The Revolution in Russia 



307 



The principal parties were, first, the 

 Octoberists, so called because they were 

 elected upon pledges to support the mani- 

 festo issued by Nicholas II in October, 

 1905, in which he promised his people a 

 constitution, a parliament, free religion, 

 free speech, and all that is meant by civil 

 and political liberty. This party was com- 

 posed chiefly of business and professional 

 men from the great cities, land-owners, 

 and men of large affairs. Their numbers 

 were limited, and they came nearer than 

 any other class to support the govern- 

 ment. Stolypin, the present Prime Minis- 

 ter, was one of the leaders of the October- 

 ist party. His brother is still the secre- 

 tary of its executive committee and one 

 of the editors of its newspaper organ. 

 Generally speaking, the Octoberists ad- 

 vocated a limited monarchy similar to 

 Germany, and a broad, liberal system of 

 education. They demanded a reorganiza- 

 tion of the entire government, the reform 

 of the judiciary, and almost universal suf- 

 frage. 



The Constitutional Democrats in their 

 platform demanded all this and more, in- 

 cluding a ministry responsible to the par- 

 liament rather than to the Czar. They 

 would be satisfied with a government like 

 that of Great Britain. 



The Constitutional Democrats con- 

 trolled the douma because they had a ma- 

 jority of its members, and if they had 

 adopted a rational and practical program 

 and carried it through, they would have 

 accomplished great things for Russia; 

 but, from the beginning, they committed 

 blunder after blunder and threw away 

 every one of the many golden opportuni- 

 ties that were offered them. They should 

 have shown some gratitude to the Czar 

 for the constitution he had given them 

 and for other concessions he had made, 

 and encouraged him to make more; but, 

 instead of adopting a conciliatory policy, 

 they bullied his ministers and accused him 

 of insincerity. In order to avoid contro- 

 versies among themselves they made con- 

 cessions to the socialists and revolution- 

 ists and allowed the most radical mem- 

 bers of those parties to control the pro- 



ceedings of the douma. Their generosity 

 was suicidal. They seemed to think that 

 they must present a solid front to the 

 autocracy. They sacrificed everything 

 for the sake of unanimity and loaded 

 down their program with wild and im- 

 practicable propositions. It was a pitiful 

 display of incapacity. When the leaders 

 were criticised for yielding to the radicals, 

 they would explain that the fundamental 

 principles of their doctrine was freedom 

 of thought and freedom of speech, and 

 what right had they to object to the opin- 

 ions of a fellow-being? No such Utopian 

 policy was ever known in a legislative 

 body before. No such generosity was 

 ever extended before by one political 

 party to another, and it not only impaired 

 the usefulness of the "Cadets," as the 

 Constitutional Democrats were called, for 

 short, but proved their destruction. 



The Social Democrats were next in 

 numbers, and their platform was purely 

 socialistic, based upon the theory that dif- 

 ferences in wealth and station are wrong, 

 and that all authority and all law are vio- 

 lations of the rights of man. They want 

 a republic in Russia. So do the Social 

 Revolutionists, who would accomplish the 

 same thing by violence and are respon- 

 sible for the bomb-throwing, the assassi- 

 nations, the mutinies, the destruction of 

 property valued at hundreds of millions of 

 dollars, and other crimes against indi- 

 viduals and society in carrying on their 

 propaganda. The members of this party 

 defy all law ; they trample upon all rights. 

 They are vindictive, cruel, and merciless. 

 They are anarchists, nihilists, and terror- 

 ists, but are always willing to die with 

 their victims. The nerve and stolidity of 

 the Russian revolutionists were never sur- 

 passed by any human beings. They do 

 not seem to have the slightest fear of 

 death and are utterly indifferent to dan- 

 ger. Their boldness is amazing. Very 

 few bomb-throwers have escaped alive, 

 and no member of the fighting group of 

 the Social Revolutionist party has broken 

 down or even faltered in the presence of 

 the hangman. 



