5^4 



The Review of Reviews. 



December 1, 1906. 



lines, all aiming directly at the improvement of the 

 peasants' economic position. First of all I would, 

 \vhere\er practical, increase the peasants' holding. 

 This could be done without confiscation and without 

 any revolutionary measures. There are in Russia 

 immense areas which are derelict. The owners have 

 become bankrupt or have no longer the means to 

 cultivate them. I would, as a beginning, tate over 

 all land not in cultivation from these causes and 

 divide it up among the peasants in need of land. 

 There are also other estates which are at the dis- 

 posal of the Government. In this way I would par- 

 tially satisfy the hunger of the peasants for the land. 

 But that is only one of my proposals. My second 

 plan is to facilitate to the uttermost the redistribu- 

 tion of the population. There are districts where 

 the population is congested — ^too many men on each 

 square mile. There are other districts which suffer 

 from precisely the opposite malady — too many 

 squar,- miles to the man. At present there are all 

 kinds of difficulties in the way of redressing these 

 inequalities by a process of exchange. I would fa- 

 cilitate them by removing all legal obstacles, and by 

 giving free transport from the congested areas to the 

 sparsely inhabited districts. In the third place, I 

 would use the Land Bank — ^which in Russia, you 

 know, is a political rather than an economic institu- 

 tion — as an agencv for making advances to the pea- 

 sants to furnish them with the appliances, mechani- 

 cal and animal, which they need if they are to cul- 

 tivate the soil to any good purpose. By these three 

 measures I feel assured that it would be possible to 

 remove so much of the discontent among the pea- 

 sants that the agrarian question would be reduced to 

 manageable proportions." 



It is worth recalling the fact that this conversation 

 took place twelve months ago, when Russia was ap- 

 parently quite tranquil, before the railway strike. 



" So much for the agrarian problem. Until that 

 is settled there can be no real solution of the 

 crisis. Legislation on the lines I have laid down 

 is being elaborated, and when once the peasant is 

 satisfied the revolutionarv crisis ceases to be mena- 

 cing." 



(2) THE IXDrSTEIAL CEISIS. 



" Now,'' said I, " after the peasants the workmen. 

 What of them?'' 



" In the first place, remember," said General Tre- 

 poff, '■ that the workman does not cease to be a pea- 

 sant because he comes to the town to seek employ- 

 ment. But it is true that the economic position of 

 the artisan in the great centres of industry leaves 

 much to be desired. He is too much at the mercy 

 of his employers, who are arbitrary, both in fixing 

 the conditions of employment and still more in the 

 exercise of the right of dismissal. It is the duty 

 of the Government to protect the workman against 

 the tyranny and injustice of the capitalist. That 

 was the object which I kept constantly before me 



when I was at the head of the police of Moscow. 

 You have heard the name of Zubaloff?" 



I admitted that I had heard it. although I did not 

 add that I had usually heard it coupled with fierce 

 denunciations of himself. 



■ The system carried out by Zubaloff, in conjunc- 

 tion, and indeed at the suggestion of myself, was 

 an attempt to raise the working classes of Moscow 

 in the social scale. We sought our end in three 

 w^ays. First, we encouraged the workmen to form 

 trades unions for self-protection and for the promo- 

 tion of their own economic interests ; secondly, we 

 organised a system of lectures on economic subjects 

 by competent speakers ; and thirdly, we set on foot 

 a wide distribution of cheap and wholesome literature. 

 We sought to encourage self-reliance, to develop in- 

 telligence, and to promote thrift." 



•■ With what result ?" I asked, wishing to hear from 

 the General's own lips what was the official estimate 

 of the counter-revolutionary propaganda set on foot 

 under police patronage in the old Russian capital. 



'■ With the verv best results," he replied. '" Before 

 I set on foot the Zubaloff system Moscow was seeth- 

 ing with discontent. Under my regime the work- 

 man realised that he commanded the sympathies of 

 the Government, and that he could depend upon us 

 to defend him from the oppression of his employer. 

 As a result, Moscow became tranquil. Once a hot- 

 bed of discontent, it is now peaceful, ptosperous and 

 contented." 



I confess that this was a little too much for me. 

 I had not then visited Moscow, but I had heard 

 quite enough to convince me that the General's op- 

 timistic report was so far from the truth of things 

 that I had to ask myself whether it was possible he 

 could believe the assurances he showered upon me 

 with so lavish a hand. A week later when I visited 

 Moscow I found the city seething with revolutionary- 

 discontent. The bakers were on strike; there had 

 been open collisions between the troops and the 

 strikers. The compositors were on the eve of strik- 

 ing, and in another month the great railway strike 

 broke out, with Moscow as its storm-centre. But I 

 had come to listen to General Trepoff, not to argue 

 with him ; so I asked whether he proposed to extend 

 the Zubaloff sy.stem to St. Petersburg. 



•• Xo,'' said he, " not yet. The excitement occa- 

 sioned by the disturbance of January has not yet 

 subsided, and until it is over these ameliorative mea- 

 sures must remain in abeyance so far as St. Peters- 

 burg is concerned. But the principle is right, and 

 its application is merely a matter of time and of 

 opportunit\". 



(3) EDUCATION. 



•• We now come," said General Trepoff, " to the 

 educational problem. This may be divided into three 

 sections — elementary, secondary, and University edu- 

 cation. There is no doubt that in the matter of 

 elementarv education Russia has lagged far behind. 



