  parties  take  to  the  present  state  of 
affairs. 

QUESTIONS 

I.  What  are  the  chief  groupings  of  political  parties  in  Rus- 
sia f 

ANSWERS 

A  (more  to  the  right  than  the  Cadets).  Parties  and  groups 
more  right  than  the  Constitutional  Democrats. 

B  (Cadets).  Constitutional  Democratic  Party  (Cadets,  the 
National  Liberty  Party)  and  the  groups  closely  attached  to 
them. 

C  (Social  Democrats  and  Social  Revolutionists).  The  S. 
D.'s,  S.  R.'s  and  the  groups  closely  attached  to  them. 

D  (Bolsheviks).  The  party  which  ought  properly  to  be  called 
the  Communistic  Party,  and  which  is  at  present  termed  "The 
Russian  Social  Democratic  Workers'  Party,  united  with  the 
Central  Committee";  or,  in  popular  language,  the  "Bolsheviks." 

1  By  Nicholas  Lenine.  Reprinted  from  the  November-December  19 17 
issue  of  "The^  Class  Struggle,"  a  bi-monthly  magazine,  devoted  to  in- 
ternational  socialism. 


334  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

2.  What  classes  do  these  parties  represent f  What  class 
standpoints  do  they  express^ 

A.  The  feudal  landholders  and  the  more  backward  sections 
of  the  bourgeoisie, 

B.  The  mass  of  the  bourgeoisie,  that  is,  the  capitalists,  and 
those  landholders  who  have  the  industrial,  bourgeois  ideology. 

C.  Small  entrepreneurs,  small  and  middle-class  proprietors, 
small  and  more  or  less  well-to-do  peasants,  petite  bourgeoisie,  as 
well  as  those  workers  who  have  submitted  to  a  bourgeois  point 
of  view. 

D.  Class-conscious  workers,  day  laborers  and  the  poorer 
classes  of  the  peasantry,  who  are  classed  with  them  (semi-pro- 
letariat) . 

3.  What  is  their  relation  to  Socialism? 

A  and  B.  Unconditionally  hostile,  since  it  threatens  the 
profits  of  capitalists  and  landholders. 

C.  For  Socialism,  but  it  is  too  early  yet  to  think  of  it  or  to 
take  any  practical  steps  for  its  realization. 

D.  For  Socialism.  The  Council  of  Workers',  Soldiers'  and 
Peasants'  Delegates  must  at  once  take  every  practical  and  feasible 
step  for  its  realization. 

4.  What  form  of  government  do  they  want  now? 

A.  A  Constitutional  Monarchy,  absolute  authority  of  the 
official  class  and  the  police. 

B.  A  bourgeois  parliamentary  republic,  i.e.,  a  perpetuation 
of  the  rule  of  the  capitalists,  with  the  retention  of  the  official 
(chinovnik)  class  and  the  police. 

C.  A  bourgeois  parliamentary  republic,  with  reforms  for  the 
workers  and  peasants. 

D.  A  republic  of  the  Council  of  Workers',  Soldiers  and 
Peasants'  Delegates.  Abolition  of  the  standing  army  and  the 
police ;  substituting  for  them  an  armed  people ;  officials  to  be  not 
only  elected,  but  also  subject  to  recall;  their  pay  not  to  exceed 
that  of  a  good  worker. 

5.  What  is  their  attitude  on  the  restoration  of  the  Romanoff 
Monarchy? 

A.  In  favor,  but  it  must  be  done  with  caution  and  secrecy, 
for  they  are  afraid  of  the  people. 


RUSSIA  335 

B.  When  the  Guchkovs  seemed  to  be  in  power  the  Cadets 
were  in  favor  of  putting  on  the  throne  a  brother  or  son  of 
Nicholas,  but  when  the  people  loomed  up  the  Cadets  became 
anti-monarchial. 

C  and  D.  Unconditionally  opposed  to  any  kind  of  monarchic 
restoration. 

6.  What  do  they  think  of  seizure  of  power f  What  do  they 
term  "Order,"  and  what  "Anarchy'? 

A.  If  a  czar  or  a  brave  general  seizes  control,  his  authority 
comes  from  God;  that  is  order.     Anything  else  is  Anarchy. 

B.  If  the  capitalists  hold  power,  even  by  force,  that  is 
order;  to  assume  power  against  the  capitalists  would  be  anarchy. 

C.  If  the  Councils  of  Workers',  Soldiers'  and  Sailors'  Dele- 
gates alone  are  in  power,  anarchy  threatens.  For  the  present 
let  the  capitalists  retain  control,  while  the  Councils  have  an  "Ad- 
visory Commission." 

D.  Sole  authority  must  be  in  the  hands  of  the  Councils  of 
Workers',  Soldiers'  and  Peasants'  Delegates.  The  entire  propa- 
ganda, agitation  and  organization  of  millions  upon  millions  of 
people  must  at  once  be  directed  toward  this  end.^ 

7.  Shall  we  support  the  Provisional  Government? 

A  and  B.  Unquestionably,  since  it  is  the  only  means  at  this 
moment  of  guarding  the  interests  of  the  capitalists. 

C.  Yes,  but  with  the  condition  that  it  should  carry  out  its 
agreement  with  the  Councils  of  W.  S.  and  P.  Delegates  and 
should  consult  with  the  "Advisory  Commission." 

D.  No;  let  the  capitalists  support  it.  We  must  prepare  the 
whole  people  for  the  complete  and  sole  authority  of  the  Coun- 
cils of  W.   S.  and  P.  Delegates. 

8.  Are  we  for  a  single  authority  or  for  a  dual  authority? 
A  and  B.    For  sole  power  in  the  hands  of  the  capitalists  and 

landholders. 

C.  For  dual  authority.  The  Councils  of  W.  S.  and  P.  Dele- 
gates to  exercise  "control"  over  the  Provisional  Government. 
But  it  would  be  pernicious  to  consider  the  possibility  that  this 
control  might  prove   illusory. 

1  Anarchy  is  a  complete  negation  of  all  government  authority,  but  the 
Councils  of  W.  S.  ana  P.  Delegates  are  also  a  government  authority. 


336  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

D.    For  sole  power  in  the  hands  of  the  Councils  of  W.  S.  and 
P.  Delegates,  from  top  to  bottom  over  the  whole  country. 
9    Shall  a  Constitutent  Assembly  he  called? 

A.  Not  necessary,  for  it  might  injure  the  landholders.  Sup- 
pose the  peasants  at  the  Constitutent  Assembly  should  decide  to 
take  away  the  land  of  the  landholders  ? 

B.  Yes,  but  without  stipulation  of  time.  Furthermore,  the 
learned  professors  should  be  consulted,  first,  because  Bebel  has 
already  pointed  out  that  jurists  are  the  most  reactionary  people 
in  the  world;  and,  second,  because  the  experience  of  all  revolu- 
tions shows  that  the  cause  of  the  people  is  lost  when  it  is  en- 
trusted to  the  hands  of  professors. 

C.  Yes,  and  as  soon  as  possible.  As  to  the  time,  we  have 
already  discussed  it  in  the  meetings  of  the  "Advisory  Commis- 
sion" 200  times  and  shall  definitely  dispose  of  it  in  our  201  st  dis- 
cussion to-morrow. 

D.  Yes,  and  as  soon  as  possible.  Yet,  to  be  successful  and 
to  be  really  convoked,  one  condition  is  necessary:  increase  the 
number  and  strengthen  the  pozver  of  the  Councils  of  W.  S.  and 
P.  Delegates;  organize  and  arm  the  masses.  Only  thus  can  the 
Assembly  be  assured. 

10.  Does  the  state  need  a  police  of  the  conventional  type  and 
a  standing  army? 

A  and  B.  Absolutely,  this  is  the  only  permanent  guarantee 
of  the  rule  of  capital,  and  in  case  of  necessity,  as  is  taught  by 
the  experience  of  all  countries,  the  return  from  Republic  to 
Monarchy  is  thus  greatly  facilitated. 

C.  On  the  one  hand,  it  may  not  be  necessary.  On  the  other 
hand,  is  not  so  radical  a  change  premature?  Moreover,  we  can 
discuss  it  in  the  Advisory  Commission. 

D.  Absolutely  unnecessary.  Immediately  and  unconditionally 
universal  arming  of  the  people  shall  be  introduced  so  that  they 
and  the  militia  and  the  army  shall  be  an  integral  whole.  Capi- 
talists must  pay  the  workers  for  their  days  of  service  in  the 
militia. 

20.  Shall  the  peasants  at  once  take  all  the  land  of  the  land- 
holders? 

A.  and  B.  By  no  means.  We  must  wait  for  the  Constitutent 
Assembly.    Shingarev  already  pointed  out  that  when  the  capital- 


RUSSIA  337 

ists  take  away  the  power  from  the  Czar,  that  it  is  a  great  and 
glorious  revolution,  but  when  the  peasants  take  away  the  land 
from  the  landholders,  that  is  arbitrary  tyranny.  A  Commission 
of  Adjustment  must  be  appointed,  with  equal  representation  of 
landholders  and  peasants,  and  the  chairman  must  be  of  the  offi- 
cial (chinovnik)  class,  that  is,  from  among  those  same  capital- 
ists and  landlords. 

C.  It  would  be  better  for  the  peasants  to  wait  for  the  Con- 
stitutent  Assembly. 

D.  All  the  land  must  be  taken  at  once.  Order  must  be  strictly 
maintained  by  the  Councils  of  Peasants'  Delegates.  The  produc- 
tion of  bread  and  meat  must  be  increased,  the  soldiers  better  fed. 
Destruction  of  cattle  and  of  tools,  etc.,  is  not  permissible. 

21.  Shall  we  limit  ourselves  to  the  Councils  of  Peasants' 
Delegates  only  for  the  management  of  lands  and  for  all  village 
questions  in  general f 

A  and  B.  The  landholders  and  capitalists  are  entirely  opposed 
to  the  sole  authority  of  the  Councils  of  Peasants'  Delegates  in 
agrarian  matters.  But  if  these  Councils  are  unavoidable,  we  must 
adapt  ourselves  to  them,  for  the  rich  peasant  is  a  capitalist,  after 
all. 

C.  We  might  for  the  present  accept  the  councils,  for  "in- 
principle"  we  do  not  deny  the  necessity  of  a  separate  organiza- 
tion of  the  agrarian  wage  workers. 

D.  It  will  be  impossible  to  limit  ourselves  only  to  general 
Councils  of  Peasants'  Delegates,  for  the  wealthy  peasants  are 
of  the  same  capitalistic  class  that  is  always  inclined  to  injure  or 
deceive  the  farmhands,  day  laborers  and  the  poorer  peasants. 
We  must  at  once  form  special  organizations  of  these  latter  classes 
of  the  village  populations  both  within  the  Councils  of  Peasants' 
Delegates  and  in  the  form  of  special  Councils  of  Delegates  of 
the  Farmers'  Workers. 

22.  Shall  the  people  take  into  their  hands  the  largest  and 
most  powerful  monopolistic  organisations  of  capitalism,  the 
banks,  manufacturing  syndicates,  etc.? 

A  and  B.  Not  by  any  means,  since  that  might  injure  the  land- 
lords and  capitalists. 


338  SELECTED    ARTICLES 

C.  Generally  speaking,  we  are  in  favor  of  handing  over  such 
organizations  to  the  entire  people,  but  to  think  of  or  prepare  for 
this  condition  now  is  very  untimely. 

D.  We  must  at  once  prepare  the  Councils  of  Workers'  Dele- 
gates, the  Councils  of  Delegates  of  Banking  Employes  and  others 
for  the  taking  of  all  such  steps  as  are  feasible  and  completely 
realizable  toward  the  union  of  all  banks  into  one  single  national 
bank  and  then  toward  a  control  of  the  Councils  of  Workers' 
Delegates  over  the  banks  and  syndicates,  and  then  toward  their 
nationalization,  that  is,  their  passing  over  into  the  possession  of 
the  whole  people. 

Resolution  on  War,  Passed  by  the  General  Russian  Con- 
ference OF  THE  Russian  Social- Democratic  Workers' 
Party.    April  26-May  9,  1917. 

(All  voting  in  favor  except  seven,  who  refrained  from  voting 
at  all). 

The  present  war,  on  the  part  of  all  the  belligerents,  is  an  im- 
perialistic war,  that  is,  it  is  fought  by  capitalists  for  the  division 
of  spoils  through  their  domination  of  the  world,  for  markets,  for 
financial  capital,  for  the  suppression  of  the  backward  nations, 
etc.  Each  day  of  war  enriches  the  financial  and  industrial  bour- 
geoisie and  impoverishes  and  weakens  the  powers  of  the  prole- 
tariat and  the  peasantry  of  all  the  belligerents,  and  later  of  the 
neutral  countries.  In  Russia  the  prolongation  of  the  war  in- 
volves also  a  grave  danger  to  the  revolution  and  to  its  further 
development. 

The  passing  of  government  authority,  in  Russia,  into  the  hands 
of  the  Provisional  Government,  that  is,  the  government  of  the 
landholders  and  capitalists,  did  not  and  could  not  alter  the  char- 
acter and  significance  of  the  Russian  participation  in  this  war. 

This  fact  became  particularly  apparent  w'hen  the  new  gov- 
ernment not  only  did  not  publish  the  secret  treaties  concluded 
between  the  late  Czar  and  the  capitalist  governments  of  England, 
France,  etc.,  but  even  formally  confirmed  these  secret  treaties, 
which  promised  Russian  capitalists  a  free  hand  in  China,  Persia, 
Turkey,  Austria,  etc.,  without  consulting  the  Russian  people. 
The  concealment  of  these  treaties  from  the  Russian  people  com- 
pletely deceived  them  as  to  the  true  character  of  the  war.    " 


RUSSIA  339 

For  this  reason  the  proletarian  party  can  support  neither  the 
present  war,  nor  the  present  government,  nor  its  loans  without 
breaking  completely  with  internationalism,  that  is,  with  the  fra- 
ternal solidarity  of  the  workers  of  all  lands  in  their  struggle 
under  the  yoke  of  capitalism. 

No  confidence  is  to  be  placed  in  the  promises  of  the  present 
government  to  renounce  annexations,  that  is,  conquests  of  for- 
eign territory,  or  in  the  promise  to  renounce  forcible  retention 
within  the  confines  of  Russia  of  this  or  that  nationality.  For,  in 
the  first  place,  since  capitalists  are  bound  together  by  the  thou- 
sand threads  of  banking  capital,  they  cannot  renounce  annex- 
ations in  the  present  war,  as  they  have  not  renounced  the  profits 
of  the  billions  invested  in  loans,  in  concessions,  in  war  indus- 
tries, etc.  And,  in  the  second  place,  the  new  government,  hav- 
ing, in  order  to  deceive  the  people,  renounced  annexations,  then 
proceeded  to  state,  through  the  mouth  of  Milyukov  (Moscow, 
April  9  (22),  1917,  that  it  had  no  intention  of  renouncing 
annexations  and  to  confirm,  in  the  note  of  April  18  and  the  eluci- 
dation of  the  note  (April  22),  the  aggressive  character  of  its 
policy.  In  warning  the  people  against  the  empty  promises  of 
capitalists  the  Conference  takes  pains  to  point  out  the  necessity 
of  a  sharp  distinction  between  a  renunciation  of  annexations 
in  words  and  a  renunciation  of  annexations  in  fact,  that  is,  the 
immediate  publication  and  abrogation  of  the  secret  treaties  for 
conquest,  and  the  immediate  granting  to  all  nationalities  of  the 
right  to  determine  whether  they  wish  to  become  independent  gov- 
ernment or  to  become  part  of  any  other  state. 

II 

The  so-called  "revolutionary  defense,"  which,  in  Russia,  has 
taken  possession  of  all  the  nationalist  parties  (national-socialists, 
laborites,  social-revolutionists,  etc.),  as  well  as  the  opportunists, 
party,  of  the  social-democratic  mensheviks  (Organizing  Com- 
mittee, Tseretelli,  Cheidze,  etc.),  as  well  as  the  majority  of  the 
non-partisan  revolutionists,  embodies  in  itself,  by  reason  of  its 
class  position,  on  the  one  hand  the  interests  and  the  standpoint  of 
the  wealthier  peasantry  and  a  part  of  the  small  landlords,  who, 
like  the  capitalists,  draw  a  profit  from  their  domination  over 
the  weaker  nationalities.  On  the  other  hand,  the  "revolutionary 
defense"  is  the  outcome  of  the  deception  by  the  capitalists  of 


340  SELECTED   ARTICLES 

part  of  the  proletariat  and  semi-proletariat  of  the  cities  and  vil- 
lages who  by  their  class  position  have  no  interest  in  the  profits 
of  the  capitalists  and  in  the  waging  of  an  imperialist  war. 

The  Conference  declares  that  any  form  of  "revolutionary  de- 
fense" is  completely  intolerable  and  would  actually  betoken  a 
total  break  with  the  principles  of  socialism  and  internationalism. 
As  for  the  "defensive"  tendencies  present  among  the  great 
masses,  our  party  will  struggle  against  these  tendencies  by  cease- 
lessly emphasizing  the  truth  that  any  attitude  of  uncritical  con- 
fidence in  the  government  of  the  capitalists  at  the  present  mo- 
ment is  one  of  the  greatest  obstructions  to  an  early  conclusion 
of  the  war. 

Ill 

As  for  the  most  important  question  of  the  manner  of  con- 
cluding as  soon  as  possible  the  present  capitalist  war,  not  by  a 
dictated  peace,  but  by  a  truly  democratic  peace,  the  Conference 
recognizes  and  declares  the  following: 

This  war  cannot  be  ended  by  a  refusal  of  the  soldiers  of  one 
side  only,  to  continue  the  war,  by  a  simple  cessation  of  warlike 
activities  on  the  part  of  one  of  the  warring  groups  only.  The 
Conference  reiterates  its  protest  against  the  low  intrigues  cir- 
culated by  the  capitalists  against  our  party,  with  the  object  of 
spreading  the  impression  that  we  are  in  favor  of  a  separate 
peace  with  Germany.  We  consider  the  German  capitalists  to  be 
the  same  band  of  robbers  as  the  capitalists  of  Russia,  England, 
France,  etc.,  and  Emperor  Wilhelm  to  be  the  same  crowned 
bandit  as  Nicholas  II  and  the  monarchs  of  England,  Italy,  Ru- 
mania and  the  rest. 

Our  party  will  explain  to  the  people,  with  patience  and  pre- 
ciseness,  the  truth  that  war  is  always  bound  up  indissolubly  with 
the  policies  of  certain  definite  classes,  that  this  war  may  only  be 
terminated  by  a  democratic  peace  if  the  governing  powers  of 
at  least  some  of  the  belligerent  countries  are  handed  over  to  the 
class  of  the  proletariat  and  semi-proletariat,  who  are  really  capa- 
ble of  putting  an  end  to  the  bondage  of  capitalism. 

The  revolutionary  class,  having  taken  into  its  hands  the  gov- 
erning power  in  Russia,  would  inaugurate  a  series  of  measures 
to  abolish  the  economic  rule  of  capitalists,  as  well  as  of  measures 


RUSSIA  341 

to  bring  about  their  complete  political  sterilization  and  would 
immediately  and  frankly  offer  all  peoples  a  democratic  peace  on 
the  basis  of  a  definite  relinquishment  of  every  possible  form  of 
annexation  and  contributution.  Such  pieaisures,  and  such  an 
open  offer  would  create  a  perfect  understanding  between  the 
workers  of  the  belligerent  countries  and  would  inevitably  lead 
to  an  uprising  of  the  proletariat  against  such  imperialist  govern- 
ments as  might  resist  the  peace  offered  them  under  the  above 
conditions. 

Until  the  revolutionary  class  in  Russia  shall  have  taken  over 
the  entire  authority  of  the  government,  our  party  will  consistently 
support  those  proletarian  parties  and  groups  in  foreign  countries 
as  are  already,  during  the  continuance  of  the  war,  fighting  against 
their  imperialist  governments  and  their  bourgeoisies.  Particu- 
larly, the  party  will  encourage  any  incipient  fraternization  of 
masses  of  soldiers  of  all  the  belligerent  countries,  at  the  front, 
with  the  object  of  transforming  this  vague  and  instinctive  ex- 
pression of  the  solidarity  of  the  oppressed  into  a  class-conscious 
movement,  with  as  much  organization  as  is  feasible,  for  the  tak- 
ing over  of  all  the  powers  of  government  in  all  the  belligerent 
countries  by  the  revolutionary  proletariat. 


The  above  was  written  early  in  April,  1917-  To  the  possible  objection 
that  now,  since  the  forming  of  the  "new"  coalition  government,  on  May_  6, 
1917,  it  may  be  a  little  out  of  date,  I  should  like  to  make  the  following 
answer: 

"No.  for  the  Advisory  Commission  did  not  really  disappear,  but  simply 
changed  its  quarters,  which  it  now  shares  with  the  cabinet  members.  The 
moving  of  the  Chernovs  and  Tseretellis  into  their  new  quarters  did  not 
change  either  their  policy  or  that  of  their  party." 


LITERATURE,  ART  AND  MUSIC 


RUSSIAN   LYRICAL  POETRY^ 

The  lover  of  poetry  may  feel  especially  baffled  if  left  with- 
out a  guide  through  the  vast  steppes,  the  drear  and  limitless 
lands  of  Russian  thought,  at  once  so  alien,  so  cheerless,  with, 
as  it  were,  neat  Dutch  gardens  of  modern  origin  interspersed — 
where  the  observer  must  peer  at  the  new  horizon  through  the 
borrowed  glasses  of  translation. 

One  fundamental  difference  between  Russian  and  English 
poetry  is  that  we  English  can  boast  of  such  vigorous  antiquity 
of  poetry,  and  are  so  prone  to  judge  others  by  ourselves  that, 
in  condemning  lands  which  have  thriven  later  and  more  scantily, 
we  do  ourselves  an  injustice  in  supposing  that  all  peoples  can 
be  equally  favored.  As  the  Eastern  nations  with  their  con- 
tinuous civilization  of  three  thousand  years  might  condemn 
ours,  which  has  flourished  but  for  one  thousand,  and  yet  un- 
justly condemn,  so  the  Western  nations  of  Europe  should  not 
be  too  quick  to  censure  the  god  of  Parnassus  for  showering 
his  gifts  so  comparatively  late  in  the  day  on  the  Russian  peo- 
ple, for  the  returns  from  the  soil  so  slowly  matured  have  been 
very  great  and  very  swift. 

In  Russian  history  there  is  one  turning-point — the  age  of 
Peter  the  Great,  than  whom  no  more  colossal  figure  has  ap- 
peared. Before  him,  Russia  was  an  Oriental  State  with  no 
language  save  the  Russian  variety  of  Church  Slavonic,  and 
possessing  no  literature  save  a  formless  mass  of  popular  legend. 
There  was  also  some  monastic  lore — dim,  shadowy,  and  of  little 
historical  value.  This  poetry,  which  preceded  the  Great  Re- 
vival, has  some  outstanding  features:  it  consists  of  the  byliny 
or  the  chansons  de  geste,  which  were  attached  in  the  main  to 
the  mediaeval  court  of  Kiev;  these  poems  have  a  pecuHar  char- 
acter and  metre.    They  were  meant  to  be  sung  to  the  Russian 

*  By   Leonard  Magnus.     Living  Age.     275:606-13.  December   7.    1912. 
24 


344  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

zither  and  to  a  primitive  melody,  with  either  three  or  four 
beats,  hence  the  syllabization,  irregularity  and  accentuation 
often  seem  arbitrary.  The  conventional  epithet  and  still  more 
the  conventional  verse  mark  them  out,  such  as  are  indeed  found 
in  all  primitive  oral  balladry.  The  metric  scheme  is  very  simi- 
lar to  the  alliterative  verse  of  the  early  Teutonic  poems,  with 
this  difference:  that  alliteration  has  not  been  developed,  and 
the  continuity  is  maintained  by  the  repetition  of  words.  In  this 
short  poem  of  Sorrow  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  reproduce 
something   of    the    untutored   genius    of   the    Russian — 

"Whence,    Oh    Sorrow,   is   thy   origin? 

She    was    born,    was    Sorrow,    from    grey    earth. 

From  under  the  stones  that  are  grey. 

From  under  the  briars,  the  clay-clods. 

And   Sorrow   shod   her   in   shoes   of   bast. 

And   Sorrow   clad   her   in   clothes   of   rushes, 

Apparelled  her   in   thin  bast  waistband, 

And   Sorrow   approached   the   goodly  champion. 

"He   saw   her,    the   champion,    and    must    escape    her, 

And   fled   from    Sorrow   to    the    open    meadow. 

To    the    open    meadow    like    a    grey-clad   hare, 

And    Sorrow    followed    him. 

She   tracked  him   out  and  stretched  her  meshes. 

Stretching  her  meshes,  her  silken  fetters, 

'Stand    and   deliver,    avaunt   not,    champion!' 

He   saw  her,   the  youth,   and  must   escape   her; 

And  from   Sorrow  he  fled  to  the  swift-flowing  river. 

To    the    rushing   river,    like    the   pike-fish; 

And    Sorrow    followed   him. 

She    tracked   him    out,    her    nets    she   cast. 

Stretching   her   nets,    the   silken   fetters. 

'Stand    and    deliver,    nor    go    thou    champion!' 

He    saw   her,    the    youth,    and   must    escape   her. 

From    Sorrow   he   fled   to   the   fiery   fever. 

To   fever   and   illness,    and   laid   him   to   bed. 

And  Sorrow  followed  him. 

She   tracked   him    out   and    sat    at   his    feet; 

'Stand    and    deliver,    avaunt    not,    champion!' 

He   saw   her,   the   youth,    and   must   escape   her. 

From    Sorrow    he    fled    to    the    coffin-box, 

To   the   coffin-lid,    to   his   little   grave-mound, 

To    his    little    grave    in    the    gray    dun    earth. 

And  Sorrow  followed  him. 

She    tracked    him    out,    in    her    hand    her    shovel. 

In   her  hand  her   shovel   and  drove   in  her  carriage: 

'Stand    and    deliver,    avaunt    not,    champion!' 

Scarce   was    the   breath    alive    in    the   champion, 

But    Sorrow   raked   in   his    little   grave-mound. 

Into   his   grave,   into   gray   mother   earth. 

And   they   sing   the   fame   of   the    goodly   youth." 

Peter  the  Great  revolutionized  Russia;  he  found  her  an 
Oriental  State  with  a  dead  tongue,  and  a  formless  mass  of 
writing,  to  leave  her  a  European  power  (which  had  been  able 
to  conquer  Charles  XII  of  Sweden),  with  a  cultured  -litera- 
ture and  a  polished  language. 


RUSSIA  345 

He  made  the  Russians  use  Russian,  and  modified  the  Slav- 
onic grammar  and  alphabet  so  as  to  be  Russian.  The  byliny 
are  poetry,  but  only  share  the  same  influence  with  the  chansons 
de  geste,  or  the  Scotch  balladry.  Cultivated  poetry,  such  as 
might  be  internationally  recognized,  came  in  with  Lomon6sov. 
This  great  grammarian  (not,  indeed,  the  very  first  to  write 
strictly  accentuated  verse  in  Russian)  during  his  life  171 1- 
1765)  composed  many  odes  based  on  French  models.  They 
were  formal  and  dull.  We  must  remember  that  modern  Eng- 
lish and  German  verse  re-fashioned  itself  after  French,  and 
the  first  essays  were  not  successful — and  that  the  great  dis- 
aster of  the  Tartar  invasion  rolled  back  the  Russian  Renais- 
sance by  two  centuries;  indeed,  the  Russia  of  to-day  still  ex- 
hibits many  mediaeval  ways  of  thought. 

In  this  new  poetry  the  loom  was  foreign  and  the  web  also; 
but  soon  the  garment  was  woven  of  national  stuff,  and  itself 
became  transformed  into  the  national  costume.  The  French 
models  were  themselves  artificial — romanticism  had  yet  to  im- 
plant the  great  truth  that  the  story  of  a  people's  childhood  is 
the  best  lesson  and  guidance  for  its  manhood.  But  classicism 
had  one  of  the  two  constituents  of  poetry— form;  and  form 
had  been  lacking  before;  the  period  in  which  the  inspiration 
becomes  clothed  with  genuine  national  form  is  the  true  be- 
ginning of   Russian  artistry  in  verse. 

In  this  first  period  there  was  no  public  but  the  Court;  con- 
sequently literature,  which  is  the  reflection  of  life,  was  as  un- 
natural as  this  exotic  life. 

Catherine  I  carried  on  Peter's  work,  founded  the  Academy 
and  had  the  Western  classics  translated;  amongst  others,  the 
essayists  of  England,  Addison  and  his  contemporaries,  founded 
a  school  of  thought  somewhat  less  remote  from  observation 
of  national  character.  Under  her  Bogdanovich,  Kostrov  and 
Petrov  composed  pseudo-classic  effusions,  and  Krylov  his  won- 
derful pointed  fables,  which  have  often  been  Englished.  Novi- 
kov  and  Shcherbatov  were  superior,  because  they  did  not  study 
Court  taste,  but  strove  after  a  Slavophil  ideal;  the  evil  days  on 
which  they  fell  were  an  unwilled  proof  of  the  rectitude  and 
depth  of  their  tendencies. 

Of  this  first  period  of  Russian  literature  little  needs  to  be 
said.     After  Peter  the  Great,  Russia  had  a  Janus  face — point- 


346  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

ing  towards  the  East  in  her  manners  and  religion,  to  the  West 
in  her  intellectual  life.  And  her  literature  henceforth  forms  an 
organic  part  of  European  literature,  rising  and  falling  with  it. 
The  Russian  eighteenth  century  imitates  that  of  Western  Eu- 
rope. Unincited  by  any  international  wars  of  ideals,  worldly 
even  in  the  spiritual  realm,  the  age  of  prose  still  plied  its 
dusky  wings  over  the  Western  world,  with  some  faint  gleam 
of  occasional  religious  fervor. 

After  the  fashion  of  Voltaire's  Henriade,  and  Klopstock's 
Messias,  uninspired  epics  poured  forth,  as  from  Tredyakovski. 
Comedy  flourished,  and  satire  found  congenial  themes.  Fon- 
Vfzin's  comedies,  though  modelled  upon  Moliere,  still  live  and 
have  furnished  many  idioms  and  common  quotations.  The 
glory  of  this  age  is  Griboyedov's  Gore  ot  umd  (the  mishaps 
of  wit).  But  then  comedy  and  satire  had  a  real  basis;  there 
was  so  much  to  decry,  and  security  lay  in  laughter:  "Who 
would  die  a  martyr  to  sense  when  religion  is  folly?"  Ridicule 
was  levelled  against  bureaucracy,  serfdom  and  society;  and,  in 
so  far  as  the  meagre  inspiration  of  a  satirist  can  extend,  was 
inspired  and  sound.  One  weapon  against  itself  Russian  abso- 
lutism fostered — the  study  of  history;  it  will  be  observed  that 
Russia  only  exemplifies  the  universal  law  that  the  greatest 
literature  is  national,  and  from  national  themes  sprang  the 
grandest  dramas  and  lyrics  of  the  ninteenth  century.  Karam- 
zfn,  the  historian  of  Russia,  is  the  forerunner  of  Khomyakov, 
the  Slavophil,  who  championed  national  polity  as  against  that 
of  Germany  or  France. 

It  is  the  paradoxical  fashion  of  literary  historians  to  con- 
struct definite  periods  and  then  acknowledge  their  inexactness 
by  admitting  they  overlap.  The  inconsistency  is  really  non- 
existent. Literature  is  an  organic  growth  with  regular  sea- 
sons, but  not  all  plants  flower  at  the  same  time;  and  espe- 
cially when  development  is  rapid,  the  old  and  the  new  come 
together  in  discordant  juxtaposition  and  the  forest  seems  a 
strange  tangle  of  rotten  trunks  and  freshening  bushes.  So 
Karamzin  lived  on  in  the  age  of  Pushkin,  and  the  duelist's 
weapon  smote  Lermontov  only  four  years  later  than  his  master 
Pushkin.  Vyazemski  lived  through  the  Byronism  of  the  rev- 
olution, the  romanticism  and  the  nationalism  of  the  l^^^apoleonic 
wars,  the  realism  of  the  age  of  social  reform,  though  he  him- 
self was  almost  of  the  pseudo-classic  school.     Zhukovski  in  like 


RUSSIA  347 

fashion  outlived  his  sphere  of  activity.  Literature  follows  na- 
tional life;  and,  as  the  crowning  fact  of  the  age  of  Lomonosov 
was  the  westernizing  by  Peter  and  Catherine,  so  Russian  lit- 
erature felt  the  shock  of  the  French  Revolution,  breathed  the 
anarchic  freedom,  best  typified  in  Shelley's  and  Byron's  topical 
verse,  and  shook  off  the  yoke  and  constraint  of  obsolescing 
form  and  thought.     Literature  followed  Sidney's  motto — 

"Fool,"   said   my  Muse   to   me,    "look   in   thy   heart   and   write." 

The  Revolution  blew  the  cobwebs  of  classicism  away  with  a 
rude  blast  of  individualism. 

Glinka  inaugurated  the  first  school  of  pure  lyric;  it  is  very 
crude.  This  presentation  may  be  very  well  compared  with  the 
Kiev  of  Khomyakov — 

Pligh    upon    the    hill    before    me 

Lo,   the   walls   of   Kiev   frown! 
Swift  below   them  flows   the   Dnieper 

Twisting    silvery    past    the    town. 

Kiev,   hail!      Of    Russian   glory 

Thou  the  candle  West  of  old, 
Dnieper,    hail!      The   ever-welling 

Fount  of  Russia  crystal-cold.     .     .     . 

As    in   bygone   days   departed, 

They    shall    seek    the    holy    place 
Come    for    peace    and    sure    asylum 

Once    again    to    thy   embrace. 

(Translated   by  H.   C.  F.) 

Khomyakov  was  succeeded  without  warning  by  Delvig,  who, 
not  without  some  individuality  of  his  own  (he  has  a  tuneful 
despondency  with  some  direct  natural  coloring),  is  best  taken 
in  conjunction  with  his  greater  friend  Pushkin,  who  is  without 
doubt  the  greatest  genius  Russia  has  produced.  Pushkin's  work 
is  in  part  very  Byronic  his  Yevgeni  Onycgin  is  a  very  success- 
ful adaptation  of  Don  Juan  to  the  Nevski  Prospekt.  His  great 
dramas,  Boris  Godunow  and  others,  show  real  power,  and  are 
none  the  worse  for  being  inspired  by  Shakespeare.  His  short 
lyrics  sometimes  show  the  influence  of  Goethe,  but  have  the 
admirable  terseness  which  is  conferred  by  the  synthetic  character 
of  the  Russian  language  and  supreme  polish,  whilst  the  lyric  in- 
sight into  nature  is  very  strongly  marked. 

In  his  ballads,  very  largely  framed  on  foreign  models,  he 
dealt  in  cultivated  metre. with  the  great  epics  of  early  Russian 
history.  Apart  from  the  tremendous  stride  in  form  and  in  metre, 
Pushkin  proved  one  still  greater  achievement:  he  made  Russia 


348  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

at  last  look  into  her  own  heart  and  write.  Yazykov,  Alexis  Tol- 
stoy and  others  followed  in  his  wake.  Pushkin  and  his  wonder- 
ful school — Delvig,  Baratynski,  Tyutchev,  Yazykov,  etc.,  etc.,  are 
all  Russian  to  the  core,  Russian  too,  in  an  evil  way,  with  that 
subtle  melancholy  which  is  still  that  of  a  nation  enslaved,  when 
it  is  not  Byronic,  e.g. 

Through    clamorous    streets    my   feet    go    straying 

Or    into    some    frequented    fane, 
Or    where    the    maids    assemble    playing, 

And    nought    my    dreamings    can    constrain     .     .     . 
My    senseless    corse    can    never    care 

Where  it  may  chance   to   waste  away. 
I   love   my  home.     Let  it  be   there 

It    rest    from    e'er    the    last    long    day. 
Albeit    when    I    shall    lie    decaying. 


New  life  will   spring  in  joy   and   light, 
iheeding  Nature  still  displaying  > 

Eternal   beauty,   burning  bright. 


Unheeding  Nature  still  displaying 

(Pushkin.) 

There  were  two  great  schools  of  reformers  at  this  time — the 
Slavophil,  who  looked  to  the  resurrection  of  the  Slav  tradition, 
and  found  their  leader  in  the  great  poet  Khomyakov;  and  the 
revolutionaries,  who  spoke  of  the  rights  of  man  and  looked  to  the 
West  for  guidance :  Ogaryov  is  the  principal  name  in  this  school. 

In  the  "'twenties  and  'thirties"  of  the  past  century,  as  in  Eng- 
land, lyric  poetry  reached  its  height,  and  balladry  and  drama 
were  also  consummated.  The  art  was  perfect  and  the  concep- 
tion was  popular;  it  was  popular  to  an  extraordinary  degree. 
Koltsov,  coming  after  Pushkin,  ventured  back  to  a  lyrical  adapta- 
tion of  the  old  free  metres  of  mediaeval  Russian — 

I   sit   at   my   table 
And   fall   a-pondering 
How    can    I    live    on 
All    solitary? 

No    wife    have    I    wedded, 

A  maid  for  a  man, 

Not    a    friend    is    my    own    now, 

A    friend    I    can    trust.     .     .     . 

He   bequeathed   me   poverty. 
My  father  mine. 
And    one    thing    besides, 
A    strong    right    hand. 

And    all    my   vigor 
I    have    lost    in    vain: 
I    must   needs    be    servant 
To    stranger-folk. 

His  pastoral  and  agricultural  pictures  can  hardly  be  equalled 
for  their  deadly  appositeness  and  their  utter  simplicity.  And,  out- 
side the  realms  of  the  official  Russian  language,  in  Little-Russia, 


RUSSIA  349 

Shevchenko  instituted  a  new  school  of  Little  Russian  poetry, 
consisting  mainly  of  modernizations  of  the  ancient  ballads,  but 
all  pregnant  with  life. 

When  the  Decembrist  revolt,  in  which  Kiichelbecher  and 
Rylyeyev  suffered,  was  put  down,  and  reform  postponed  by  its 
failure,  a  change  came  over  literature:  Slavophilism  was  repro- 
bated; domestic  reform  remained.  On  the  ebb  of  the  romantic 
tide  came  Lermontov,  the  most  Byronic  of  Russian  poets,  and 
in  some  respects  the  greatest.  His  temper  is  essentially  morbid 
and  introspective.  The  Demon  is  perhaps  his  greatest  work. 
He  conceived  the  Evil  Spirit  as  wandering  for  ages,  weary  of 
evil-doing,  and  at  last  on  Mount  Kazbek  in  the  Caucasus  (that 
most  fortunate  place  of  exile  for  the  great  Russian  poets — it 
inspired  them  all,  and  gave  them  leisure  from  engaging  in  plots 
which  might  have  landed  them  in  Siberia  or  on  the  scaffold), 
lights  upon  the  unearthly  beauty  of  the  Caucasian  maid  Tamara. 
He  falls  in  love  with  her,  and  forswears  all  his  world  dominion, 
and  she  consents  at  last  to  his  embraces,  which  spell  for  her  pos- 
sible apotheosis,  but  instantly  death.  Some  passages  out  of  thft 
Demon  are  quoted  below — 

The   Demon,   the   outcast   went   his   way, 
Beneath   the   blue  vault  of  the  sky, 
He  shone  pure  like  the  cherubim, 
And  memories  of  a  happier  day 
Thronged  through  his  mind  tumultuously. 
Far  days,   when   in   the  abode  of  light, 
When,  where  the  racing  comet  ranged. 
It  gleamed  its  welcome,  spoke  with  him.   .    .   . 

(The  Demon  to   Tatndrd) 

Through  the  sky  go  ever  traceless. 
In  those  fields  aye  unsurveyed. 
Clouds  inviolate,  embraceless, 
Woven  like  a  fine  brocade. 
Unto   them   nor  jov,   nor   sorrow. 
Lovers'   meetings,  lovers  met, 
No  desire  for  the   morrow. 
For  the  past  no  vain  regret. 
Think  of  them,  like  them  be  careless, 
When  the  pangs  of  grief  torment, 
Of  all  earthy  shadows  shareless, 
Be  like  them  indifferent. 

CTamdra's  love) 

A  sail  from  the  depths  of  the  sea. 

Or  the  gleam  of  a  star  in  the  west, 
An  angel  appeared  before  me, 

Unforgotten  that  force  of  the  blest. 

But  whom  was  he  flying  to  meet? 

All  in  vain  my  endeavor  to  learn: 
I  saw  him  perhaps  in  my  sleep: 

Alas,  sleep  then  can  never  return.   .    .   . 


350  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Softly  I  slept, 

When  near  he  crept: 
He  is  for  ever  more 
My  Star 
Of  hope  in  that  strange  clime, 

To   atone  my  crime. 
Great  God,  incline! — 
If  he  know  nought  of  love;  then  how 

Didst  Thou, 
Make  love  Thy  whole  design? 

Lermontov's  lyrics  are  all  tinged  with  that  same  fatalistic 
pessimism,  and  it  is  only  in  his  poems  of  legendary  lore  and  love 
that  this  trail  can  be  escaped. 

To  the  same  period  Alexis  Tolstoy  may  be  assigned :  a  great 
dramatist,  lyrist  and  novelist,  but  as  a  poet  there  was  something 
more  of  the  studied  and  uninspired.  His  greatest  gem  is,  per- 
haps, this  little  patriotic  poem  to  his  native  land.  The  love  of 
the  steppe  is,  after  all,  fully  as  natural  as  the  love  of  English 
poets  for  their  native  hedgerows — 

Country  mine,  land  of  my  birth, 

Steeds  that  range  without  rein, 
Cry  of  eagles  aloft,   and  on  earth 

Wolves  that  howl  o'er  the  plain. 

Oh,  my  country,  hail  all  hail! 

Tree-tops  slumber-bowed. 
Midnight  song  of  the  nightingale, 

Wind  and  steppe  and  cloud! 

After  1825,  as  in  England,  there  is  no  great  poet  for  sixteen 
years.  The  wild  floods  of  revolution  had  run  their  course,  and 
had  been  dammed,  lost  their  froth  and  gathered  strength  for  the 
next  assault.  As  Tennyson  and  Browning  were,  in  a  sense, 
Liberals  compared  with  the  Radicalism  of  Shelley  and  Byron, 
and  the  Rossettis,  artists  in  words  and  feelings,  full  of  pathos 
and  tenderness,  but  devoid  of  the  energy  and  fierce  passions  of 
the  Napoleonic  era,  so  in  Russia  Polonski,  Shenshin,  Maykov 
and  others  represent  the  tendency  to  pure  poetry  for  its  own 
sake,  and  Nikitin,  Nekrasov,  Nadson,  the  yearnings  for  civil, 
civic  freedom :  they  also  rebel  against  the  tradition  of  poetic 
form,  like  Browning;  Nadson  in  one  of  his  letters  remarks  "he 
cannot  stomach  Apukhtin"  (the  almost  finicky  lyrist)  ;  the  re- 
forming poets  and  the  artistic,  as  in  England,  meet  in  strange 
combination  of  contrast. 

And  in  them  the  key  is  lower;  for  hope  had  been  long  de- 
ferred, and  mediaevalism  was  obstinate.  It  might  well  be  asked, 
what  was  the  moral  effect  on  poetry  of  the  Crimean  war?  Per- 
haps very  little.    The  great  battle  was  for  the  emancipation  of 


RUSSIA  351 

the  serfs  and  the  erection  of  some  representative  body;  their 
freedom  and  the  zemstvos  followed  as  a  consequence  of  the  de- 
feat before  Sebastopol;  and  thus,  in  a  way,  although  a  national 
conflict  strains  the  brain  and  sinews,  and  rudely  awakes  the 
imagination  of  a  people  from  the  lethargy  of  peace,  the  vivify- 
ing work  of  this  war  was  discounted  in  advance. 

The  autocracy  was  then  almost  at  breaking-point,  and  throne 
and  people  were  completely  at  variance.  Novelists  and  poets 
were  all  preaching  social  xef orm,  and  when  the  defeat  in  the  war 
came  to  stamp  the  despotism  with  the  brand  of  inefficiency, 
Nicholas  I  resigned  the  task.  He  left  his  heir,  Alexander  II, 
express  directions  to  emancipate  the  serfs  and  create  some  local 
authorities;  and  in  this  great  period  the  floodgates  were  opened 
and  the  reproofs  of  the  pen  poured  forth.  Indeed,  it  was  only 
the  assassination  of  Alexander  that  prevented  a  kind  of  Parlia- 
ment being  constituted. 

The  melody  of  this  new  school  is  called  realism.  No  longer 
is  the  poetic  instinct  satisfied  to  idealize  the  figures  of  legend — 
it  must  portray  the  sufferings  and  wrongs  of  the  people. 

Poetry  cannot  altogether  accomplish  this ;  poetry  shows  forth 
the  inherent  beauty  of  life  too  visibly  to  be  believed,  too  bare 
of  the  drab  disguises  of  the  present;  prose  is  more  of  time,  and 
we  have  the  great  names  of  Russian  realism,  the  great  novelists 
of  the  'fifties,  Gogol,  Turgenyev,  Dostoyevski,  who  by  actual 
experience  know  what  the  great  masses  of  the  Russian  people 
suffered  in  resigned  silence.  There  is  a  gulf  between  this  style 
and  the  ultra-romantic  tales  of  Pushkin  {e.  g.  A  Contemporary 
Hero). 

Some  remarks  may  still  be  made  on  what  differentiates  Rus- 
sian poetry  from  that  of  Western  Europe.  By  the  nature  of  the 
language,  Russian  has  no  monosyllables,  very  few  prepositions, 
and  is  as  synthetic  as  Latin,  and  only  less  exact  than  Greek.  This 
confers  on  Russian  poetry  a  strange  feeling  of  terseness  and 
directness,  something  like  what  might  happen  if  a  Horace  were 
to  arise  in  modern  times  to  write  in  modern  metres  and  his  own 
language.  A  translation  from  the  Russian  loses  more  than  from 
any  other  language,  as  the  clean-cut  edge  has  been  moulded  into 
the  rounder  form  of  the  analytical  languages  of  the  West  of 
Europe. 


352  SELECTED  ARTICLES 


MODERN  RUSSIAN  FICTION^ 

Considering  the  enormous  proportions  of  some  of  our  modern 
English  novels,  and  the  conviction  of  some  publishers  that  it  is 
length  that  counts,  it  is  really  a  human  relief  to  turn  to  con- 
temporary Russia  and  to  find  that  most  of  the  works  of  genius  are 
contained  in  the  space  of  fifty  pages  each.  They  are  humbler 
in  Russia;  they  do  not  protest  such  an  encyclopaedic  knowledge 
of  life;  and  to-day,  at  least,  Russia  believes  that  brevity  is  the 
soul  of  wit.  The  era  of  long  novels  seems  to  have  definitely 
passed  with  Tolstoy.  Chekhof  has  delivered  to  Russia  a  new 
art,  that  of  giving  the  essential  poignancy  or  delight  of  a  long 
story  in  a  few  pages,  the  art  of  making  a  story  out  of  three 
sentences  and  an  interrogation  mark. 

Fiction  stands  on  a  considerably  higher  level  to-day  in  Russia 
than  in  England.  The  standard  set  by  the  public  is  higher — or 
I  suppose  it  would  be  truer  to  say  that  the  general  run  of  conver- 
sation in  life  is  more  interesting  and  therefore  the  literature  is 
more  interesting.  You  will  seldom  sit  in  a  railway  carriage  or 
go  to  a  gathering  of  Russians  anywhere  without  hearing  con- 
versation which,  if  taken  down  in  shorthand  and  re-copied,  would 
be  found  to  contain  matter  of  literary  interest.  If  small  talk  is 
generally  sand,  Russian  small  talk  is  the  alluvial  gravel  from 
which  you  can  wash  out  gold.  For  that  reason  Russian  litera- 
ture is  great,  and  is  becoming  greater.  Russia  is  surely  the 
great  literary  country  of  the  future.  It  is  a  custom  to  say  in 
England  that  Russian  literature  is  contained  and  ended  in  the 
works  of  Turgeniev,  Dostoevsky,  Gogol,  ancf  Tolstoy.  Thii 
is  a  mistake  of  the  conventional;  these  are  what  may  be  called 
the  classical  novelists  of  Russia,  and  they  correspond  more  or 
less  to  our  Jane  Austen,  Dickens,  Fielding,  and — but  we  have 
no  one  we  can  even  remotely  liken  to  Tolstoy.  There  have 
followed  a  whole  host  of  wonderful  writers — Chekhof,  the 
inimitable  talewriter  and  planter  of  question-marks ;  Kouprin,  the 
Russian  Kipling;  Gorky,  the  gentle,  tender,  rebellious  tramp; 
Andreef,  the  chiaroscuro,  horror-striken  mourner  which  the 
Revolution  and  the  War  produced;  the  fantastic  Sologub;  Rem- 
izof,  the  writer  of  beautiful  tales;   Biely,  the  occult ^and  sym- 

1  Living   Age.    281:749-53.   June    20,    I9i4' 


RUSSIA  353 

bolical ;  Bunin,  the  Russian  Hardy,  and  many  others— a  fair  new 
June  of  Russian  fiction. 

Chekhof  is  most  beloved  of  Russians.  He  is  perhaps  the 
dearest  of  all  their  writers,  for  he  told  simple  stories  in  such  a 
way  that  you  smile  over  his  characters,  you  shed  tears  at  what  he 
said.  He  always  leaves  you  tender  towards  mankind.  He  is 
Russia's  supreme  optimist.  He  lived  in  a  sunbathed  datcha  at 
Yalta  in  the  Crimea  and  loved  his  roses;  he  had  a  great  rose- 
garden,  and  every  morning  might  be  seen  tending  his  flowers 
and  leaves.  "In  three  hundred  years  the  world  will  be  all  one 
garden  like  this,"  said  he  one  day  to  Kouprin.  He  has  written 
some  twenty  odd  volumes  of  stories,  all  of  which  have  been  trans- 
lated into  French  and  German.  In  Germany  Chekhof  is  very 
highly  appraised.  In  England  unfortunately  there  are  only  two 
volumes  of  his  stories — "The  Black  Monk"  a  very  good  selec- 
tion, well  translated,  and  "The  Kiss,"  a.  poor  selection.  Russian 
literature  is  so  popular  in  England  just  now  that  it  shows  con- 
siderable lack  of  enterprise  and  understandmg  on  the  part  of  pub- 
lishers that  Chekhof  is  not  being  systematically  translated  and 
published. 

After  Chekhof  the  most  popular  Russian  tale-writer  is  Kou- 
prin, the  author  of  ten  volumes  of  astonishingly  clever  and  touch- 
ing stories.  He  is  occasionally  coarse,  occasionally  too  senti- 
mental, but  he  gives  great  delight  to  his  readers.  With  him 
everything  is  taken  from  life;  his  are  rough-hewn  lumps  of  con- 
versation and  life.  He  seems  to  be  a  master  of  detail,  and  the 
characteristic  of  his  style  is  a  tendency  to  give  the  most  divert- 
ing lists.  Often  paragraph  after  paragraph,  if  you  look  into  the 
style,  will  be  found  to  be  lists  of  delicious  details  reported  in  a 
conversational  manner. 

He  is  also  the  inventor  of  amusing  sentences  which  can  almost 
be  used  as  proverbs : 

He  knew  which  end  of  the  asparagus  to  eat. 

We  looked  at  our  neighbors  through  a  microscope;  they  at  us  through 
a  telescope. 

Every  one  of  Kouprin's  stories  has  the  necessary  Attic  salt.  I 
have  said  he  is  like  Kipling.  He  is  also  something  like  the  Amer-r 
ican  O.  Henry,  especially  in  the  matter  of  his  lists  of  details  and 
his  apt  metaphors,  but  he  has  not  the  artifice  nor  the  everlasting 
American  smile.  Kouprin,  moreover,  takes  his  matter  from  life 
and  writes  with  great  ease  and  carelessness;  O.  Henry  put  to- 
gether from  life  and  re-wrote  twelve  times. 


354  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Kouprln  is  a  most  charming  writei*.  The  English  especially 
would  like  him,  for  he  does  not  philosophize  or  symbolize;  he 
gives  his  story  and  allows  the  reader  to  make  the  comment.  He 
ought  certainly  to  be  translated  into  English.  Such  a  selection  as 
the  following  would  obtain  hundreds  of  grateful  readers — "For 
Fame,"  "The  Slavonic  Soul"  "Psyche"  "The  Garnet  Bracelet" 
"The  River  of  Life,"  "A  Dog's  Happiness,"  "The  Last  Wordy 
"The  Tramp's  Gambit,"  "How  the  Professor  Trained  My  Voice," 
"The  Machine  for  Castigation,"  "Moloch,"  "Olecia." 

Gorky,  who  has  just  returned  to  Russia  after  eight  years' 
involuntary  exile,  has  been  almost  entirely  translated  into  English, 
and  is  familiar  to  the  English  reader.  His  first  works  had  a  great 
success  all  over  Europe — "Three  Men,"  "Foma  Gordyef,"  and  his 
many  short  talks.  Despite  the  gross  details  and  ugly  immorality 
that  Gorky  has  not  the  strength  to  keep  back  from  the  tender 
reader,  he  was  undoubtedly  the  greatest  novelist  of  the  revolu- 
tionary period.  Though  he  is  living  and  hoping  now,  yet  his  best 
work  really  belongs  to  a  past  era.  "Three  Men"  and  "Foma 
Gordyef,"  though  they  vigorously  survive,  are  not  expressive  of 
the  national  mood  of  today.  Gorky's  talents  have  unfortunately 
been  killed  by  exile.  He  has  scarcely  written  a  line  worth  read- 
ing since  he  went  to  Capri.  He  has  now  come  back  to  Mother 
Russia  and  is  living  quietly  in  the  country.  His  next  work  of  art 
may  tell  the  world  whether  he  can  still  speak  for  Russia.  He  is, 
however,  very  delicate  and  ill,  and  the  tremendous  excitement  and 
stimulus  of  Russia  may  kill  him. 

Andreef's  work  has  come  to  England,  and  it  is  evident  that  the 
English  do  not  care  for  him.  His  psychology  of  hysteria  and 
delirium  does  not  appeal  to  the  British  temperament.  "The  Red 
Laugh"  was  a  fair  example  of  his  work,  the  story  of  a  man  who 
went  mad  at  the  sight  of  the  blood  shed  in  the  Russo-Japanese 
War.  "The  Story  of  the  Seven  Hanged,"  was  his  most  popular 
work  in  Russia,  and  was  evoked  by  the  terrible  number  of  exe- 
cutions of  young  revolutionaries  and  expropriators.  It  was  meant 
to  strike  terror  into  the  heart,  but  as  Tolstoy  said  of  the  book  and 
its  author — "He  is  always  taking  one  into  dark  places  and  say- 
ing, 'Aren't  you  afraid?' — but  I  am  not  frightened."  "Judas 
Iscariot"  and  "Lazarus"  were  interesting  studies  translated  by  the 
Rev.  W.  H.  Lowe,  but  sensational  in  treatment.  Andjeef  has 
shown  that  if  it  is  necessary  to  stoop  to  conquer,  he  will  stoop, 
and  today  he  is  writing  pieces  for  the  cinema. 


RUSSIA  355 

Sologub  is  a  remarkably  gifted  and  eccentric  writer  of  tales. 
His  genius  suggests  that  of  Poe,  but  if  so  it  is  a  new  Poe  living 
in  a  clearer  element.  His  work  lacks  the  preliminary  fee-fo-fum 
of  mystification,  the  motive  which  may  be  expressed  by  the 
Shakespearian  sentence — 

Oft    have    I    digged    up    dead    men    from    their    graves 
And  set   them   standing  at   their   dear   friends'   doors. 

Sologub  might  have  written  "The  Cask  of  Amontillado"  but 
could  not  have  touched  "The  Descent  of  the  Maelstrom"  or 
"The  Murders  of  the  Rue  Morgue." 

Remizov  in  these  days  becomes  a  great  man,  and,  despite  one 
fantastic  novel  on  the  sexual  question  perpetrated  years  ago,  ma> 
be  said  to  be  the  writer  of  the  most  beautiful  stories  that  Russia 
is  bringing  forth  to-day. 

Biely,  theosophist,  follower  of  Rudolph  Steiner,  is  also  in  the 
field  as  a  novelist,  but  gives  forth  matter  not  likely  to  be  trans- 
lated, since  much  of  it  is  obscurely  and  fantastically  written.  His 
best  book  is  "The  Silver  Dove"  a  story  of  the  sects  of  Russia. 
He  is  now  writing  "Petersburg"  appearing  in  the  Sirion  maga- 
zine, an  original  piece  of  work,  new  in  form  and  in  intention,  an 
effort  to  register  and  indicate  the  occult  life  of  the  great  capital. 
It  has  been  called  a  sequel  to  Dostoevsky's  "Demons" 

Bunin  is  a  characteristically  Russian  writer,  not  of  great  gift.t 
but  knowing  the  country  and  the  peasants.  He  loves  to  describe' 
storms,  forlorn  and  desolate  scenery,  the  midnight  hour ;  and  his 
slight  stories  sometimes  suggest  those  cinematograph  romances 
played  out  against  absurdly  picturesque  landscapes,  and  flickered 
on  the  screen  to  a  rapturous  accompaniment  of  Tchaikovsky  or 
Rubinstein.  The  wild  heath  should  be  kept  for  Macbeth  or  King . 
Lear;  there  are  other  places  in  which  Lorenzo  and  Jessica  can 
make  love.  I 

Of  those  who  have  come  to  the  forefront  in  the  last  fifteen 
years  there  remains  Artsibashef,  the  author  of  the  notorious  book 
"Sanin,"  the  vulgar  outcome  of  mistaken  Nietzscheanism. 

Russia  is  the  living  East  as  India  and  China  are  the  dead  East, 
and  as  America  is  the  living  West  and  we  the  dying  West.  Rus- 
sian literature  will  exhibit  many  unsightly  phenomena  and  sur- 
vive them.  Its  genius  is  the  polarization  of  all  that  is  living  in 
the  mystical  East.  All  lost  ideas  tend  to  find  a  home  there.  All 
that  is  mystic  finds  its  kin  and  crystallizes  and  becomes  organic. 


356  SELECTED  ARTICLES 


SOME  NOTES  ON  MODERN  RUSSIAN  ART 

When,  at  the  close  of  the  tenth  century,  the  first  ikons,  or 
sacred  pictures,  were  imported  into  Russia,  the  few  enhghtened 
spirits  of  the  time  were  engaged  in  the  hard  task  of  Christianis- 
ing the  masses,  and  striving  to  create  a  social  life  out  of  chaos. 
The  sparse  population  of  Russia,  scattered  over  a  vast  region  of 
bogs  and  forests,  was  slow  to  adopt  the  most  primitive  elements 
of  political  and  religious  culture,  and  wholly  indifferent  to  aes- 
thetic interests.  To  this  predominance  of  religious  influences  we 
must  attribute  the  phenomenon  of  an  exclusively  sacred  art, 
subordinated  to  ecclesiastical  authority  for  a  period  of  fully  eight 
centuries.  And,  except  to  the  specialist  learned  in  the  rival  pe- 
culiarities of  the  "traditional  Greek,"  or  the  friajsky  styles  of 
ikonography,  this  long  period  offers  nothing  of  variety  or  interest. 

Even  more  dreary  is  the  imitative  period  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  when  a  host  of  second-rate  French  and  Italian  painters 
ministered  to  the  uncultured  taste  of  the  aristocracy.  Nor  was 
there  much  improvement  when,  after  the  foundation  of  the  Acad- 
emy of  Arts  in  1757,  these  foreign  imitators  of  Guido  Reni  and 
Lebrun  found  themselves  driven  out  by  a  "parasitic"  school  of 
native  copyists.  "Like  a  new  Minerva,"  says  Muther,  "armed 
with  diplomas  and  arrayed  in  Academical  uniform,  Russian  art 
now  descended  to  earth,  ready  made." 

It  is  impossible  to  understand  nowadays  the  indiscriminate 
admiration  lavished  upon  Brulov's  colossal  painting  The  Last 
Days  of  Pompeii  (1831),  not  only  by  the  crowd,  but  by  such  men 
of  culture  as  Poushkin,  Gogol  and  Sir  Walter  Scott.  The  ten- 
tative effort  towards  truth  and  historical  accuracy  displayed  in 
Ivanov's  long-neglected  work,  Christ  Appearing  to  the  Nations, 
seems  far  more  admirable  from  our  present  standpoint  than  the 
pompous  romanticism  of  Brulov.  What  Ivanov  did  to  vitalise 
the  "grand  art"  in  Russia,  Fedotov  effected  for  genre-painting. 
Such  matter-of-fact  and  simply  humorous  pictures  as  The  Newly 
Decorated  Knight  and  The  Choice  of  a  Bride  are  the  artistic 
counterparts  of  Gogol's  earlier  novels. 

But  the  chief  interest  in  Russian  art  can  only  be  said  to  begin 
with  that  wonderful  renaissance  of  the  social  and  spiritual  life 
which  followed  the  accession  of  Alexander  II,  and  the^great 

*  By  Rosa  Newmaxch.  International   Studio.   21:  130-6.  December,   1903. 


RUSSIA  357 

Act  of  Emancipation.  The  jester's  cap  and  bells  was  the  disguise 
under  which  art  and  literature  frequently  escaped  the  rigorous 
censorship  of  the  fifties.  But  the  second  generation  of  genre- 
painters  belongs  to  an  entirely  new  time  and  regime.  These  men 
regarded  their  art  as  a  moral  and  educational  force.  Like  the 
writers  of  the  day,  they  not  only  "went  to  the  people"  for  their 
inspiration,  but  they  strove  to  make  their  pictures  a  form  of 
protest  against  existing  abuses.  The  greatest  representative  of 
this  didactic  school  was  Perov,  with  his  Hogarthian  presentments 
of  every-day  Hfe.  Near  him  we  must  place  Savitsky  and  Prian- 
ishnikov.  The  former,  in  his  choice  of  subject  and  treatment  of 
an  every-day  crowd,  recalls  our  English  artist.  Frith.  But  he  is 
far  more  dramatic  and  emotional.  The  picture  Off  to  the  War, 
in  the  Alexander  III  Museum  of  St.  Petersburg,  is  considered 
his  masterpiece.  Less  sensational  than  Verestshagin's  exposures 
of  the  horrors  of  war,  it  is,  nevertheless,  a  strong  protest  against 
the  hardships  of  conscription.  Prianishnikov's  Procession  of  the 
Cross,  from  the  same  gallery,  deals  with  a  totally  different  phase 
of  life  in  an  equally  realistic  spirit.  The  procession,  with  the  holy 
and  miracle-working  pictures,  has  just  left  the  monastery  across 
the  water.  The  entire  population  of  the  district,  rich  and  poor 
alike,  is  assembled  on  the  shore  to  do  honour  to  these  symbols 
of  the  orthodox  faith.  In  the  blinding  sun  old  bareheaded  men 
and  fashionably-dressed  women  will  follow  the  cortege  along  the 
dusty  road  to  the  church.  In  the  foreground  a  shaggy  moujik 
bends  down  to  kiss  the  sacred  ikon.  The  picture  is  at  once 
touching  and  sad;  for  it  shows  the  simple  faith  that  makes  life 
possible  to  the  bulk  of  the  Russian  people,  and  also  the  blind 
superstition  which  holds  them  back  from  a  nobler  destiny.  Among 
these  realistic  pictures  there  is  nothing  more  distinctive  than 
Found  Drowned,  by  Dmitriev-Orenburgsky.  It  is  a  life-like  study 
of  rural  life.  The  pompous  village  constable  writing  up  his  re- 
port on  the  back  of  a  patient  moujik,  gives  a  touch  of  inimitable 
humour  to  this  otherwise  sombre  scene. 

But  as  the  feverish,  reconstructive,  activity  of  the  sixties 
calmed  down,  these  didactic  and  positive  ideals  underwent  a 
change.  Art  developed  in  more  legitimate  courses,  while  remain- 
ing intensely  national.  Form  and  colour  took  their  rightful 
places,  and  "the  purpose"  became  subordinate  to  the  emotion. 
In  the  works  of  Pastnernak  and  Bogdanov-Bielsky  there  is  a 
decided  tendency  to  impressionism ;  but  the  most  important  rep- 


358  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

resentatives  of  modern  Russian  painting  have  developed  each 
according  to  his  own  strong  individuality,  attaching  little  import- 
ance to  schools  and  catch-words,  and  united  only  by  the  tie  of  a 
strong  national  feeling. 

In  1872,  thirteen  of  the  most  prominent  students,  rebelling 
against  its  conventional  routine,  seceded  from  the  Academy  un- 
der the  leadership  of  Kramskoi.  They  instituted  the  "Society  of 
Travelling  Exhibitions,"  and  sent  their  works  far  and  wide  over 
the  vast  area  of  their  native  land.  Thus  art,  for  the  first  time, 
became  truly  popularised  in  Russia.  With  "The  Travellers"  have 
been  associated  all  the  most  brilliant  talents  of  the  last  three 
decades. 

Kramskoi  is  the  elegiac  poet  among  Russian  painters.  He  died 
comparatively  young,  and  his  output  of  work  was  not  great ;  but 
he  inaugurated  a  period  of  freedom  in  Russian  art  of  which  we 
cannot,  as  yet,  predict  the  ultimate  results. 

Constantine  Makovsky  is  a  many-sided  genius.  His  historical 
scenes  are  considered  impeccable  as  regards  costume  and  arch- 
aeological detail.  Of  late  years  a  fatal  facility  for  pleasing  the 
popular  taste  has  drawn  him  further  and  further  from  the  na- 
tional idea.  His  picture  of  The  Roussalkas,  or  Watersprites,  is 
a  poetical  conception  of  one  of  the  popular  Russian  legends. 

The  greatest  of  living  Russian  artists  is  undoubtedly  Elias 
Repin.  He  has  represented  in  the  light  of  his  own  strong  in- 
dividuality almost  every  type  of  mediaeval  and  contemporary  Rus- 
sian life.  He  is  especially  successful  in  dealing  with  a  number  of 
figures,  and  in  giving  startling  animation  to  a  crowded  canvas. 
To  borrow  a  musical  simile  from  a  Russian  critic,  "Repin  is 
greater  in  chorus  than  in  solo."  The  graceful  and  the  miniature 
lie  completely  outside  his  province.  He  has  a  gigantic  elemental 
strength  that  has  won  him  the  name  of  "the  Samson  of  Russian 
painters."  A  superb  example  of  his  vitality  and  realistic  force 
is  the  picture  of  Cossacks  Writing  a  Mocking  Letter  to  the  Sul- 
tan of  Turkey.  Himself  of  Cossack  descent,  Repin  has  under- 
stood the  uncouth  mirth  and  exuberant  animal  spirits  of  this  race 
of  fighters  and  revellers.  The  picture  is  worthy  to  rank  with 
Gogol's   romance  of   Cossack-life,   "Taras   Boulba." 

As  might  be  expected  from  a  race  whose  art  and  literature 
are  preeminently  realistic,  the  Russians  are  admirable  in  portrai- 
ture. Almost  all  their  painters  of  note  have  done  good  work  in 
this  direction;  but  here,  as  in  other  respects,  Repin  has  excelled 


RUSSIA  359 

them  all.  He  has  endowed  his  country  with  a  collection  of  por- 
traits which,  for  value  and  interest,  we  may  compare  with  that 
of  Watts.  Repin  has  painted  several  portraits  of  Tolstoi.  About 
a  year  ago,  shortly  after  the  excommunication  of  the  Count, 
the  latest  portrait  was  missing  from  its  place  in  the  Alexander 
III  Museum;  rumor  said  it  had  been  temporarily  removed 
because  Tolstoi's  admirers  showed  their  disapproval  of  the 
Church's  methods  by  laying  flowers  and  wreaths  before  the  pic- 
ture of  their  favorite. 

Landscape  remained  under  the  thrall  of  foreign  influence 
longer  than  historical  or  genre  painting.  Russian  artists  went 
abroad  for  their  subjects,  or,  when  they  painted  what  was  at 
hand,  they  showed  it  in  an  artificial  light.  The  sober  charms  of 
Northern  Europe  took  on  the  glow  and  colour  of  the  South. 
The  Steppes  became  indistinguishable  from  the  Campagna;  a 
street  in  Moscow  suggested  Rome.  Such  travesties  are  the  works 
of  Vorobiev,  Rabuse,  and  the  rest  of  their  school.  Then  came  a 
sudden  reaction  from  all  that  was  false  and  conventional  when 
the  works  of  Shishkin  raised  landscape  painting  to  a  new  level, 
making  it  worthy  to  compare  with  the  art  of  Corot  and  Daubigny. 
Shishkin  had  a  number  of  followers,  of  whom  Klever  may  be 
accounted  one  of  the  most  gifted.  To  him,  as  to  Shishkin,  the 
mystery  and  horror  of  the  forests,  as  well  as  their  grace  and 
tranquility,  have  been  revealed  and  reproduced  in  many  fine 
paintings. 

Religious  art,  so  jealously  fenced  in  from  contact  with  the 
secular  world,  was  naturally  the  last  to  be  reached  by  the  national 
realistic  tendency.  The  earliest  expression  of  freedom  in  sacred 
art  is  noticeable  in  Cue's  picture  of  The  Last  Supper.  Here  we 
have  travelled  far  from  the  unyielding  Byzantine  tradition,  or 
even  from  the  tentative  realism  of  Ivanov.  There  is  no  trace 
of  the  old  iconography,  nothing  of  the  pompous  academical  pose 
of  the  period  of  Brulov  and  Moller.  The  treatment  is  natural 
and  picturesque,  the  attitudes  unstudied.  That  of  the  Christ, 
extended  Oriental  fashion  on  a  couch,  is  strikingly  unconven- 
tional. There  is  more  elegiac  sentiment  than  power  in  the  pic- 
ture. The  drooping  figure  and  bowed  head  of  the  Saviour  sug- 
gest human  discouragement  rather  than  divine  force.  Among 
the  everyday  figures  of  the  Apostles,  that  of  Judas  strikes  a  dis- 
cordant note  of  melodrama.  The  "literary"  movement  in  relig- 
ious art  led  the  way  to  psychological  and  ethnological  phases, 

25 


36o  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

The  strongest  reflection  of  these  ideas  is  seen  in  Pelenov's 
Woman  Taken  in  Adultery,  Repin's  St.  Nicholas  Thaumaturgus, 
and  Kramskoi's  Christ  in  the  Wilderness.  The  last-named  has 
many  exquisite   quaHties. 

The  painters,  like  the  composers  of  Russia,  have  discovered 
that  the  way  of  nationality  is  the  way  of  salvation.  The  final 
development  of  Russian  art  depends  therefore  upon  its  sane  and 
inviolate  patriotism.  Since  Perov,  Schwartz,  and  Repin  expressed 
in  painting  the  spiritual  secrets  of  their  race,  Russian  artists  have 
accomplished  great  things.  They  have  overtaken  the  Western 
nations  in  the  matter  of  technique;  and  now,  with  their  deep 
feeling  for  humanity,  their  youthful  energy  and  strong  originality, 
a  glorious  future  lies  before  them.  Year  by  year,  the  conviction 
surely  gains  upon  us  that  Russian  painting,  like  Russian  music, 
is  a  quantity  we  can  ill  afford  to  neglect. 


MUSIC  IN  RUSSIA^ 
/.    Its  Spirit 

There  is  perhaps  no  other  people  in  the  world  so  musical  as 
the  Russian,  and  perhaps  no  other  people  whose  body  of  national 
music  approaches  so  near  to  the  real  psychology  and  philosophy 
of  the  nation's  life,  the  people's  joys  and  sorrows,  aspirations 
and  strivings,  achievements  and  failures.  For  the  Russian,  music 
is  a  delight.  It  is  the  natural,  inevitable  expression  of  an  emo- 
tional people,  and  Russians  are  highly  emotional. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  most  characteristic  feature  of  the  so- 
called  Russian  "popular"  song  (which  forms  the  real  basis  of  the 
truly  native  musical  art  of  the  country)  is,  that  it  not  only  per- 
meates, but  actually  dominates  the  whole  spiritual  life  of  the 
people.  The  peasant  sings  these  songs  as  he  follows  the  rhyth- 
mical movements  of  his  plow,  and  in  moments  of  hunger,  joy, 
or  grief.  The  workingman  in  the  city,  the  mechanic,  the  servant, 
the  student,  the  teacher, — all  sing  them,  pouring  into  their  strains 
their  stifled  longings  for  the  ideal  which  is  denied  to  them,  but 
which  unconsciously  attracts  them  and  beckons  to  them  through 
the  mist  of  life's  grim  realities. 

1  By  Alexis  RIenzi.     Russian  Revieiy.     (N.  Y.)     1:29-33,  98-102.  Febru- 
jiry-l^arch,    19 16, 


RUSSIA  361 

No  matter  to  what  page  you  open  the  book  of  Russia's  life, 
you  will  find  running  through  the  narrative  a  thread  of  eternal 
yearning,  of  poignant  regret  for  things  gone  into  the  story,  with 
nothing  in  the  present  to  take  their  place.  It  is  this  strain,  plain- 
tive, and  sometimes  sad,  which  you  find  predominating  in  Russian 
folk-song,  whose  unpremeditated  pathos  springs  from  actual  pas- 
sion, actual  pain,  actual  sorrow.  But  though  plaintiveness  is  the 
prevailing  note,  the  folk-songs  express  a  wide  and  varied  range 
of  emotion.  Sometimes  they  speak  of  sorrow,  and  solitude,  and 
a  great  monotony,  as  if  the  vast  plain  of  Russia  had  become  ar- 
ticulate, and  was  expressing  its  spirit.  Mournful  too,  are  the 
wedding-songs  of  the  Russian  peasant-women,  though  sometimes 
the  melody  is  a  lighter  one,  telling  archly  of  the  ways  of  win- 
ning a  bashful  swain.  And  in  many  of  the  native  airs  there  is 
conveyed  a  sense  of  the  broad  expanse  of  the  steppe,  where  one 
can  breathe  free  and  deep,  and  know  himself  a  man. 

To  be  fully  appreciated,  Russian  folk-music  must  be  heard 
in  its  native  surroundings.  Rendered  on  the  concert  stage,  under 
artificial  surroundings  and  to  the  accompaniment  of  instruments 
that  are  not  really  popular,  the  songs  lose  their  true  effect.  The 
place  to  hear  them  in  their  purity  is  in  some  out-of-the-way  vil- 
lage, far  from  the  main  roads  of  civilization.  But  it  is  when 
the  villagers  are  engaged  in  "communal"  work,  especially  during 
harvesting-time,  that  the  harmony  between  the  surroundings  and 
the  people  and  the  strains  that  arise,  is  most  complete. 

In  Russian  folk-songs,  words  and  music  are  closely  linked. 
They  are  an  invitation  to  the  dance;  they  set  the  peasant's  feet 
a-dancing  and  make  him  clap  his  hands.  It  is  not  the  words  so 
much,  as  the  melody  that  makes  the  songs  so  infectious.  Far 
more  definitely  than  language  can  do  it,  the  melodies  express  the 
true  national  spirit.  It  is  this  distinctive  quality  that  the  great 
Russian  composers  have  recognized,  and  they  have  done  well  in 
taking  the  Russian  folk-music  as  the  basis  for  the  development 
of  a  native  school  of  music. 

In  the  great  Russian  musical  compositions,  the  national  song 
does  not  serve  merely  as  a  theme,  a  subject.  It  dominates,  it 
rules,  it  gathers  about  it  the  best  of  the  ornamentation  that  a 
musical  genius  can  produce  for  its  appropriate  setting.  The 
composer  merely  embellishes  it,  as  he  truthfully  and  skillfully 
makes  its  meaning,  its  aim,  and  its  origin  apparent  to  the  listener. 
It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  Russian  music,  when  at  its 


362  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

best,  is  so  profoundly  national,  so  deep,  so  truthful,  so  humanly 
appealing. 

Take  Borodin's  "Song  of  the  Black  Forest."  Whoever  has 
heard  this  marvelous  bit  of  Russian  music  will  readily  under- 
stand what  national  music  is  when  produced  by  the  accumulated 
spiritual  wealth  of  generations,  and  shaped  into  musical  forms 
by  the  mighty  genius  of  a  great  composer.  The  words,  adapted 
by  Borodin  himself,  may  serve  to  give  a  glimpse  into  the  beauty 
and  the  power  of  this  song. 

The  dark  forest  stood,  full  of  noises  strange,^  and  a  song  he  sang. 
Ah,  an  ancient  song!  A  tale  true  to  life,  the  dark  forest  told:  How 
freedom  bold  midst  its  trees  once  dwelt;  how  the  power  and  strength 
of  a  people  great,  gathered,  mustered  there;  how  that  freedom  bold 
played  in  liberty,  how  that  power  and  strength  gaily  sported  there;  how 
that  freedom  bold  into  battle  went,  how  that  power  and  strength  cap- 
tured cities  strong,  scorned  and  mocked  the  foe,  drank  and  spilled  his 
blood;    freedom    bold,    power,    and   strength. 

The  falling  cadences  at  the  end  of  the  piece,  wonderfully 
expressive  in  the  musical  rendering,  seem  to  tell  a  whole  story 
of  the  glories  that  were,  and  are  no  more.  To  hear  a  song  like 
this  is  almost  to  read  a  whole  book  that  tells  the  tale  of  a  mighty 
movement  throbbing  with  life  and  aspiration. 

And  yet,  despite  its  many  virtues,  despite  its  wonderful  qual- 
ities of  beauty,  and  simplicity,  and  depth,  and  truthfulness,  Rus- 
sian music  has  met  with  tragic  fate  on  the  road  of  its  artistic 
development.  Russian  composers,  like  Russian  men  of  letters, 
are  compelled  to  wait  a  long  time  for  their  well-deserved  tri- 
umph, both  in  Russia  and  outside  of  their  native  land.  And 
sometimes  recognition  does  not  come  until  long  after  their  death. 
While  some  European  composers  of  fashionable  music  conquer 
the  whole  world  with  their  productions  almost  before  the  ink 
on  their  manuscript  is  dry,  Moussorgsky,  Rimsky-Korsakov, 
Borodin,  and  even  the  father  of  Russian  mtisic,  the  great  Glinka, 
waited  many  years  for  the  appreciation  which  they  so  richly 
merited. 

This  may  perhaps  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  Russian  crea- 
tors of  music  are  not  possessed  of  commercial  ability.  A  Rus- 
sian composer,  with  few  exceptions,  will  never  dream  of  selling 
his  opera  before  it  is  written.  He  is  not  looking  for  managers, 
and  "orders"  and  royalties.  He  begins  to  create  when  he  feels 
the  impulse  to  do  so,  when  his  feelings  and  his  thoughts  blend 
together  and  clamor  for  expression.  The  possibilities  of  market- 
ing his  work  seldom  occur  to  him. 


RUSSIA  363 

And  during  the  process  of  creating,  the  composer  literally 
forgets  about  himself  and  pays  no  heed  to  the  things  around 
him.  Even  when  his  work  is  done  he  is  still  in  no  hurry  to  offer 
it  for  sale.  It  is  as  if  he  were  sorry  to  part  with  the  product  of 
his  soul. 

It  is  for  this  reason,  perhaps,  that  so  many  composers  in  Rus- 
sia die  prematurely,  long  before  their  genius  receives  due  recog- 
nition. Wasily  Kalinniko^^n  almost  any  one  of  whose  short 
songs  there  is  more  feeling  and  genius  than  in  many  an  opera 
popular  today,  died  very  young.  Starvation,  neglect,  excessive 
labor, — these  sum  up  the  tale  of  his  brief  life.  He  died  before 
a  single  one  of  his  compositions  was  published,  without  hearing 
one  of  them  played  in  public.  It  was  only  after  his  death  that 
they  were  performed,  with  signal  success. 

Moussorgsky,  whose  musical  genius,  combined  with  the  poeti- 
cal  inspiration   of   Pushkin,   created  the   wonderful   drama   of 
"Boris  Godounov,"  died  in  1881.     Yet  it  was  not  until  twenty-      \ 
five  years  after  his  death  that  his  great  work  was  staged  for  the 
first  time. 

And  the  immortal  Glinka  ?  He  died  fifty-eight  years  ago,  and 
as  yet  his  marvelous  opera,  "Rouslan  and  Ludmila"  is  practically 
unknown  outside  of  Russia.  And  some  think  that  any  act  of  this 
magnificent  opera  has  more  of  the  true  spirit  of  music  than  most 
of  the  fashionable  operas  that  flash  like  rockets  across  the  sky 
of  music  and  disappear  into  oblivion.  "Boris  Godounov"  has,  at 
last,  gained  recognition,  but  "Rouslan  and  Ludmila/'  although 
superior  to  it,  is  still  awaiting  a  hearing  in  the  West. 

Koltzov,  who  of  all  Russian  poets  has  given  perhaps  the  best 
expression  of  the  national  soul  of  Russia,  wrote  a  charming 
poem,  which  Rimsky-Korsakov  set  to  music. 

Charmed  by  a  rose's  radiance  bright. 
The  nightingale  sings  day  and  night. 

Yet  silent  hears  his  lay  the  rose. 
A  singer,  thus,  upon  his  lyre, 
Before  a  maid  pours  out  his  fire; 

And  yet  the  maiden  never  knows 
To  whom  he  sings,  and  why  his  lay 
Is  ever  sad,  and  sad  alway. 

Like  the  nightingale,  like  the  poet,  the  Russian  composers  sing 
long,  long  before  they  are  understood  and  welcomed.  A  com- 
mercial age  encounters  even  more  difficulty  than  the  "Maiden" 
in  understanding  the  subject  of  Russian  music,  because  the  music 
of  Russia  is  almost,  if  not  entirely,  free  from  the  sensual  element. 
It  is  truly  spiritual. 


364  .  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Russian  vocal  music  is  not  suited  to  mechanical  reproduction. 
It  must  be  heard  as  a  living  thing,  from  a  living  artist.  It  is 
the  offspring  of  the  song  of  the  long-suffering  Russian  people. 
And  whoever  knows  the  Russian  songs  will  understand  why 
Russian  music  is  so  truthful,  so  sincere,  so  heart-felt,  so  hu- 
manly appealing.  It  is  possible  that,  in  the  future,  this  music 
is  destined  not  only  to  bathe  in  the  sunlight  of  glory  and  suc- 
cess, but  also  to  exert  a  tremendous  influence  upon  the  spiritual 
and  moral  tenor  of  our  social  life. 

Russian  music  does  not  strive  to  please,  to  cater  to  the  popu- 
lar taste;  its  aim  is  to  educate.  Like  the  truthful  historian,  it 
tells  the  story  of  the  Russian  people,  of  its  life,  its  beliefs,  its 
sufferings,  its  love,  and  its  spiritual  might. 

One  need  not  be  pessimistic  about  the  future  of  Russian 
music.  It  is  an  outlook  that  is  rich  and  full  of  promise.  Already 
one  can  see  the  gratifying  indications  of  a  growing  interest  in 
the  native  art.  The  composers  of  the  past  generation  have  given 
it  an  impulse  that  will  take  Russia  to  the  foremost  ranks  of 
musical  achievement.  Her  period  of  imitation  and  adaption  is 
past.  In  the  wake  of  her  literature,  that  has  made  its  influence 
felt  throughout  the  West,  is  now  flowing  the  tide  of  Russia's 
music. 

//.    Its  Development 

The  development  of  Russian  music  consists  of  a  continuous 
struggle  between  the  ideas  of  the  composers  of  Western  Europe 
and  the  peculiar  genius  of  national  music.  Almost  every  Russian 
composer  shows  traces  of  such  a  struggle.  And  it  is  when  the 
national  spirit  dominates  over  the  foreign,  that  the  musical  art 
of  the  country  rises  to  its  sublimest  heights. 

Before  the  nineteenth  century,  music  in  Russia  was  introduced 
almost  exclusively  by  German  and  Italian  musicians  and  com- 
posers, who  were  brought  over  by  the  Court  and  the  aristocracy. 
They  did  not  care  to  study  the  national  music  of  the  country, 
but  composed  according  to  their  Western  ideas.  At  times  it  hap- 
pened that  they  did  introduce  into  their  work  national  motifs  and 
tunes,  but  this  was  usually  done  "to  order"  and  the  result  lacked 
all  artistic  value. 

There  were  also  several  Russian  composers  during  this  first 
period  of  Russian  music.  Among  these  were  Titov,  called  "the 
grandfather   of    Russian    song,"  Varlamov,    Yakovlev,  Aliabiev, 


RUSSIA  365 

Donaurov,  Verstovsky,  and  others.  But  the  musical  education  olE 
these  men  was  not  thorough,  and  their  work  was  too  German- 
Italian  to  be  of  any  great  service  to  Russian  music.  Verstovsky 
even  attempted  to  write  an  opera  called  "Askold's  Tomb*'  but 
this  opera  had  nothing  of  the  native  flavor. 

The  second  period  in  the  development  of  Russian  music  begins 
with  Glinka  (1804-1857).  In  his  earlier  works  he  was  still  under 
the  influence  of  the  German-Italian  school,  and  even  his  national 
opera,  "Life  for  the  Tsar,"  did  not  escape  this  influence.  If  it 
were  not  for  the  characteristically  Russian  strains  in  the  chorus 
of  the  last  act,  and  the  fugue,  the  trio,  and  Vania's  aria,  this 
opera  would  have  had  to  be  classed  with  his  other  early  works, 
all  of  them  foreign  in  their  provenience. 

It  was  only  after  his  trip  to  Italy,  in  the  thirties,  that  Glinka 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  Italy  had  nothing  to  give  him.  He 
then  wrote  to  his  friend  Kukolnikov,  that  his  eyes  were  finally 
opened,  and  that  he  realized  that  "we  Russians  are  different,  and 
what  we  want  is  something  different."  After  this,  he  discarded 
foreign  ideas  and  came  to  rely  upon  his  own  original  genius.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  he  began  to  produce  the  series  of  composi- 
tions that  have  earned  for  him  the  title  of  "Creator  of  Russian 
Music." 

While  we  cannot  here  go  into  a  critical  study  of  GHoka's 
works  as  a  composer,  it  must  be  said  that  his  opera,  "Ruslan  and 
Ludmila,"  is  the  starting  point  of  the  truly  Russian  school  of 
music.  Among  his  instrumental  pieces  the  most  remarkable  ones 
are  "Chota,"  "Kamarinskoye,"  and  "Nights  in  Madrid.'*  Glinka 
wrote  many  songs,  but  only  one  of  them,  the  "Night  Review," 
occupies  a  really  high  place. 

There  is  another  composer  whose  name  is  extremely  important 
in  the  consideration  of  the  second  period  in  the  development  of 
Russian  music.  J}^ rs'^"''y^^ ^]^'o_.-o t- A^t-  Js  jn  many  ways  like  that 
of  Glinka.  He,  too,  at  first,  bowed  to  the  influence  of  foreign 
models.  He  even  imitated  Glinka  for  some  time.  Among  his 
many  songs  is  one  called  the  "Night  Review,"  which  is  in  struc- 
ture similar  to  Glinka's  song  of  the  same  name.  One  of  his 
pieces,  however,  "Palladin,"  is  a  gem,  and  many  think  that  it  has 
never  been  surpassed  in  the  treasure-house  of  songs. 

Dargomyzh sky's  opera,  "^Rusalka"  (The  Nymph),  with  the 
libretto  based  on  Pushkin's  dramatic  poem  of  the  same  name,  is 
perhaps  more  Russian  than  Glinka's  "Life  for  the  Tsar,"  but  in 


V 


366  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

it  Dargomyzhsky  is  still  far  from  attaining  to  the  height  he 
reached  in  his  later  operas,  "Rogdana"  and  "The  Stone  Guest." 
It  was  Glinka  who  laid  the  foundation  for  the  Russian  school  of 
music,  but  it  was  Dargomyzhsky  that  reared  the  walls  of  the 
structure. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  other  Russian  composer,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Moussorgsky,  whose  music  expresses  so  realistically  the 
truth  of  life.  "I  want  the  sound  to  express  the  word,"  said 
Dargomyzhsky,  and  this  was  his  watchword  to  the  end.  It  was 
the  legacy  he  left  to  that  wonderful  group  of  composers  which 
followed  him  and  which  came  to  be  known  as  the  "Moguchaya 
Kuchka"   (The  Mighty  Group). 

It  was  Dargomyzhsky's  house  that  became  the  meeting-place 
of  the  men  who  were  destined  to  carry  on  the  noble  task  of 
creating  a  national  music.  Dargomyzhsky  was  the  first  to  recog- 
nize the  mighty  musical  genius  of  Moussorgsky.  Through  him, 
the  young  army  officer,  brimful  of  talent,  became  intimately  con- 
nected with  Balakirev  and  Cui.  These  three  men  were  soon 
joined  by  Rimsky-Korsakov  and  Borodin,  and  the  "Moguchaya 
Kuchka"  came  to  be. 

The  work  of  this  group  of  composers  forms  the  third  stage 
in  the  development  of  Russian  music.  Among  them,  the  most 
faithful  follower  of  the  precepts  of  Glinka  and  Dargomyzhsky 
was  Moussorgsky.  Everything  that  he  composed  is  permeated 
with  truly  Russian  coloring.  All  his  subjects  were  taken  from 
the  actual  life  of  the  Russian  people.  This  genius,  "this  god  of  the 
new  Russian  music,"  as  Debussy  once  called  him,  represented 
in  his  glowing  tones,  with  marvelous  power  and  truthfulness, 
every  phase  of  human  life, — be  it  of  peasant  or  boyar, — from 
childhood  to  death.  There  is  scarcely  another  composer  who  has 
approached  as  near  as  Moussorgsky  to  Dargomyzhsky's  great 
precept,  "I  want  the  sound  to  express  the  word." 

Balakirev  is  sometimes  called  the  leader  of  the  "Moguchaya 
Kuchka."  But  he  was  a  leader  only  in  a  certain  sense.  When 
the  little  group  came  into  existence,  Balakirev  was  already  a  well- 
known  musician.  Naturally,  the  others,  much  younger  than  he  in 
years  and  in  musical  experience,  grouped  themselves  about  their 
more  accomplished  and  maturer  colleague.  But  Balakirev's  in- 
fluence was  not  such  as  to  affect  the  development  of  the  musical 
work  of  the  younger  composers.  It  is  true  they  often  sought  his 
advice  and  criticism,  but  each  followed  his  own  road,  although 


RUSSIA  367 

all  these  roads  converged  to  the  same  goal,  the  realization  and 
the  extension  of  the  precepts  of  Glinka  and  Dargomyzhsky, 

As  a  composer,  Balakirev  made  several  very  valuable  contribu- 
tions to  the  music  of  his  country.  While  not  very  numerous,  all 
his  compositions  are  remarkable  for  their  originality,  polish,  and 
finish.  Among  his  best  compositions  are  his  symphony  "Russia/* 
his  symphonic  poem  "Tamara,"  and  his  overture  "On  Russian 
Themes"  He  edited  an  excellent  collection  of  Russian  popular 
songs. 

A.. P.  5orodin_^was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  exponents  of  the 
Russian  national  music  that  was  being  created  by  the  "Moguchaya 
Kuchka."  It  is  as  a  symphonist  that  he  attained  prominence,  and 
his  compositions  were  instrumental,  rather  than  vocal.  Except 
for  a  few  exquisite  songs,  Borodin's  larger  vocal  compositions, 
like  his  opera,  "2liriceJ[gorj^['  for  example,  appear  to  be  unfinished, 
as  though  he  did  not  devote  to  them  the  painstaking  attention 
which  results  in  brilliancy  and  polish.  His  orchestral  pieces  are 
his  most  distinctive  works. 

C.  A.  Cui  was  a  devoted  member  of  the  "Moguchaya  Kuchka." 
But  his  contribution  to  the  work  of  this  musical  cenacle  was  not 
so  much  in  the  capacity  of  composer,  as  of  musical  critic,  always 
ready  to  defend  the  ideas  and  the  strivings  of  the  "Moguchaya 
Kuchka."  As  composer,  he  can  scarcely  be  classed  with  the  school 
of  Russian  national  music.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of 
the  later  Western  composers  of  the  classic  school,  Schumann, 
Liszt,  Berlioz.  His  works  are  romantic,. in  character,  and  even 
his  subjects,  with  the  exception  of  several  songs,  are  not  taken 
from  Russian  life. 

The  last  member  of  the  "Moguchaya  Kuchka,"  N.  AJimsky^ 
Korsakov,  was  the  most  prolific  and  many-sided  composer  of 
the  group.  All  his  works,  no  matter  what  their  character,  seem 
equally  brilliant,  and  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  the  palm  is 
to  be  given  to  his  orchestral,  or  his  vocal  compositions.  Some 
of  his  most  remarkable  works  for  the  orchestra  are  his  symphony 
in  E-moll,  "Scheherazade,"  and  his  Capriccio  on  Spanish  themes. 
He  wrote  many  operas,  the  best  known  among  which  are  "Snie- 
gurochka"  "Mlada"  "Pskovitianka"  "Tale  about  Tsar  Saltan," 
and  "The  Royal  Bride"  His  efforts  comprise,  moreover,  whole 
volumes  of  songs,  duets,  choruses,  and  cantatas. 

The  cult  of  the  Russian  national  music,  whose  prophets  were 
Glinka  and  Dargomyzhsky,  and  whose  apostles  were  Balakirev, 


368  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Moussorgsky,  Rimsky-Korsakov,  Borodin,  and  Cui,  was,  and  still 
is,  religiously  worshipped  by  a  whole  group  of  talented  compos- 
ers. Among  them  are  men  honored  not  only  in  Russia,  but  also 
in  the  countries  of  the  West.  Glazounov,  Rachmaninov,  Ilinsky, 
Kalinnikov,  Grechaninov,  Liadov,  Arensky,  Ippolitov-Ivanov, 
Taneyev — all  these  are  the  men  whose  works  are  slowly  being 
revealed  to  the  music-lovers  of  the  world. 

There  are  two  more  names  of  which  musical  Russia  is  justly 
proud.  These  are  P.  Chaikovsky  (1840-1893)  and  A.  Rubinstein 
(1829-1894).  Both  of  these  composers  have  done  yoeman's  ser- 
vice in  the  cause  of  music  in  Russia,  although  they  followed  dif- 
ferent paths. 

Chaikovsky  stands  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  Russian  com- 
posers. Many  and  invaluable  were  his  contributions  to  the  wealth 
of  Russian  music,  and  yet  his  creative  genius  as  a  composer  be- 
longs not  to  Russia  alone.  A  Russian  by  spirit  and  temperament, 
he  is,  at  the  same  time,  cosmopolitan  in  his  creative  work.  It  is 
for  this  reason  that  his  wor^*wefe  produced  in  Western  Europe 
before  any  other  Russian  had  a  hearing. 

In  speaking  of  Rubinstein,  one  cannot  help  comparing  him 
with  Glinka.  If  Russian  national  music  would,  perhaps,  have 
been  impossible  without  Glinka,  without  Rubinstein  the  blos- 
soming out  of  the  native  music  would  have  been  delayed  many 
decades.  Rubinstein's  efforts  to  arouse  interest  in  music  were 
unending.  He  was  responsible  for  the  establishment  of  the  first 
Russian  conservatory  of  music;  he  organized  various  musical 
societies,  and  worked  indefatigably  to  make  Russian  music  a 
possession  of  the  Russian  people,  not  of  the  chosen  few. 

But  as  a  composer,  he  has  done  almost  nothing  for  the  music 
of  Russia,  although  he  has  written  much.  His  works  include 
several  operas,  among  them  "Gorusha"  and  "The  Demon."  Rubin- 
stein was  almost  fanatically  attached  to  the  standards  of  the 
Western  classical  composers.  He  distrusted  innovations,  and  not 
only  avoided  them,  but  actually  opposed  them.  He  wrote  an  in- 
teresting little  booklet,  which  he  called  "Finita  la  Musica."  In 
this  pamphlet  he  attempted  to  prove  that  after  Beethoven,  Mozart, 
Schubert,  Schumann,  Mendelssohn,  Chopin,  and  Glinka,  there  can 
be  nothing  new  in  music.  Rubinstein  was  a  bitter  opponent  of 
the  "Moguchaya  Kuchka." 

Modern  Russian  music  presents  many  interesting  develop- 
ments, but  it  is  yet  too  new  to  be  judged  fairly  and  impartially. 


RUSSIA  369 

Such  men  as  Gliere,  Stravinsky,  and  Spendiarov,  are  among  the 
creators  of  the  new  Russian  music,  which  recently  sustained  the 
loss  of  one  of  its  most  prominent  interpreters,  Alexander 
Skriabin.  The  future  will  show  what  offerings  these  "moderns" 
have  brought  to  the  treasure-house  of  Russian  music. 


APPENDIX  I 

DIRECTIONS  FOR  PRONOUNCING  RUSSIAN 
'  NAMES* 

Pronounce  b,  d,  f,  k,  m,  n,  p,  t  as  In  English. 

a,  as  in  father ;  ai  as  in  ItaHan  mai— Eng.  my. 

ch,  as  in  church. 

c,  at  the  beginning  of  all  but  a  few  foreign  words,  as  ye  in  yet, 
or  ya  in  Yale;  after  a  consonant  the  y  is  less  distinct  but  is 
always  present  except  after  sh,  ch,  zh  and  ts. 

t,  a  special  letter  whose  sound  is  identical  with  that  of  e,  ey  as 
yea.    Accented  e  is  sometimes  pronounced  yo,  o,  but  e  never. 

g,  always  hard  as  in  gate. 

i,  as  in  machine. 

kh,  as  Scotch  or  German  ch  in  loch,  ach. 

1,  "hard"  between  /  and  w,  as  in  people :  "soft,"  between  /  and  y 
as  in  Fr.  ville. 

o,  accented  open  as  oa  in  broad;  unaccented  as  a  in  balloon. 

r,  strongly  trilled,  when  soft  between  r  and  y,  but  not  like  ry. 

s,  always  as  s  in  size,  case,  never  as  in  cheese. 

sh,  as  in   shuts;   shch  as  in  Ashchurch. 

u,  as  in  rule,  rarely  as  in  tube. 

V,  as  in  English,  at  the  end  of  words  like  /. 

y,  English  usage  has  necessitated  an  inconsistent  employment  of 
y.  As  a  vowel  it  has  been  used  to  denote  a  peculiar  sound 
between  i  and  «,  not  unlike  its  value  in  rhythm ;  immediately 
after  a  labial  the  u  element  can  be  clearly  heard. 
As  a  consonant  it  has  been  used  to  denote  its  sound  in  year, 
Goodyer,  boy. 

When  combinations  such  as  iy  or  yy  would  logically  have  re- 
sulted, y  alone  has  been  written  as  this  gives  the  sound  fairly 
well. 

z,  as  in  English   («o/=/j). 

^  In  A.  Brfickner's  Literary  history  of  Russia,  p.  xix. 


372  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

zh, — Fr.  j,  Eng.  z  in  azure  or  si  in  vision. 

Consonants  before  a,  o,  u,  vowel  y  are  mostly  pronounced 
"hard,"  f.  e.,  more  or  less  as  in  English ;  before  i,  e,  and  con- 
sonant y,  "soft" — that  is,  run  together  with  a  y  sound,  but 
this  must  not  be  overdone. 
The  accented  syllable  is  very  strongly  brought  out,  the  others 

rather  slurred  over. 


APPENDIX  II 


GLOSSARY 

Artel.  A  Russian  form  of  labor  union,  in  which  from  six  to 
fifty  or  more  men  unite  to  do  a  particular  piece  of  work,  or  to 
labor  together  for  a  certain  specified  time.  It  is  virtually  a 
small  joint  stock  company,  whose  members  share  equally  in  the 
work,  expenses,  and  profits  of  the  enterprise  in  which  they  are 
engaged.  (George  Kennan.) 

Boyar.    Great  noble. 

Copeck.     One  one-hundredth  of   a   ruble=$o.oo5. 

Datcha.    House  in  the  country.    Summer  home. 

Droshky.    Low  four-wheeled  open  carriage. 

Duma.    Lower  house  of  the  Russian  parliament. 

Great  Russians.  Inhabitants  of  Great  Russia  (north,  cen- 
tral, east  and  southeast  Russia).  They  are  the  standard  bearers 
proper  of  the  Russian  feeling  of  nationality.  They  are  easily  dis- 
ciplined, so  make  excellent  soldiers,  but  have  little  power  of  in- 
dependent thinking  or  initiation.  The  normal  Great  Russian  is 
thus  the  mainstay  of  political  and  economic  inertia  and  reaction. 
Great  Russian  is  the  literary  language. 

Icon.    Holy  image,  picture  or  mosaic. 

Intelligentsia.  In  current  phraseology  it  has  a  double  sense. 
It  is  used  to  designate  the  "general  intelligentsia"  or  those  who 
in  all  classes  of  society  are  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  intellectual 
interests,  whether  they  earn  their  living  by  this  pursuit  or  not; 
and  it  is  also  used  to  designate  those  who  obtain  their  living  ex- 
clusively by  mental  labor. 

hba.    A  log  cabin  in  which  a  peasant  lives. 

Izvoschick.    Droshky  driver. 

Kustarnui.    Cottage  industries. 

Little  Russians.  Inhabitants  of  the  Black  Earth  district 
(south  and  southwest)  and  the  Ukraine.  They  include  the 
Ruthenians.    They  have  the  emotional  southern  temperament. 


374  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

Mir.  A  village  community  constituting  a  local  administrative 
unit. 

Muzjik.    A  peasant. 

Nitchevo.  "Nothing,"  "never,"  "all  the  same,"  "good."  "bad," 
"wretched,"  according  to  the  stress  and  intonation  one  puts  on 
the  word. 

Pale.  Legally  the  name  Jewish  pale  or  "established  zone"  is 
reserved  for  the  fifteen  governments  of  Lithuania  and  White 
and  Little  Russia;  but  in  practice  there  is  no,  or  hardly  any, 
distinction  between  these  fifteen  Jewish  provinces  and  the  ten 
Polish  governments  where  the  Jews  are  equally  tolerated  by 
the  law. 

Pogrom.  A  local  disturbance,  as  a  riot,  pillage,  etc.,  in- 
stigated by  officials  under  the  direction  of  the  central  govern- 
ment.   Usually  against  the  Jews. 

Pood.    Thirty-six  pounds  avoirdupois. 

Prospect.    An  avenue. 

Ruble.    Russian  monetary  unit=$o.5iS. 

Tchinovnik.    Government  official. 

Traktir.    Cheap  restaurant,  tea-house,  or  vodka  shop. 

Troika.    A  vehicle  drawn  by  three  horses  abreast. 

Ukase.  An  edict  or  order  given  out  by  tzar  or  the  govern- 
ment. 

Ukraine.  Approximately  Little  Russia.  Contains  basin  of 
the  Dnieper  southward  of  the  51st  parallel  of  latitude. 

Verst.    Two-thirds  of  a  mile. 

Vodka.     Russian  brandy.    Any  strong  spirituous  drink. 

Volost.  A  district  composed  of  a  number  of  communes,  and 
having  one  joint  administrative  assembly. 

Volshak.    Head  of  the  family. 

White  Russians.  Inhabitants  of  western  Russia.  They  are 
the  poorest  and  least  advanced  of  the  three  stocks. 

Zemstvo.  A  form  of  district  and  provincial  assembly  created 
under  Alexander  II  (1864),  and  endowed  with  powers  of  self- 
government  in  the  fields  of  local  economic  and  social  interests. 


APPENDIX  III 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  RUSSIAN  HISTORY* 

I.    Old  Riussia.    Period  of  the  Local  Principalities 

862 — Invasion  of  the  Norsemen,  led  by  the  Variags  Rurik, 
Sineus,  and  Truvor,  in  answer  to  the  invitation  of 
the  Slav  republic  of  Novgorod,  worded,  according 
to  the  Chronicles,  as  follows:  "Our  land  is  great  and 
fruitful,  but  there  is  no  order  in  it;  come  and  reign 
and  rule  over  us."  On  the  death  of  his  kinsmen, 
Rurik  became  sole  ruler. 

879-912 — Oleg,  regent  during  the  minority  of  Rurik's  son  Igor, 
conquered  the  duchy  of  Kiev  in  882. 

912-945 — Igor.  Treaty  made  with  the  Byzantine  Emperor,  945. 
— Christianity  established  at  Kiev. 

945-957 — Olga  (St.),  widow  of  Igor  and  regent  for  her  son 
Svyatoslav,   accepted  the  Christian  faith  at  Kiev  in 

957. 
957-972 — Svyatoslav  I   Igorevitch.     Division   of   the  territory 
among  Svyatoslav's  sons.     Civil  war. 

980-1015— Vladimir  I  (St.;  the  apostle).  Greek  church  estab- 
lished as  the  state  religion  (988).  Vladimir  married 
the  Greek  Princess  Anna,  sister  of  Theophano,  wife 
of  Emperor  Otho  II.  Succession  disputed  on  Vladi- 
mir's death. 

1019-1054 — Yaroslav  I,  the  Wise,  married  a  daughter  of  Olaf, 
King  of  Sweden.  Of  his  daughters,  the  eldest  mar- 
ried Harold,  King  of  Norway;  another  Henry  I  of 
France ;  a  third,  Andreas  I  of  Hungary.  Many  towns 
founded.  The  first  Russian  Code  issued.  On  his 
death,  the  kingdom  was  divided,  and  civil  and  foreign 
wars  ensued. 

H13-1125 — Vladimir  II  Monomakh.    Defeated  the  Polovtsi.    His 

>KarI  Baedeker.  Russia,  p.  xlyiMii. 


376  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

wife  was  Gyda  or  Gytha,  daughter  of  Harold  II,  of 
England. 

1 125- 1 132 — Mstislav  I,  Grand-Prince  of  Kiev.  Innumerable 
divisions  and  endless  wars.  Great  Novgorod  be- 
came an  independent  republic. 

2.    Period  of  the  Mongol  Supremacy 
1224 — First    invasion    of    the    Tartars    under    Genghis    or 
Jenghiz  Khan.    Defeat  of  the  Russians  on  the  Kalka. 

1237-1242 — Second  Tartar  invasion  under  Baty-Khan.  The  king- 
doms of  the  Bolgars,  Polovtsi,  etc.  destroyed. 

1238-1246 — Yaroslav  II  Vsevolodovitch.  Grand-Prince  of  Vladi- 
mir.   The  whole  of  Russia  under  Tartar  suzerainty. 

1252- 1263 — Alexander  Nevski,  Grand-Prince  of  Vladimir,  the 
Russian  national  hero  and  saint.  His  son,  Daniel, 
as  Prince  of  Moscow,  founded  the  line  of  Moscow 
princes  of  the  Rurik  dynasty.  Alexander's  victory 
over  the  Swedes  on  the  Neva  (whence  his  surname), 
1240.  Defeat  of  the  Teutonic  order  on  the  ice  of 
Lake  Peipus  (1242). 

1328-1340 — Ivan  I  Danilovitch  Kalita,  Grand-Prince  of  Moscow, 
Vladimir,  and  Novgorod.  The  Metropolitan  removes 
his  seat  from  Vladimir  to  Moscow. 

1363-1389 — Demetrius  of  the  Don  (Dmitri  Donskoi)  ;  defeated 
the  Tartars  on  Kulikovo  Field  on  September  8th,  1380. 

1425- 1462— Vasili  II  Vasilyevitch. 

1462-1505 — Ivan  (loann)  III  Vasilyevitch,  Grand-Prince  of  Mos- 
cow, and  the  real  founder  of  the  Russian  empire. 
Marriage  with  Sophia  Palaeologos,  1472.  Perm  re- 
duced to  subjection,  1472.  Novgorod  overthrown, 
1478.  Rout  of  the  Golden  Horde,  1478.  Overthrow 
of  the  tribes  of  the  Ob  and  the  Irtuish,  1483-99.  Kazan 
conquered  and  held  for  a  short  time,  1487.  Karelia 
captured,  1496.  Unsuccessful  campaign  against  the 
Livonian  order,  1501-1503. 

3.    Period  of  Muscovite  Unification 
Formation  of  the  Russian  Empire 

1505-1533 — Vasili  III  Ivanovitch  united  most  of  the  independent 
principalities  with  Moscow. 

1 533- 1 584 — Ivan  (loann)  IV  Grozni  (the  Terrible)  ruled  at  first 
under  the  influence  of  Shuiski,  Glinski,  and  the  Bo- 


RUSSIA  377 

yars;  then  under  that  of  the  monk  Sylvester  and 
Alexis  Adashev.  Title  of  Tzar  of  the  Russias  as- 
sumed, 1547.  Conquest  of  Kazan  (1552)  and  Astra- 
khan (1557).  The  English  begin  to  trade  with  Mus- 
covy via  Archangel,  1582.  Beginning  of  the  conquest 
of  Siberia  by  the  Stroganovs,  Yermak  and  other  bold 
Cossack  chieftains.  Russian  Law  Code  (Sudebnik) 
formulated;  printing  introduced  at  Moscow. 
1584-1598 — Feodor  or  Theodore  I  Ivanovitch,  the  last  sovereign 
of  the  line  of  Rurik.  Peasants  deprived  of  right  of 
free  migration.  Patriarchate  established.  After  the 
murder  of  all  the  blood-relatives  of  Theodore  and 
also  of  his  step-brother  Dmitri  or  Demetrius,  (d. 
1591),  Boris  Godunov,  the  brother  of  Theodore's 
wife,  became  sole  ruler. 

Interregnum.    Period  of  the  False  Demetrius 

1 598- 1 605 — Boris  Feodorovitch  Godunov.  Appearance  of  the 
First  and  Second  False  Demetrius,  both  of  whom 
were  supported  by  the  Poles.  The  First  False  Deme- 
trius (1605-1606)  was  murdered  on  May  17th,  1606. 
The  Second  False  Demetrius  appeared  after  the 
boyar  Vasili  Shuiski  (1606-10)  had  been  elected  Tzar. 

1610-1613 — Interregnum.  Kosma  Minin  and  Prince  Pozharski; 
the  Poles  driven  from  Russia. 

Rise  of  the  Romanov  Dynasty 

1613-1645 — Mikhail  Feodorovitch  Romanov,  kinsman  of  Theo- 
dore I,  elected  Tzar  and  founder  of  the  present 
dynasty.  Peace  of  Stolbovo,  161 7  cession  of  In- 
germanland  to  Sweden)  ;  Armistice  of  Deulino,  1618; 
Peace  of  Polyanovka,  1634  (territory  ceded  to  Po- 
land; claims  to  Livonia,  Courland  and  Esthonia  re- 
nounced). 

1645-1676— Alexis  I,  Mikhailovitch.  Introduction  of  the  new 
code  (Ulozheniye)  1649.  Treaty  of  Andrusovo  (oc- 
cupation of  Smolensk  and  the  Ukraine,  suzerainty 
established  over  Kiev  and  the  Cossacks),  1667. 
Schism  in  the  Russian  church  due  to  innovations  by 
Nikon. 

1676-1682 — Feodor  (Theodore)  Alexayevitch.  Abolition  of  the 
system  of  preferment  by  "hereditary  rank"  (Myestni- 


378  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

tchestvo).  On  the  death  of  Theodore,  Grand  duch- 
ess Sophia  Alexeyevna  (1682-1689)  became  regent  on 
behalf  of  her  half-brothers,  the  Tzars  Ivan  and  Peter 
(b.  1672). 

4.     The  St.  Petersburg  Period 

1689-1725 — Peter  I,  the  Great,  immured  Sophia  Alexeyevna  in 
a  convent  and  became,  with  the  free  consent  of  his 
brother,  Ivan  (d.  1696),  sole  ruler  of  the  empire. 
Far-reaching  innovations;  introduction  of  W.  Euro- 
pean customs  and  culture.  Northern  War  (1700- 
1721),  carried  on,  in  alliance  with  Frederick  IV  of 
Denmark  and  Augustus  II  of  Poland,  against  Charles 
XII  of  Sweden.  Victory  of  Poltava,  1709;  loss  of 
Azov,  171 1.  By  the  treaty  of  Nystad  (1721)  Russia 
gained  Livonia  and  Esthonia.  Foundation  of  St. 
Petersburg,  1703.  War  with  Persia;  Russian  do- 
minion extended  to  the  S.  shore  of  the  Caspian  Sea. 
Peter's  son  Alexis  (Alexei)  died  in  1718.  Assump- 
tion of  the  imperial  title,  1721. 

1725-1727 — Catherine  I,  widow  of  Peter  I,  ruled  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Prince  Menshikov.  Foundation  of  the 
Academy  of  Sciences,  1725. 

1727-1730 — Peter  II  Alexayevitch,  grandson  of  Peter  the  Great, 
removed  the  court  to  Moscow  and  ruled  during  his 
minority  under  the  influence  of  the  Dolgoruki. 

1730-1740 — ^Anna  Ivanovna,  daughter  of  Ivan,  half-brother  of 
Peter  the  Great,  took  part  (at  the  instigation  of  her 
favorites  Biron  and  Field-Marshal  Miinnich)  in  the 
War  of  the  Polish  Succession  (1733-38),  and  re- 
gained Azov  in  a  war  waged  against  Turkey  (1735- 

39). 

1740-1741 — Ivan  VI,  great-grandson  of  Ivan,  half-brother  of 
Peter  the  Great,  succeeded  as  an  infant  to  the  throne, 
which  he  occupied  for  a  short  time  under  the  regency 
of  his  mother,  Anna  (Elizabeth)  Leopoldovna.  He 
was  deposed  in   1741    (d.  at  Schliisselburg  in  1764). 

1741-1761 — Elizabeth  Petrovna,  daughter  of  Peter  the  Great.  In 
1742  Elizabeth's  nephew,  Karl  Peter  Ulrich  of  Hol- 
stein-Gottorp  was  created  heir-apparent.  War  with 
Sweden  (1741-43)  resulting  in  the  Peace  of  Abo,  by 


RUSSIA  379 

which  Russia  acquired  Finland  as  far  as  the  Kymme- 
ne-Elf.  Alliance  with  Austria  against  France  and 
Spain,  1746;  alliance  with  Austria  and  France  against 
Prussia  (Seven  Years  War),  1756.  Foundation  of 
Moscow  University  (i755)  and  of  the  St.  Petersburg 
Academy  of  Arts,  (i757). 

House  of  Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp 

1 761 -1 762 — Peter  III  died  six  months  after  his  accession. 

1 762- 1 796 — Catherine  II,  widow  of  Peter  III.  Russia  becomes  a 
Great  Power.  Russian  territory  greatly  extended  by 
the  three  Partitions  of  Poland.  First  Turkish  War 
(cession  of  parts  of  the  Crimea  and  the  Caucasus; 
protectorate  of  the  Danubian  Principalities),  1768-74. 
Rebellion  of  the  Cossack  Pugatchov  put  down,  1773- 
75.  Conquest  of  the  Crimea,  1783.  Second  Turkish 
War,  ending  in  the  Peace  of  Jassy,  by  which  Russia 
acquired  the  whole  district  up  to  the  Dniester,  1787- 
92,  Unsuccessful  war  with  Sweden,  1788-90.  An- 
nexation of  Courland,  1795. 

1 796-1801 — Paul  I  Petrovitch,  son  of  Catherine,  entangled  Rus- 
sia in  a  war  with  France  (1798). 

1801-1825 — Alexander  I,  Pavlovitch,  son  of  Paul  I.  War  with 
France  terminated  by  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit  (June  25th, 
1807)  ;  that  with  Austria  by  the  Peace  of  Vienna 
(1809)  ;  that  with  Sweden  by  the  Peace  of  Fredrik- 
shamn  (Sept.  5th,  1809)  ;  that  with  Turkey  by  the 
Peace  of  Bucharest  (May  i6th,  1812).  Napoleon's 
invasion  of  Russia;  annihilation  of  the  Grande 
Armee,  1812.     Treaty  of  Paris  (April  21st,  1815). 

1825-1855— Nicholas  I,  Pavlovitch,  third  son  of  Paul  I.  War 
with  Turkey  and  Persia,  1828.  Publication  of  the 
final  and  complete  form  of  the  Russian  Code  of  Laws, 
1830.  Opening  of  the  Nikolai  (Nicholas)  or  Niko- 
layevski  railway  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Moscow, 
1851.     Crimean  War   (1853-1856). 

1855-1881— Alexander  II,  Nikolayevitch.  Treaty  of  Paris,  1856. 
Conquest  of  the  Caucasus.  Liberation  of  the  serfs, 
1861.  Introduction  of  the  new  Judicial  Procedure, 
1866.  New  Municipal  Law,  1870.  Institution  of  com- 
pulsory  military    service,    1874.     Russo-Turkish   war 


38o  SELECTED  ARTICLES 

(1877-78)  ended  by  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano  and 
the  Berlin  Congress. 

1881-1894— Alexander  III,  Alexandrovitch.  Conquests  in  Cen- 
tral Asia.     Beginning  of  the  Trans-Siberian  railway. 

i894etseq. — Nicholas,  II  Alexandrovitch.  Completion  of  the 
Trans-Siberian  railway,  1903.  Russo-Japanese  War 
(1904-05)  ending  in  the  defeat  of  the  Russians.  Peace 
of  Portsmouth  (U.S.A.),  1905.  Opening  of  the  first 
parliament   (Imperial  Duma),  1906. 


APPENDIX  IV 


RUSSIAN  CALENDAR* 

Petrograd,  May  27. — Bringing  up  to  date  of  the  Russian 
calendar  will  be  one  of  the  earliest  reforms  of  the  new  govern- 
ment in  Russia,  although  opposition  is  expected  from  ecclesias- 
tical quarters. 

Any  alteration  of  the  calendar  has  always  been  regarded  as 
an  act  of  impiety  by  a  large  section  of  the  Russian  people.  When 
the  Gregorian  calendar  was  introduced  in  1582  as  a  correction 
of  the  Julian  or  Roman,  three  countries  in  Europe — Russia, 
Sweden  and  England — refused  to  come  into  line  with  the  others. 
It  was  not  until  1752  that  England  brought  the  calendar  up  to 
date.  Sweden  followed  the  next  year  but  Russia  has  persisted 
in  remaining  isolated  up  to  the  present. 

The  Julian  calendar  was  eleven  minutes,  ten  seconds  out  of 
reckoning  each  year,  and  the  accumulation  would  now  amount 
to  about  13  days. 

^Minneapolis  Tribune.  May  27,  1917. 


INDEX 


Absolutism,     40,     309-10 
Alexandrovsk,   87,   98,    i47 
Andreas,    Bishop    of    Ufa,    180 
Art,    356-60 
Artels,    1 3 1-9 
Autocracy,     109-12 

Begbie,    Harold,    article    by,    184 

Bolshevism,    304-9.    320-4 

Bulgaria  and  the  European  war,  217 

Bureaucracy,     1 12-19 

misconduct   of   war,   273 
See   also   Revolution   of    191 7 

Business   methods,    131-47 

Calendar,   381 

Catherine  the  Great,  21,  25-7,  36-7, 

Catherine     Harbor.       See     Alexan- 
drovsk 

Child,  R.  W.,  article  by,  241-4,  119, 
148-62 

Christianity   introduced,    13-14 

Christmas   customs,    166-8 
in  Finland,  73-4 

Church.       See     Religion;      Russian 
church 

Classes  of  society,  4-8 

Communal     ownership.       See    Land 
tenure 

Co-operation,    7,    285-6 
See   also   Artels;    Kustarnui 

Cossacks,   221-4 

Cottage   industries.     5"^^   Kustarnui 

Czar.      See    Tsar 

Democracv,  its  evolution,  279-91 
Dimitri   the    False,    19,    53 
Duma,  30,  282-3,  284-5,  287-90 

first,   292 

second,    292-3 

Economic   development,    29,    300-2 

Education,    157-9.    164-6 

European    war,    211-51 

children's  participation,   225-6 
effects    on     Russia,     227,     233-41, 
244-51 

Fiction.  3525 
Finland,  71-6 
Foster,  P.  P.,  article  by,  97-8 

German     influence    in     Russia,    36, 

145-6,    248-50,    287 
Goldenweiser,    Nicholas,    article   by, 

304-9 


Graham,    Stephen,    article    by,    218- 

27 
Greely,    A.    W.,    article    by,    76-91 

Harper,    S.    N.,    article    by,    273-5, 

279-91 
Hart,   A.    B.,   article   by,    32-41 
Honesty,    1 18-19,    143-4 

Icon,  7,   138 
Intelligentsia,    5,    150-1 
Ivan   the  Terrible,    18-19 

Jews,    185-210 

employments,    189-91,   202-3 

hatred  for  Russia,   145 

immigration  to  the  United  States, 
209-10 

Jewish    Pale,    193-6,    206 

pogroms,    188 

treatment     by     government,     185- 
208 
Johnston,    Charles,    article    by,    43-4 

Kennan,    George,    article   by   259-64 
Kerensky,    Alexander     Feodorovich, 

305-6 
Kiev,    II,    12 
Kola,  97 
Kropotkin,    Sasha,    article    by,    228- 

Kustarnui,    134-9 

Land   tenure,    120-31 

by    Jews,    193 
Lebedeff,    Boris,    article    by,    120-31 
Lenine,   Nicholas,   306-9;   article  by, 

333-41 
Lethbndge,     Marjorie,     and     Alan, 

article   by,    94-7 
Levine,  I.   D.,  article  by,  264-72 
Literature,  343-51 
Little   Russia.     See   Ukraine 


Magnus,    Leonard,    article    by,    343- 

51 
Mavor,  John,  article  by,  41-3 
Mir,     120-31 

Mongol  domination,   14-16,  34-5 
Morgan,   Gerald,   article  by,  44-6 
Moscow,  Principality  of,   16-18 
Municipal   enterprises,    120 
Muscovite  supremacy.     See  Moscow 
Music   in    Russia,    360-9 


384 


INDEX 


Muzhik,    13 1-9,    228 
characterization,    6-8 
co-operation   by,   7 

Napoleonic    wars,    2T,    28,    38 
Neva,    Blessing   of,    168 
Newmarch,    Rosa,    article    by,    356- 

60 
Nicholas  II,  3^,  iii 

compared   with    Louis   XVI,    256, 

2^2 

irony  of  his  fate,  2^^ 
Novgorod,    II,    12 

Officers  in  army,  230-3 
Ogg,   F.   A.,   article  by,   9-32 
Olgin,  Moissaye  J.,   article  by  309- 

24 
Oriental     orthodox      church.       See 

Russian    church 

Persia,    Russian    influence   in,    31 
Peter  the  Great,  21-5,  35-6,  344 
Petrograd,    23-4 
Poetry,    343-5 1 
Poland,   47-70 

compared    with    Austria-Hungary, 

49-50     . 

economic    position,    68-70 

history,    47-58 

partitioned,   26,    37,   56-7 

Russification,    57,    65-6 
Poles,    Classes,    61-2 

famous,   68 

origin   of,   50 
Political    parties,    333-41 
Political  progress,  29-30 

See  also  Democracy 
Press,   freedom   of,    1 15-16 

Railroads,   98,    147 

See   also   Trans-Siberian  railway 

Refugees,    241-4 

Religion,    171-84,   218-21 

Resources,    99-107 

See    also    Economic    development 

Reynolds,   E.  K.,  article  by,  99-107 

Revolution  of   19 17,  253-324 
characteristics,   258,   260,   274 
coalition,  270,  298-9 
comparison    with    French    revolu- 
tion,  25s,    272,   277 
effect    on    Jews.    209-10 
events  of  March  10-12,  253-8 
made  possible  by  war,  258-5 
reforms    promised    by    provisional 
government,    254 

Rienzi,  Alexis,   article  by,   360-9 

Romanoff  dynasty,   20-1,   32-41 

Rosenthal,  Herman,  article  by,   185- 
200 

Rurik,   1 1 


Russian^  expansian,   28-9 

her  role  in  civilization,  31-2 

her     role    in    European    history, 

4V3      , 

origin   of  name,    11 

progress,    1905-1915,   44 
Russian  church,   171-84 
Russo-Japanese  war,  effects,  44-5 

effect   on    Siberia,    29,   94 
Russo-Turkish    war,    39 

Sack,    A.    J.,     article     by,    291-300, 

300-3 
St.  Petersburg.     See  Petrograd 
Serfs,   Emancipation  of,   29,   39 
Showalter,    W.   J.,    article   by,    63-8 
Siberia,   76-97 

benefit   from   European   war,   95-7 

effect  of  Russo-Japanese  war,  29, 

.   94. 

immigration,  86-7,  92-5 

origin  of  name,  28-9 

resources,  99-100,   102 
Simpson,    J.    Y.,    article    by,    171-84 
Slavs,_  2-3,    9.13,    34,    35 

origin   of   name,    3 
Sliozberg  Henry,  article  by,  201-9 
Sobieski,   John,   54 
Socialism,   297-9,   334 
Soldiers,  218-21 
Staley,  J.   E.,  article  by,   71-6 
Sweden,  war  with,  23 

Tatars,    3 

Trans-Siberian  railway,  29,  77-80 

Trotzky,   Leon,   306-9 

Tsar  elected,   19-20 

Ukraine,  324*33 

Verangers,  11- 12 
Vladimir   I,    13 

Vodka   prohibition,    43,    144-5,    168- 
9,    236-8 

Warsaw,    64 

Washburn,  Stanley,  article  by,  211- 

17 
Welliver,  J.   C,  article  by,  47-63 
Winter,   N.   O.,  article  by,    109-19 
Woman   suffrage,    161-2,    163-4 
Women   in   Poland,   66-8 
Women   in    Russia,    148-64 

Cossack    women,    222-3 

peasant  women,  149-50,  151-3,  230 
Wright,   Richardson,  article  by,   1-8, 

131-9,    139-48 

Yarmolinsky,    Abraham,    article   by, 
233-241 

Zemgor,   236 

Zemstvo,    281,    283,    285 

Zemstvo   Union,   235-6 


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