62 The National Geographic Magazine 



A little later a memorandum was pre- 

 sented to the Czar recommending that 

 their old powers should be restored to 

 the zemstvos, that they should be ar- 

 ranged in groups, and that these groups 

 should elect delegates to a central or 

 national zemstvo. 



The effect of these various demonstra- 

 tions was seen when in February, 1903, 

 the Czar issued a manifesto holding out 

 high promise. He declared that the fun- 

 damental principle of property in com- 

 mon must be held inviolable, but he 

 said that relief for the individual must 

 be found, and added : "A reform is to 

 be effected by local representatives in 

 provincial government and district ad- 

 ministration." These assurances were 

 neutralized when the influence of Witte 

 waned and the reactionary Plehve 

 gained more power ; but they and the 

 manifestations which led to them were 

 the forerunners of the more impressive 

 demonstrations that have recently been 

 witnessed. The meeting of the zemstvo 

 presidents at St Petersburg in Novem- 

 ber last was in many respects the most 

 remarkable assemblage in Russian his- 

 tory. It was almost like a states gen- 

 eral. It put forth a declaration of prin- 

 ciples which is equivalent to a demand 

 for a national representative assembly 

 with political voice and rights and with 

 a direct advisory part in legislation and 

 government. It plainly declared that 

 there is an estrangement between the 

 government and the people ; that it is 

 due to fear of popular initiative, and 

 that it has led to great wrongs in the 

 arbitrary bureaucratic system which has 

 come between the throne and its sub- 

 jects. It calls for the overthrow of this 

 centralized administration of local af- 

 fairs ; for independent legal tribunals 

 for the protection of personal rights ; 

 for free speech, free press, and free con- 

 science ; for equal civil and political 

 rights for peasants; for the greater inde- 

 pendence and extension of the zemtsvo 

 institutions, and for national represen- 



tation through an elective body which 

 shall participate in legislation. 



These demands are unprecedented in 

 Russia, and their concession would in- 

 augurate a revolutionary change. It 

 was not to be expected that they would 

 all be granted at once. The ukase 

 which the Czar has issued in response 

 to this call marks a large advance. It 

 charges the Council of Ministers with 

 the duty of framing measures to secure 

 equal rights to the peasants ; to safe- 

 guard law and unify judicial procedure 

 for the protection of personal rights ; to 

 assure a more independent and complete 

 administration of local affairs through 

 local institutions ; to deal with state in- 

 surance for workmen ; to reduce the dis- 

 cretionary authority which has bred the 

 administrative process; to promote larger 

 religious toleration, and to provide 

 greater freedom of the press. This is a 

 long step in liberalism. It does not es- 

 tablish representative institutions ; it 

 does not provide for elementary educa- 

 tion ; but it does look toward a larger 

 local control of local affairs, toward the 

 relief of the peasants from the rigorous 

 conditions which surround them, and 

 toward the removal of the arbitrary re- 

 strictions which now burden the people; 

 and the ukase itself distinctly treats 

 these reforms as the beginning of "a 

 series of great internal changes impend- 

 ing in the early future." 



In considering the character, trend, 

 and methods of these changes the pecu- 

 liar conditions of Russia must ever be re- 

 membered . Whatever advance has been 

 made there upto this time has come from 

 the top and not from the bottom. The 

 great mass of the people are simple, 

 illiterate, and inert. The disturbances 

 which have occurred from time to time 

 have been mostly on the surface. The 

 great deeps have not been moved, though 

 the caldron is now seething as never 

 before. The new industrial conditions 

 of recent years, to which reference has 

 been made, have produced a class of 



