Mark Villchur

“ There are no professional politicians in Russia. Politics is considered a sacred and highly responsible social service, which usually requires willingness to make great personal sacrifices. It is probably this peculiarity of Russian political life that has added so much to the personal integrity of the Russian politician. The short parliamentary history of Russia is already replete with names of which any European or American Parliament would be proud. ”

“ The whole history of Russia's march onward represents a succession of bitter struggles between the old Muscovite Russia and the new social forces, the latter developing under the benign influence of the Western civilization that poured into Russia through the "window to Europe", cut open by Peter the Great. The country has progressed constantly, despite the fact that many battles were lost by the champions of civilization. While the progressive movement usually went on by leaps, the reactionary tendencies, when triumphant, never succeeded in making more than a few backward steps at a time. ”

“ The "Europeanization of Russia" has been a process fraught with difficulties, but Russia has finally demonstrated the fact that she is just as much adapted to Europe's culture, as is any other part of the world. It is true that every reform was met with strong, and often overwhelming opposition that came, not only from the conservative authorities, but also from the social and intellectual representatives of Muscovite Russia. ”

“ Men of the type of Chomiakov, Dostoyevsky, and Soloviev, openly despised Europe's culture, which seemed to them "unchristian and unhuman." Western civilization frightened them by its formalism, its rationalism, its lack of harmonious unity between the mind and the heart. They went so far as to assert that it was Russia's national mission to save the disintegrating West from imminent spiritual and intellectual ruin. ”

“ After the stormy sixties, the Government began to build railways and telegraphs and generally to utilize the mechanical discoveries and improvements of Europe. Factories and mills sprang up near the large cities, industrial centres were created, so that to-day Russia has an army of factory and mill workers numbering over three millions. The darkest prophecies of the opponents of civilization came true. "Holy, orthodox Russia" has not only a proletariat class, but even great labor problems, just as all other countries have. ”

“ During this unfortunate period, the whole policy of the Russian State was characterized by the protection of the gentry, which was declining despite the fact that it was the object of favorable legislation during the reign of Alexander III. The growing economic power of the industrial and merchant classes, together with the educational activities of that peculiarly Russian social institution, sometimes called "the third element" but better known as the "intelligentia", almost destroyed the social importance of the decaying gentry. ”

“ They considered Stolypin a great statesman, for, besides breaking up with an iron hand the revolution of 1905, he had come forth with a well defined agrarian program, which put an end to the old and historic Russian institution,—communal land-ownership. As a result of his reforms, thousands of peasant communities were broken up, migration to towns began, and incidentally, more favorable conditions were created for the industrialization of some parts of the country. ”

“ The industrial and commercial classes in Russia are gradually gaining more and more power and prestige. The recent conventions at Moscow of the Russian manufacturers and merchants, declared in their resolutions the necessity of putting into practice the constitutional promises of the Manifesto of October 17, 1905, since they consider the constitution an indispensable basis for the development of the great natural wealth of Russia. ”

“ This extreme "right" of the Russian political allignment consists of men who, in their ideas and their point of view, are mediæval, rather than modern. They did not receive their political training in the Zemstvos, those cradles of Russian self-government and constitutionalism. ”

“ They are practically the only social group in Russia that openly despises the Constitutional Manifesto of 1905, claiming that it was forced upon Russia and the Tsar by the "traitor," Witte.
These extremists have a very long list of political "Don't's," but, as might have been expected, they have no positive, constructive program. Probably their whole political creed is summed up in their hatred of democracy and their unwillingness to give up the smallest of the privileges enjoyed by the gentry. ”

“ The gentry fear, and perhaps not without reason, that their place and importance will be usurped by these newcomers. And, in their fright, they are trying in vain to turn back the wheels of history.
In the government of Kursk, for example, a nobleman by the name of Emnich, presented to an Assembly of the Nobles a detailed report concerning the necessary reforms in Russia. In his report, he advocated the restoration of the institution of serfdom by means of a law which would forbid peasants to travel away from the place where they live. ”

“ We hear so much nowadays of the inefficiency of Russia's present social system, of her lack of ambition in the line of practical endeavor, that we are apt to overlook the really wonderful progress that Russia has made in the course of the last few decades. ”

“ But the chief effect of the reform, as far as the conservative elements were concerned, was that it made Russian gentry, the land-owning class, feel more secure in its possessions, for the safety of which they entertained grave doubts during the stormy years of the revolution. ”

“ They are even opposed to the organization of War Industrial Committees, considering their establishment an infringement upon the principles of autocracy, and the guiding position of the "leading class," the gentry.
They are frightened by the new elements in the life of Russia, which are constantly gaining prestige and power,—the traders, the manufacturers, the merchants, the bankers, the railroad-builders. ”

“ They believed that Russia needs no reforms whatever, except a further strengthening of the powers of the governors and of the local police. These extreme reactionaries, representing some of the largest land-owners among the gentry, were opposed, before the War, even to the Douma itself. They repeatedly petitioned the government for the abolition of the Douma as an institution. ”

“ Such a settlement of Russia's internal problem would, undoubtedly, serve as a great impulse toward the economic and industrial development of the country, whose limitless natural gifts are patiently awaiting industrial capital and well-organized labor. ”