Evolution of Russian Government 311 



In Russia the very opposite is true. 

 There almost every advance has re- 

 ceived its first impulse from the Tsar — 

 that is, the progress has begun from 

 above and worked downward. Thus, 

 for example, were brought about the 

 emancipation of the serfs and the insti- 

 tution of the zemtsvos. Peter the Great 

 was the typical Russian Tsar, though 

 built on the most majestic and colossal 

 scale. He forced his reforms upon an 

 indifferent or unwilling people. While 

 many Russians are, from one point of 

 view, enlightened and others are crudely 

 educated and correspondingly radical, 

 the fact remains that to any proposed 

 change the masses block the way ; nor 

 is it strange that the reforms in other 

 lands extorted from the rulers by the 

 people are in Russia, if they exist at all, 

 forced upon the ruled by the ruler. No 

 other process is possible among a people 

 conservative by instinct and tolerant 

 only of autocracy.* 



THE PECULIAR ATTITUDE OF THE 

 RUSSIANS TO THEIR TSAR 



In May, i8q6, as magnificent a pano- 

 rama as Europe has beheld was presented 

 at the city of Moscow. I leave to poets 

 and word-painters the description of the 

 scene. It was the coronation of the 

 Tsar. Its significance for us is found 

 not in its attendant splendor, but in its 

 enunciation throughout of the funda- 

 mental principle of Russian govern- 

 ment. Though the gorgeous rites con- 

 tinued for hours, the culmination of each 

 ceremony, whether prayer or promise or 

 benediction, was always some fresh as- 

 sertion or acknowledgment of autoc- 



* The Tsar's proclamation of religious free- 

 dom and equality, issued on April 30 and re- 

 ceived with enthusiasm by the European and 

 American world, is probably most unwelcome 

 to the great majority of his subjects. It seems 

 almost irony that this noble message of relig- 

 ious progress will especially benefit the Ras- 

 colniki, or Old Believers, the dissenters or sect 

 reactionary even for Russia and bitterly hos- 

 tile to all western influence and to all attend- 

 ant progress. 



racy. The Metropolitan of Moscow, 

 having bestowed the orb and scepter on 

 the new sovereign, concluded his prayer 

 of consecration with the words, "The 

 Lord . . . preserve with His pro- 

 tection the established rule." In the 

 profound silence the kneeling Tsar ex- 

 claimed, "Lord God of my fathers, 

 Thou hast elected me to be ruler of 

 this Thy people." Last act of all, 

 the Metropolitan of St Petersburg an- 

 nounced, ' ' God hath crowned this God- 

 given, God- adorned, most God-fearing 

 autocrat . . . Emperor of all the 

 Russias." And then, turning to the 

 Tsar, he said, ( 1 Take thyself the scepter 

 and orb of the Empire, the visible image 

 of the sole sovereignty over the people 

 given by the Most High for their gov- 

 ernment, promotion, and every desira- 

 ble well-being." The Tsar took no 

 oath of obligation like that so many 

 times repeated from the steps of our Na- 

 tional Capitol. He made no promise. 

 He simply accepted the burden placed 

 upon his shoulders. That burden is 

 " sole sovereignty over the people." 



He personifies the theory of the father 

 who never grows old and never dies, 

 and whose national family is made up 

 of children who never reach maturity 

 and are always young. A few weeks 

 ago at Tsarkoe Selo the Tsar received 

 the deputation of workmen. As they 

 talked of him in the vestibule the only 

 name by which they called him was 

 ' ' The Little Father. ' ' They were griz- 

 zly veterans of labor, horny-handed by 

 years of toil, and he a stripling, but to 

 them the little father. When ushered 

 into his presence, the first words they 

 heard from his lips were "My children . ' ' 

 Despite the difference in years. they were 

 children around their father's feet. 



That is the attitude of the Russian 

 Slavs toward their autocratic head. 

 Such an idea of governmental paternal- 

 ism is absolutely contrary to our own, 

 nor can it be appreciated or credited 

 except as one acknowledges the essen- 



