72 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE THIRD DUiMA. 



What It Has Achieved. 



An article by M. Pierre Chasles in Questions Di[>lo- 

 inatiqiies of June i6 summari.ses the work of the third 

 Duma, and draws attention to the pohtical situation 

 in Russia at the present time. 



NATIONAL DEFENCES. 



The third Duma, says the writer, has done well by 

 national defence. Notwithstanding its very restricted 

 powers, it managed very cleverly to subordinate the 

 vote for military purposes to certain fixed conditions. 

 By indirect pressure it was enabled to throw over 

 the bureaucratic routine of the War Department. M. 

 Gutchkoff demanded that the power and the responsi- 

 bility should be concentrated in the Ministry, and that 

 the Grand Dukes should without further delay sur- 

 render their military functions. The result of the 

 reform is that the Russian army has largely recovered 

 itself. The Admiralty was less docile to the suggestions 

 of the Duma, and for three years the majority of the 

 Duma, firm in their claims, refused to vote the money 

 for the construction of new battleships. In 191 1, 

 however, Vice-.\dmiral Grigorovitch regained the 

 confidence of Parliament, and the necessary sum for 

 the e.xecution of the naval programme was included 

 in the ]5udget. The naval programme will not be 

 realised till about 1930, but meanwhile four Dread- 

 noughts are to be bui'lt between 1911 and 1915. The 

 Government announced that all the new ships should 

 be built in Russia, but the writer adds that in the 

 endeavour to be exclusively national Russia herself 

 may suffer by the delay which this must entail. 



POLAND AND FINLAND. 



But the third Duma has not been content to be 

 merely national. In many cases it has shown itself 

 t!) lie narrowly nationalist, and Stolypin followed the 

 impul.se of the majority. Hence we have the anti- 

 Polish and the anti-Finnish policy, which, instead of 

 uniting the different nationalities of the Empire in 

 one all-powerful whole, irritates them by sterile 

 vexations engendering weakness and division. The 

 Russian Nationalists demand that certain districts of 

 the kingdom of Poland and of the Grand Duchy of 

 iMnland should be reunited to. the Empire properly 

 so-called. Since these territories already belong to 

 Russia, though under other titles, could anything be 

 more futile than this business of Russia setting out 

 to conquer herself ? .\s M. McrkulofE recently said, 

 short-sighted politicians can be hypnotised about 

 Poland and Finland, but are lilind as to the real 

 dangers threatened in the Far East by the growing 

 infdtration of Chinese merchants in Russian territory. 



NATIONAL FINANCE. 



The condition of the national finances has been the 

 constant concern of the third Duma, and solid improve- 

 ment has been effected in the Budget, all the more 

 admirable owing to the reduced constitutional powers 

 III the Duma. A good third of the expenditure which 

 should figure in the Budget escapes parliamentary 



discussion altogether. In addition, the Government 

 itself is in no degree financially dependent on Parlia- 

 ment. If the Duma should refuse to vote the Budget, 

 that of the preceding year would be enforced. Thanks 

 to a provision, borrowed from the Japanese constitu- 

 tion, which assures to the executive a very strong 

 position, the refusal of the Budget cannot be trans- 

 formed into a means of conflict with the Ministry. 

 In 191 1 the Duma made an attempt to extend Its 

 Budgetary rights, but its efforts failed because of t';.e 

 opposition of the Upper House. Nevertheless, un !cr 

 the skilful guidance of M. Ale.xeienko, the Bud ,et 

 Commission has laboured seriously during the .a>t 

 five years. The Budgets of 1910, i9ii,and 1912 shoved 

 appreciable excess over expenditure. Not only for 

 the first time since 1888 was it possible to balance the 

 receipts and the expenditure without having recouise 

 to a loan, but increasing sums have been devoted to 

 the reduction of the National Debt. 



PEASANT PROPRIETORS. 



Further considerable grants have been made to 

 public education and agriculture. It is to the honour 

 of the third Duma that it has shown constant interest 

 in the peasant classes, and has passed important laws 

 tending to improve and raise the social life of the.'e 

 people. First, it ratified the agrarian policy of Stoly- 

 pin. In about twenty years Russian soil will, so to 

 speak, be cut up into lots and owned by individuals, 

 and the free peasant will be transformed into a 

 proprietor. The diffusion of education, especially 

 among the rural population, is also receiving attention. 

 But, oddly enough, it is not universally compulsory. 

 Why inscribe the beautiful principle of education on 

 the Statute Book if it is not to be applied compulsoriiy ? 

 It seems to be left to the towns and rural authorities to 

 declare that primary instruction shall be compulsory. 



Finally, to make of the Russian peasant a true 

 citizen some of the barriers which separate him from 

 other social classes will have to be removed. The 

 volosts, or rural cantons, for instance, are not at present 

 self-governing institutions. While they represent the 

 interests of all classes of the population, the peasants 

 alone support them. Such a flagrant injustice calls 

 for iinmediate reform. .\ reform already proposed, 

 like many others, was rejected by the Upper House. 



THE FOURTH DUMA. 



The fourth Duma, the writer concludes, will probably 

 be very much like the third. He wishes the Octobrists 

 could be sufficiently strong to form an absolute 

 majority, not only with the Nationalists as at present, 

 but on a certain number of questions with the Pro- 

 gressives. But, in spite of the Upper House and the 

 Bureaucracv, the Duma li\'cs, and is becoming more 

 and more firmly implanted among the political institu- 

 tions of Russia, When there exists a representative 

 assembly in more or less direct contact with public 

 opinion, it is inevitably a force which the most auto- 

 cratic of Governments is bound to take into account, 

 and a force to which they will have to look for support. 



