RUSSIA i I27 



respect surprised those persons who thought the Russification policy of the old bureau- 

 cratic regime would disappear with the establishment of representative institutions. 



Against these denationalising forces the Government brought forward several bills, 



such as the introduction of Russian zemstvos or County Councils into the six western 



provinces, the separation of the Holm district from Liublin, and its with- 



introduction drawal from under Polish law, the purchase of the Warsaw- Vienna Railway 



nto western by tne State, and special Russian legislation for Finland. A characteristic 



provinces. in this connection was an order of the Minister of Ways of Communication 



prohibiting the employment of more than 10 per cent of men of non-Russian 



race on the Government railways. Bills were also introduced for giving zemstvos to 



Siberia, the Baltic Provinces, and the Don Cossack territory. 



The introduction of zemstvos into the western provinces brought on a serious Minis- 

 terial crisis in 1911. The measure was calculated indirectly to give the Russian peasant 

 element in the provinces in question a preponderance of representation over 

 Ministerial the Polish land proprietors, who had hitherto elected only Poles to sit in the 

 crisis in 1911. State Council at St. Petersburg. With this in view, the new zemstvos were 

 to be elected by separate national curias or colleges. The Prime Minister, 

 M. Stolypin, explained the measure in a speech to the Duma, and that assembly passed 

 it on June n, 1910. Very strong opposition, however, was made to parts of it in the 

 State Council, especially to the projected electoral curias, and in March 1911, in spite of 

 Stolypin's appeals for urgency, the upper chamber, after much debating, threw out the 

 bill altogether. A serious political crisis at once ensued. Stolypin tendered his resigna- 

 tion, which the Tsar declined to accept. Extraordinary means were then resorted to in 

 order to accomplish the desired end. On March 27th an Imperial ukaz appeared, which 

 suspended the sittings of both legislative chambers for three days. Besides this, two 

 members of the State Council, Durnovo and Trepov, who, it was alleged, had used un- 

 fair means to instigate the opposition, were sent into retirement. The Government then 

 obtained the issue of another Imperial ukaz, whereby the establishment of zemstvos 

 in the six provinces was decreed under article 87 of the Fundamental Laws, which en- 

 ables the Crown to legislate independently when the two chambers are not in session. 

 The only obligation was to obtain the subsequent consent of the legislature to the ac- 

 complished fact, which was not difficult after removal of the most dangerous opponents 

 from the State Council. This arbitrary proceeding produced a sharp conflict between 

 the Government and the Duma and Council as soon as the two houses resumed their 

 sittings. Both chambers for the first time sank their differences and united in vehement- 

 ly denouncing the illegal action of the Government, although the Duma had actually 

 voted for the law in question. As a demonstration, M. Goochkov, the President of the 

 Duma, resigned his post, and was succeeded by M. Rodzianko. All factions in the 

 Duma, except the Nationalists, combined in an effort to overthrow Stolypin, and passed 

 a vote of censure. But the man who had not flinched at his post in 1906 when a bomb 

 exploded in the very midst of his own household was not to be intimidated by the wrath 

 of the Duma, especially now that the Emperor's confidence was secured. 



The friendliness created between the State Council and the Duma by this incident 

 did not last long. In the autumn of 1911 the old friction between them was renewed, 

 and the peasant deputies of the Duma made a pilgrimage to the Ministers and other 

 influential personages to complain of the State Council's neglect of measures affecting 

 their class in particular. They declared that they could not face their electors " empty 

 handed " when they returned home to their native villages. 



Meanwhile the Premier Stolypin fell a victim to the perilous double game so often 

 played by members of the Russian Secret Police and their agents among the revolu- 

 tionary spies. As a gala performance on September 14, 1911 in the theatre 

 a t Kiev, in the presence of the Emperor and the Imperial family, Stolypin 

 was fatally wounded by two revolver shots fired by a Jew named Mordka 

 Bogrov, who at one and the same time was an agent of the Okhrana, or Secret Political 

 Police, and a member of the party of revolutionary terror. He succumbed to his wounds 



