Russian Federation

“ Striving at the same time to organize a free and voluntary, and thereby also a complete and strong, union among the toiling classes of all the Russian nations, the Constituent Assembly limits itself to outlining the basis of the federation of Russian Soviet Republics, leaving to the people, to the workers and soldiers, to decide for themselves, in their own Soviet meetings, if they are willing, and on what conditions they prefer, to join the federated government and other federations of Soviet enterprise. ”

“ The Russian Federation shall guarantee to all peoples living in the territories of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol city of federal importance, the right to preserve their native language and to create conditions for its study and development. ”

“ This is what happens to cabinet ministers in Russia, and will continue until they succeed in forming a government responsible only to the electorate, and not a slave to the Council of Workmen’s and Soldiers’ Delegates. Of course, the simile is grossly unfair to the American Federation of Labor. Our organized labor men are the most intelligent working people in the community, and most of them have had a long experience in citizenship. Above all, their loyalty, as a body, has been amply demonstrated. ”

“ The State in Russia has always been a self-sufficing entity, which claimed the services of everybody, without owing in return anything to anybody. And this still remains to-day the fundamental principle wherein Russian public law differs from constitutional law. ”

“ Russia is a great Power, as England is, and in treating with her you must consider that the Russian Government has to consult its own dignity, its own interests, and public opinion, just as much at least as the Government of this country. ”

“ The new government was recognized by the United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy. It looked as if the revolution had established a free government for Russia and that thenceforth, as a democratic nation, she would fight better than ever by the side of her allies. In all the Russian provinces, elections were called for choosing delegates to an assembly that should make a new constitution for Russia. ”

“ The first Russian Revolution, therefore, turned Russia into a debating society and a political scramble. The liberal forces of the country, unaccustomed to action or responsibility, set up a clamorous discussion whether Russia was to be a constitutional monarchy, a liberal republic, a socialist republic, or what not. ”

“ It was realised by81 all that Russia is indeed advancing, that the short-sighted autocratic government is giving way to the finest ideals of democracy, and that Russia is an ally worthy of the most ardent lover of liberty. ”

“ POLITICAL SITUATION The Soviet form of government is firmly established. Perhaps the most striking fact in Russia today is the general support which is given the government by the people in spite of their starvation. Indeed, the people lay the blame for their distress wholly on the blockade and on the governments which maintain it. The Soviet form of government seems to have become to the Russian people the symbol of their revolution. ”

“ In the past few years, we have strengthened our state and public institutions, the basics of Russian federalism, and we have made progress in regional development, in resolving economic and social tasks. ”

“ Government.—The so-called Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic is nominally governed by a constitution adopted by the Fifth All-Russian Soviet Congress in July, 1918. According to the terms of this constitution Russia is a republic of Soviets of workers, soldiers, and peasant delegates, and the central and local authority is vested in these Soviets. Private property in land is abolished, all land being common property of the people. The state owns all factories, mines, railways, and other means of production and transport. ”

“ The Russian Republic is a free Socialist society of all the working people of Russia. The entire power, within the boundaries of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic, belongs to all the working people of Russia, united in urban and rural Soviets.... ”

“ The shepherd of the Caucasus, the Cossack from the Urals and the fisherman from the Yenisei can sit together in the All-Russian Assembly, and know that the laws, whose principles they approve, are not steel bands, too loose for one and throttling another, but are instruments which each Soviet can fashion out in its own way for the special needs of its own community. ”

“ The concord and union of the Tsar and the people are a great moral force, which has created Russia in the course of centuries by protecting her from all misfortunes and all attacks, and has constituted up to the present time a pledge of unity, independence, integrity, material well-being, and intellectual development. ”

“ There is no question but that the present provisional government in Russia is composed of the most far-seeing and patriotic men of the nation. Perhaps no revolution in history has produced a finer group of patriots than this Russian twelve; but we in America must not expect the impossible, even from these distinguished and highly intelligent gentlemen. ”

“ The peoples of Russia will express their will in the Constitutional convention which is to be called within a short time upon the basis of universal, equal, direct, and secret suffrage. And now it may already be said with certainty in advance that the democratic republic will triumph in Russia. The Russian people is in possession of complete political liberty. Now it can say an authoritative word about the internal self-government of the country and about its foreign policy. ”

“ In view, too, of many words and acts of the present Emperor, it is not too much to hope, that, ere many years, Russia will become a constitutional monarchy.
So shall Russia be made a power before which all other European powers shall be pigmies.
Before the close of the year in which we now stand, there is to be celebrated at Nijnii-Novogorod the thousandth anniversary of the founding of Russia. Then is to rise above the domes and spires of that famed old capital a monument to the heroes of Russian civilization. ”

“ Objectives of the Collective Administration of Economic Rights 1.Organizations for the collective administration of the economic rights of authors, performers, phonogram producers and other owners of copyright or neighboring rights may be created for the exercise of the economic rights of those persons or entities in cases where the individual exercise thereof is hampered by difficulties of a practical nature (as with public performance, including on radio and television, the reproduction of the work by means of a mechanical, magnetic or other recording, reprographic reproduction, etc.) ”

“ Permanent peace seemed to be assured, especially as Germany, up to the time of her ultimatum of July 31st, 1914, remained strictly loyal to the interests of autocracy in Russia, and conserved the sympathies of all ultra-reactionary elements. But Russia is a great state whose enormous territory and one hundred and eighty millions of people have other and more vital interests. ”

“ The soviets, or councils of soldiers’ and workmen’s delegates, which have spread like wildfire throughout the country, are the nearest thing to a government that Russia has known since the very early days of the revolution. ”

“ On March 27 the Provisional Government published its manifesto to the citizens of Russia. The Russian democracy attaches great significance to this act of the Provisional Government, and sees in it an important step towards the realisation of democratic principles in the realm of foreign politics. The Soviets will energetically support every step of the Provisional Government in this direction, and they summon all peoples, whether of the Allied countries or of those of war with Russia, to bring pressure to bear on their Governments for the repudiation of all aims of conquest. ”

“ On a much greater scale than the expansion of France was the expansion of the already vast Russian Empire during this period. The history of Russia in the nineteenth century is made up of a series of alternations between a regime of comparative liberalism, when the interest of government and people was chiefly turned towards the west, and a regime of reaction, when the government endeavoured to pursue what was called a 'national' or purely Russian policy, and to exclude all Western influences. ”

“ A parliamentary governed, democratic republic was the most sanguine prediction for Russia. More cautious ones, having greater bourgeois sympathies for such a government, predicted a constitutional monarchy—a la England—for Russia, and no one dared to dream of something entirely new, something outside the beaten paths of theory, logical conclusions of history, laws of economic development, etc., as set forth by the high moguls of knowledge, socialist savants and prognosticians of social movements. ”

“ The government of Russia, as the world knows, is an autocracy. All power is vested in the emperor, and all authority emanates from him. Being an autocracy, Russia has, of course, no legislative body, such as is now a part of the government of nearly every civilized country on the globe. ”

“ There is no doubt that, if unmistakable public opinion in Russia should call for this great change, it would be made. It remains to be ascertained if a majority of her people really want those constitutional forms for which the heart of civilized man everywhere is supposed to yearn. If so, Russia, fortunately, has the machinery at hand for the gratification of her longings. ”

“ The people of Russia are laboring to-day to establish the system of government under which they shall live. Their task is one of unparalleled difficulty, and should not be further complicated by the existence of misapprehensions among the Russian people or throughout the world. Therefore, the representatives of the associated powers, now sitting in the conference of Paris, have determined to state publicly what they had in mind to say through their delegates to Prince's Island concerning the policies which govern their relations with the Russian people. ”

“ The Russian Empire can, and must, draw its strength from the complete union of all the nationalities inhabiting Russia, and only by the placing of all citizens upon an equal footing will the power of Russia become indestructible. ”

“ In November and December in Petrograd there were All-Russian Congresses of Soviets of Soldiers’, Workers’, and Peasants’ Deputies. These Congresses transferred all the authority in the different localities into the hands of the Soviets, i.e., into the hands of men elected by the People. From now on there must be in Russia no rulers or functionaries who command the People from above and drive them. The People create the authority themselves. A General has no more rights than a soldier. ”

“ A Russian feels himself at home everywhere within Russia; and, in a political sense, this rambling disposition of the people, and the close intercourse between the inhabitants of the various provinces to which it leads, contributes to knit a closer bond of union between the people, and to arouse and maintain a national policy and a patriotic love of country. ”

“ It is difficult to imagine how the Russian empire as it now is, from Poland to eastern-most Siberia, could be kept together and governed by anything else than an autocratic centralization of power, a constantly self-asserting and directing central authority with a tremendous organization of force behind it. ”

“ The highest authority in the state is the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which consists of representatives of town Soviets, on the basis of one delegate for each 25,000 electors, and a provincial council of Soviets on a basis of one delegate for each 125,000 inhabitants. ”

“ The result is that in Russia we have the organization of local institutions which give self-government in the narrow sense of the word—i.e., the right of the people to see to the satisfaction of their local economic needs. ”

“ The Constitution for which they will work will be that very Soviet Constitution which is now in abeyance, and the democracy which they associate with it will be that form of democracy which were it to be accurately observed in the present state of Russia, that Constitution would provide. ”

“ It is evident that Russia has a great future if this view of self-government is gradually carried upwards. The right beginning in constitutional government, surely, is in the family, [Pg 63] for there we find the social unit. A state is not a collection or aggregate of individuals, but of families, and all history shows us that the greatness or insignificance of a country has always been determined by the condition of its homes and the character of its family life. ”