Pavel Nikolaevich Milyukov

“ The settlement in the Balkans, to be durable, must be based on the just national aspirations of the Balkan peoples, The allies, who are led by feelings of justice and freedom, will know how to rearrange the conditions of national life in the Balkans in order to prevent the recurrence of mutual distrust and that false principle of "balance of power" which is profitable only to our enemies, and to crown our victory, which is sure to come, with a new reconstruction based on international law and guaranteed by international sanctions. ”

“ This explains how it could happen in the third and fourth Dumas that the peasants entirely changed their position. They had been in the ranks of opposition in the first and the second Duma; they now sit on the benches of the Government parties. It is not quite so bad with working-men, because every representative of the working-men is invariably a Socialist in Russia. Thus it is quite impossible for the capitalists to elect a non-Socialist member. Russia is the only place in the world, I suppose, where the "bourgeois" and the "junkers" are obliged to elect Socialist members. ”

“ On the contrary, we are very hopeful, particularly when we consider how much has been done in the line of constitutional practice and the political development of large masses in the very short space of ten years, during which our representative institutions have existed. Not only have we kept them alive in spite of all attempts of autocratic conspirators to abolish them, but we have found a steadily growing support in the country for a system of Liberal policy. ”

“ The utmost that the best Mahommedan ruler can do is to save his subjects of other religions from actual persecution; he cannot save them from degradation; he cannot, without forsaking the principles of his own religion, put them on the same level as Mussulmans. That is why in Turkey there can be no 'subject' and no 'national government.' When we call an Englishman a British subject, we mean that he is a member of the British state. ”

“ With the Government's aid the Octobrists prevailed at the elections to the third Duma, at which the edict of June 16, 1907, was first applied. In this Chamber the Government used its influence, much increased by means of the edict, on the one hand to paralyse the opposition, and on the other to keep up a steady control over the extreme Right element, the uncompromising "revolutionaries of reaction." The Right and the Nationalists did not exist at all as political parties in the country. It was only after the elections, within the Duma itself, that they took shape. ”

“ The great struggle we are now carrying on as allies can be looked at and its meaning explained from two points of view which are sometimes considered to be entirely different and even opposite to one another. On the one hand, it is a world-struggle, originating in a clash, foreseen but unavoidable, between the growing imperialism of a newcomer and the existing state of things. On the other hand, it is a local struggle in the south-east of Europe, originating in Balkan relations. ”

“ Not only the Duma, but even the Cabinet, even the Ministers, are often considered too Liberal by the Council of Empire. Every law which bears as they say "the stamp of the 30th of October"—the date of the constitutional manifesto—is sure to fall through, or to be relegated to the archives of the Upper Chamber. ”

“ The real dislocation of the Ottoman Empire begins with the real growth of the Balkan nationalities, and fantastic schemes and combinations are soon eliminated by substituting for them real solutions. The only trouble, which is a new one, is to find just where the ethnographic frontiers go. Populations are mixed, claims are uncertain,—and a new and internal struggle begins between the Balkan nationalities themselves. ”

“ Thus neither peasant electors nor working-men within the assembly have the right to elect separately, whom they like best: their voice is drowned in that of the majority. You can imagine the result. The landed proprietors, of course, elect such peasants as are likely to comply with their interests, which gives to the Duma the worst representation of the peasant class. ”

“ Is it not to show that the two views on the war which I have just set out are one, or rather, that they are two different sides of the same view? There is something in common between the German world-policy directed against Great Britain, and the Austrian Balkan pohcy directed against Russia; and that something is German aggression. I do not think that the first part of this assertion, i.e. that the German conflict with England is based on German aggression, needs any further proof on my part to-day, as the opposite view is defended in this country only by a small misguided minority. ”

“ As to the Nationalists, the most conservative group, they regularly come to the Duma from the western frontier and partly from the south, where national antagonisms are more keenly felt. The deputies representing the Russian "dominating" nationality in these countries form a thin upper social stratum, and they always carry on a somewhat bitter struggle with the more ancient and sometimes more cultured members of the Polish gentry. That is why they bring with them to the Duma feelings of religious and racial hatred which unhappily sometimes find expression in the legislation of that body. ”

“ There is no vacuum, no emptiness, not only in the world of physical things but also in the world of morals. As long as there were no moral entities—by which I mean no nations conscious of themselves—as long as there were no moral entities in the world of the enslaved rayáh in Turkey, there was also no vacuum. ”

“ Too much of the past surviving in the present makes one feel uneasy. Of course, it would be unjust not to mention that there are many excellent legislators amongst the Councillors, men of profound knowledge and very large experience, perfectly acquainted with the technicalities of legislation. But there is one circumstance which prevents them from being able to express their mind freely and independently and makes them bow to the average standard of the assembly. ”

“ Why should you, chiefly a Continental and Asiatic power, whose principal interest lies, according to us Germans, in the Far East, why should you fight for British predominance on the seas?"
Well, ladies and gentlemen, what is the best means to parry and to refute such arguments, based chiefly on the idea of the incongruity of interest between the allies? ”

“ The Octobrists are chiefly the party of former bureaucrats and functionaries; by their previous avocations they are much better prepared for legislative work, and at the same time they are much more subservient to the Government, whilst both the Nationalists and the Right group include more democratic elements—peasants and priests together with the gentry, and are less ready to be led and less prepared to lead in matters of politics. ”

“ Nothing short of extermination can change the state of national feeling, and the task of diplomatic wisdom is quite plain and simple if it does not permit itself to be guided by feelings of hatred or revenge. ”

“ The Octobrists claim to be constitutionalists. But the Nationalists and particularly the Right group are unwilling to admit that autocracy has ever been limited by the constitution, and their extreme wing even strives for the restoration, if necessary by violent means, of the autocratic form of government which existed previous to the October manifesto. ”

“ He wishes to become a member of a political community of his own nation, which shall have nothing to do with the Turk. That power could not redress their grievances, because the existence of that power in itself is the greatest of their grievances, the root and cause of all lesser grievances. ”

“ Thus six groups of electors meet in the general assembly of the province, and they elect members of the Duma from their majority, which chiefly consists of landlords and capitalists, sometimes with the addition of small landowners and middle-class citizens. The influential group of large landed proprietors and capitalists, before electing members of their own class, is obliged to elect, one peasant and one working-man member from each province. ”

“ Serbia and Greece, having become masters of Macedonia, began by very summary means to assimilate the local population. Bulgaria grew impatient to conclude peace with Turkey in order to turn against the allies herself. Serbia and Greece answered by concluding a treaty of alliance on May 29, 1913, against Bulgaria, in order to defend their booty. As the treaty of March 13, 1912, provided, in case of conflict between the allies, for arbitration by the Tsar, Russia made an attempt to convoke the quarrelling allies before her tribunal in Petrograd. ”

“ On October 13, the allied Balkan states formally demanded Turkey's consent to the autonomy of the European vilayets, redivided according to nationality, and on October 17 Turkey replied by declaring war on Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece, Montenegro having been at war since October 9.
Nobody expected at the time a decisive victory for the allies, and thus it was easy for Russia, England, and France to persuade Austria-Hungary to let the Balkan states fight it out by themselves. Austria confidently expected that the Balkan states would be beaten by the Turks. ”

“ Thus for instance one-fifth of a million of landed gentry have the right to choose 2594 electors, one-half million of wealthy citizens choose 788 electors, eight millions of the middle class choose only 590 electors, twelve millions of working-men choose 112 electors, seventy million peasants choose 1168. It works out at one elector for every 230 of the landed gentry, for every thousand wealthy citizens, for every fifteen thousand middle-class citizens, for every sixty thousand peasants, and for every 125,000 working-men. ”

“ You see from this plan that in order to become an elector in that assembly one must pass through different stages of election, and the more democratic the voter is, the more stages have to be passed. The peasants choose their electors in the village, these electors are sent to the townships, in the township they elect to the district the second degree electors, who in the district choose the third degree electors, who finally go to the provincial assembly and elect members for the Duma from the province. ”

“ If the partition of Christian populations in the European provinces of Turkey had been made according to the treaty of March 13, 1912, and in accordance with the actual ethnographic frontiers, the Balkan League would have been kept in existence and Austria-Hungary would not have dared, would not even have thought of sending her ultimatum to Serbia. ”

“ I shall leave out the Polish deputies, of whom in the third Duma 82 per cent, were nobles. The Poles, whatever their views on social questions, belong to the opposition, because the Government would not yield to them on the matter which chiefly interests them, i.e. the future organisation of Poland. But let me draw your attention to three groups—the Octobrists, named from the manifesto which granted the constitution in October, 1905, the Nationalists, and the "Rights." In these three groups, the landed nobility form 57, 48, and 44 per cent, respectively ”

“ The east is the only region in the world which is not yet appropriated by any one of the expanding nations. If Germany does not let slip her chance, but puts it into her pocket before the Cossacks can dip their hands into it, she will soon have the best share in the partition of the world. As soon as some thousand armed German colonists begin to till the splendid soil, the fate of near Asia will be in the hands of the Emperor. ”

“ But if you should think that with all these restraints, which are intended to hedge round and prevent the free play of our young representative institutions, we are driven to something like despair of their future development, you would be very much mistaken. ”

“ In February, 1897, the Emperor Francis Joseph visited St Petersburg, and an agreement on Balkan affairs was concluded between Russia and Austria-Hungary on the basis of a partition of the Balkan peninsula into two spheres of influence—the western, including control over Servia, Macedonia, and Albania, and the eastern, where Russia was to control Bulgaria and European Turkey. ”

“ Thus, for the towns these are: (1) wealthy capitalists, (2) the middle class of citizens, (3) the working classes; and, for the country districts, (1) the large landed proprietors, (2) small landed proprietors, (3) the peasants of the Russian communities. The vote, except in six large cities like Petrograd, Moscow, Kiev, Odessa and so on, is not recorded by the constituencies themselves but by special electors chosen by the constituencies. The number of electors given to the various constituencies varies in opposite proportion to the number of the population. ”

“ Siberia, on the other side of the Urals, has always belonged to the Cadet Party, and the Caucasus has always been represented by Socialists. On the other hand, Central Russia is represented in the Duma mainly by the parties of the landed gentry, chiefly by Octobrists. ”

“ But as our historical life began late and develops quickly, one is startled to see under the peaceful roof of the Marinsky Palace men and names which remind one of political standards long since doomed to oblivion, and of political experiments proved inadequate by painful failures. ”

“ But if we call a Bulgarian an Ottoman subject, it means that he is the member of a body which is held in bondage by the body of which the Ottoman Sultan is the head, and he is also subject to all the lesser Turks as his daily oppressors. As far as the Turks themselves are concerned, the Turkish Government is a 'government,' i.e. ”

“ Then—and this is the chief point—the political centre of gravity was transferred from the democratic groups of population to the higher social classes which were
believed to be more reliable. Look at the figures which show the social composition of the Duma before and after 1907. These two sets of figures explain everything. You see that in the first two Dumas the relative majority of 43 per cent, was composed of peasants, but that 51 per cent.—that is to say an absolute majority—consisted of the landed gentry in the second two Dumas. ”

“ And I may say that the Russian system is much worse than the Austrian. The system of Russian representation is purely artificial and depends entirely on the Government. For voting purposes the population is distributed into separate groups, called "curias." ”