^lavcli 29, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
25 
Causes of the Russian Revolution 
By I. Shklovsky-Dioneo 
MANY years ago when I was travelling in far 
north-east Siberia I arrived at the Chooktchan 
Camp at the time when the Erema, or chief 
had just died of a loathsome disease from which 
ne had been ])ractically rotting alive for a long time. 
The Shaman, according to custom, had to discover the 
cause of the sudden " journey to the mountains," and 
he decided that it was the Erema's favourite dog 
" Botchikhar " who, the previous day, had gnawed the 
leather strap of the sacred drum. 
When a regime, long in a state of decay, falls at last, 
everybody, like the Shaman, tries to find " Botchikhar," 
and "speculation is now rife as to the cause of the fall of 
the monarchy in Russia. Was it Rasputin ? Protopopofi ? 
Pitirim ? Sturmer ? or the hysterical Tsaritza ? Which 
of them " gnawed the strap of the sacred ch-um ? " 
Of what is this revolution the outcome ? 
Conventional Buttresses 
Russia has long outgrown her Government system 
which even in past centuries had not been a success. 
The admirers of the rule now overthrown by the 
Revolution assert that the essential features of the Russian 
national type are Orthodoxy, Autocracy and Nationality ; 
this triad, they say, constitutes the buttresses of the 
Russian Empire. Now, let us see whether this is so. 
It is said that the Russian people have grown in organic 
union with the Orthodox Church, that the national char- 
acter has been formed by the Church, that Russian 
orthodoxy is one of the most distinctive features of the 
Russian national type. But an acquiantance with 
historical facts will show that Russian orthodoxy was 
rather a product than a factor of the national life. 
Orthodoxy is no longer a characteristic of popular faith. 
The pale of the Established Church ha:s been forsaken 
by all who desired some kind of living religion. " If 
everything remained unchanged within the 'true fold,' 
it was because there was no life " says Professor 
Miliyoukov, now Minister of Foreign Affairs, in his book 
Russia and Her Crisis. In no country, not even in 
America, do we see so many religious sects as in Russia. 
This proves that the ossified Orthodox Church does not 
and cannot contain within its pale the living faith of 
the Russian people. 
Twelve years ago freedom of conscience ..nj given, 
but this freedom was at once limited by Ministerial in- 
terpretation, or " explanation " as it is termed. At first 
the law of freedom of conscience " did not extend to the 
so-called dangerous sects," by which name was under- 
stood the extreme fanatical sects which were the outcome 
of ignorance and persecution, such as the skoplsi (eunuchs) 
gloukhaija iiijctovshina (death worshippers) but soon to 
the number of dangerous, that is to say, persecuted sects 
were added tlie Stundists or Baptists who have mmierous 
followers in South Russia. The religious life of the 
(Orthodox Church lias become paralysed, without a spark 
of life in its head or any of its members. The Church 
has become secularized and transformed into a State 
institution. During the last ten years the Government 
by its acts has utterly destroyed the prestige of the Chunii 
in the eyes of the Russian people. The clergy became 
the agents of the " Black Hundred " and other Govern- 
ment Societies. 'Ihe sincere and devout clergy who 
refused to join these societies were unfrocked, while 
priests known to be guilty of abominable and shameful 
crimes were rapidly advanced, regardless of the scandal 
to the faithful, so long as the promoted priests became 
good fighters in the ranks of the Black Hundred. Ill- 
educated and ignorant men were made Bishops, while good 
and worthy bishops were sent to monasteries. Thus one 
of the thrive buttresses falls into dust. 
Now let us examine the second buttress— Autocracy. 
Russian ofticial historians endeavour to show that 
autocracy is essentially a ])roduct of the Russian people 
ever since the eleventh century. But what is the reality ? 
Autocracy came into being and power at the end of the 15th 
century. It was an entirely new idea and had no precedent. 
The eminent Russian historian Kostomaroff pro\ed long 
ago that autocracy was born, not in Russia, but in Zolotain 
Orda (Golden Orda.i The Russian Autocrat assumed 
the power of the Tartar Rhan, and the new title Tsar 
is not a Russian word, but a word of Asiatic origin. 
The development of the Russian people was, for 
different reasons, very slow, ne\'ertheless in the beginning 
of the 19th century they had outgrown the autocracy 
renewed by Peter the Great. Even the Tsars realized 
that its day was over, and that the people had aright to bo 
heard. ()vera hundred years ago Alexander I. mounted 
the throne with an ardent desire to proclaim the rights of 
man to give Russia a constitution, and he tiuice failed 
in his endeavours, in 1801, i8o() and iHiq. Alexander 
drafted a constitution, but at the last moment withheld 
his consent. He had just then come under the influence 
of Metternich, who is known to have been anything but 
favourable to free institutions. Let me cpiote some 
lines from the introduction of the draft of the Constitution 
made in iSoq by order of Alexander I. by the celebrated 
statesman Speransky 
" In every epoch the form of government must corres- 
1 pond to the degree of civil enliglitenment to which the 
State has attained. Whenever the form of government 
is too slow to keep pace with the degree of enlightenment 
it is overthrown with more or less disturbance. No 
Government which does not harmonise with the spirit 
of the times can ever stand against its powerful action." 
These words are the key to recent events. Not- 
withstanding that in the beginning of the 19th century 
the monarch realized that the time of autocracy was past 
— that autocracy was strengthened by the terrible 
reaction of Nicholas I. The Crimean War showed to all 
Russia the complete bankruptcy of the old regime. 
Immediately after the Crimean War many reforms were 
inaugurated but autocracy remained as before. It con- 
tinued to be supported by the efforts of the police system, 
but while the autocracy was decaying, the Russian 
people were developing. Industrial life was growing — ■ 
a middle class appeared, and the intellectual develop- 
ment of that class was fettered by the old regime. As 
Russian life and literature developed, more and more 
distinctly covild it be seen that not one Russia existed, 
but two — the Russia of the people and official Russia. 
The one spells liberty, the other despotism. It was 
impossible to reconcile the two Russias l-e:ause 
the " anachronism " wanted all the power. 
It must be said tliat in the ranks of the bureaucracy 
there were shrewd men who saw danger, but autocracy 
did not want to listen to them, ^^'hen in December 
1904 — at Tzarskoe Selo — projects of reform were dis- 
cussed, in the hope of stemming the oncoming tide of the 
first revolution, Pobiedonostzev told the Tsar " that Russia 
would fall into sin and return to a state of barbarism if the 
Tsar were to renounce his power. Religion and morality 
would suh'er, and the law of God would be violated." 
It was such arguments as these which for a time decided 
the fate of Russia. Witte then grimly replied : " If 
it should become known that the Emperor is forbidden 
by law and religion to introduce, of his own will, 
fundamental refojms, well then, a part of the population 
will come to the conclusion that these reforms must be 
accomplished by violent means. It would be equivalent 
to an actual appeal to revolution." 
It 'it'as an appeal. On October 17th, 1905, the Russian 
people received, apparently, all that they had struggled 
for, but the promises of the Emperor were only on paper. 
Even next day jxigroms began all over Russia, the 
massacre not only of Jews, but of Christian " Intellec- 
tuals." For instance, in Tomsk, where Jews do not 
live, the Black Hundred, under the leadership of the 
police, burned a wooden theatre with 800 men who had 
assembled there to celelirate and rejoice over the Tsar's 
(hi-liis; III piessin-e on our spaee, the inslahnenl aj '• 1 he 
Golden Triau<ilc" has had to be held over this week. 
