122 



The Review of Reviews. 



August 1, 1900 



forty minutes' discourse from Count Witte, drew up 

 its own Address to the Throne. Three days later 

 the Vice-Admiral Commander of the Port of St. 

 Petersburg was murdered and a Police Captain at 

 Warsaw was blown to bits. 



The Russia being unmuzzled at last, 



Demands gave tongue — with a vengeance. 

 of The Duma at once entered upon the 



The Duma. j^gj^ ^f arraigning the old regime 

 and of formulating the demands of its constituents. 

 After a series of speeches monotonouslv uniform in 

 their tone and temper and mode of expression, they 

 voted with unanimity an Address to the. Throne, 

 which demanded (i) a complete and immediate 

 amnesty for all persons accused of political, social, 

 or agrarian offences, including assassins and incen- 

 diaries, but not including officials guilty of crimes 

 against the people ; (2) the concession of universal 

 adult suffrage for all men and women throughout 

 the Empire ; (3) the abolition of the autocratic 

 regime, and the establishment of Constitutional 

 Government, with Ministers chosen by the majoritv 

 of the Duma ; (4) the abolition of the Council of the 

 Empire: (5) the expropriation of the Crown and 

 Church lands, and those of private landowners. 

 There were other demands, but these will suffice. 

 The curious thing is that the Duma itself and the 

 Times, of all papers in the world, were amazed at the 

 moderation of the Address ! The President of the 

 Duma expected to be allowed to deliver the address 

 to the Tsar in person. But the Tsar preferring to 

 receive it in the ordinary way, the Duma decided to 

 ignore the rebuff and to apply itself to business. It 

 naturally began with the Agrarian Bill, which it is 

 still debating. Its temper is explosive, but so far 

 the Constitutional Democrats, of whom Professor 

 Miliukoff — himself outside the Duma — is the leading 

 spirit, have the upper hand. They promise the 

 peasantrs the land, and the peasant deputies, manv of 

 whom say they will be killed by their constituents 

 if they return without it, support them in their de- 

 mand for constitutional reforms for which the 

 peasant cares little. 



The Tsar opened the Duma on 



The Tsar's May loth. The date upon which 



Dilemma. he will dissolve it is as vet unknown. 



But unless all signs mislead that 

 date cannot be very far distant. Before these lines 

 meet the eye of the reader General Trepoff may be 

 Military Dictator of the Russian Empire. It will be 

 no solution, rather perhaps an aggravation of the 

 crisis. For in very truth the crisis in Russia is in- 

 soluble. The Tsar might venture to break with his 

 courtiers and boldly summon Professor Miliukoff to 

 form a Ministry from among the leaders of the 

 Duma. If he did, he would have to face the im- 

 mediate unconditional release of all the murderers, 

 bandits and incendiaries, who, having been arrested 



as criminals, would be liberated as heroes. He 

 would then have to assent to the expropriation of the 

 whole of the landlords, whose estates are valued at 

 some ;^5oo,ooo,ooo, in order that their estates might 

 be di\ided among the peasants. The reduction in 

 the yield of the Russian harvest resulting from so 

 colossal an act of confiscation would probably wipe 

 out the surplus grain which is sent abroad every \ear 

 to pay the interest on the National Debt. Russia, 

 with her landlords driven into exile, her economic 

 output reduced by twenty or thirty millions a year, 

 her exchequer bankrupt, would then be exposed to 

 the demands of the various nationalities ■ for 

 autonomy. Professor Miliukoff and his colleagues 

 would be denounced as renegades and traitors, and 

 upon them would fall the fifll brunt of revolution.^rv 

 disappointment. They would disappear. Others 

 would take their places, to be devoured in turn by 

 the revolution, and then a strong Tsar might re- 

 establish authority and order upon the ruins of civili- 

 sation. On the other hand, it is at least conceivable 

 that m the throes of revolutionary frenzv he himself 

 might perish. It would not be very surprising if he 

 should shrink from seeking even a temporary refuge 

 from such risks by dissolving the Duma and making 

 General Trepoff Dictator. 



That which renders the Russian 

 Economic problem so absolutely insoluble is 

 Oedipus. the economic position. The peasants 

 are miserably poor. They have 

 neither capital nor education to enable them to do 

 justice to their land. Their system of tenure is fatal 

 to any real improvement of their crops. If the Tsar 

 could raise a loan of ^250,000,000, and use the 

 whole of it in im.proving the means and the method 

 of tillage, there might be a chance of success. But 

 such a loan is out of the question. The onlv pal- 

 liative of the peasants' misery which the peasants 

 can conceive as possible is the appropriation of the 

 estates, first of the Crown, then of the ' Churchy 

 thirdly of the landlords, and ultimately of the richer 

 members of their own order. But when all these are 

 divided up it will only yield each peasant an extra 

 half acre. But that is not the worst of it. The 

 Russian peasant, according to Dr. Dillon, onlv ex- 

 tracts half as much from the soil as his landlord. 

 Land which would yield 123 bushels if cultivated 

 English or Belgian fashion, only vields 20 to 40 

 bushels under Russian methods of cultivation. This 

 low average would be still further reduced if the 

 farms now scientifically cultivated by the landlords 

 were to pass into the hands of the peasants. Hence 

 the net result of the popular palliative of confisca- 

 tion would reduce instead of increase the amount of 

 food annually raised from the soil. The distress 

 would be as great as ever, and the only relief pos- 

 sible would be the repudiation of the debt. Nor can 

 it be expected that 'peasants who have confiscated 



