ditions of his family and the village better. The government organized the Zemstvos, which were provincial committees or assemblies whose purpose was to aid the villages by loaning money for machinery, by developing the best methods of agriculture, by teaching and advising the peasants about their stock and crops. In time, the Zemstvos also took an interest in the political affairs of the province, and they were always a factor in helping to secure a more liberal policy on the part of the government. The government itself was not altogether neglectful of the development of the people. After 1867 a partial system of elementary education was established, and many secondary schools, of both a private and a public nature, grew up. A number of universities were organized by the state, although they were always more or less under suspicion because of their liberal viewpoint. The schools were a source of a great deal of liberal agitation and, under the later Czars, they were very greatly restricted. Many students went abroad to carry on the work of liberalizing Russia, and in this work, many of the great writers of Russia played a part. Their writings which were read all over the state, kindled the spirit of revolt against the government; while, among other nations, they helped to develop sympathy for the Russian peasant and worker. In the last decade of the century, a really great leader of the nation was found in Sergius Witte, who became minister of finance in 1893. Count Witte set himself the task of creating a great industrial Russia. He built the Siberian railway, encouraged foreign capital to come to Russia, established the gold standard of coinage, strengthened the railway system in Europe, developed a colonial policy and tried, with some measure of success, to make Russia as progressive as her western sister states. Under his leadership, Russia enacted her first legislation dealing with the welfare of the workers. He was dismissed in 1903 and the government assumed a more conservative attitude. Soon after the fall of Witte, Russia found herself at war with Japan, and the suffering of the people and dissatisfaction with the war brought out all the latent discontent which had been developing for years against the government. This discontent hastened the revolution of 1905. Toward the close of the year 1904 the Czar issued an order requesting the ministers to draw up plans for reform along the lines asked by the Zemstvos delegates but he omitted to say anything about a representative assembly and it soon became clear that he proposed to maintain autocracy while moving in the direction of reform. This situation brought a renewal of the outburst of revolutionary spirit The Decree of December and in June 1905 the Czar was forced to promise to call to his assistance the representatives of the nation, while later in the year, he renewed by a published declaration his intentions to carry out far-reaching reforms along the lines previously suggested. In December 1905, a decree of universal March 1906 suffrage was issued and in March 1906 was published a decree establishing a national Duma, or congress of two houses. 1905 and of This was probably the high water point of the revolution. Almost at once such a difference of opinion arose over the congress or Duma, that the government was able to organize its policy of permitting comparatively little power to the Duma and of looking upon it merely as a consultative body. After repeated quarrels between the Czar and the first and second Dumas, the later Dumas settled down to the acceptance of the Czar's interpretation of their position. This position was maintained practically until the war of 1914. The constitutional situation was, therefore, similar to that in Germany, a "constitutional monarchy under an autocratic ruler". But "in the Duma the Russian people possessed a body that at least could speak for the nation and that contained the germ of political democracy. This was the fruit of the Russian Revolution of 1905."1 The New lution of 1917. The revolution of 1917 was the result of several forces acting at the same time although not together. The radical wing of the Socialist Revolutionary party under the leadership of Lenine The Prelude and Trotsky, had never ceased since 1904 to preach to the Revorevolution. They now preached revolt to the soldiers, they decried the war as unnecessary and as the work of the government to defeat the people, they published manifestoes saying that the defeat of the Czar's government would be of little consequence. They issued a call to Russia to turn her arms against the bourgeois governments instead of against their brothers, the proletariat, in the hostile armies; and finally both Lenine and Trotsky in exile declared that the defeat of Russia was actually desirable, since the government's defeat would mean the success of the revolutionists. These "advocates of defeat" were, however, small in numbers and in influence and were easily managed until the revolution overthrew the government. But the great revolutionary party although they supported the war with energy, nevertheless never put any faith in the government. The few years preceding the war really laid the foundations of the new revolt. "While Bolsheviki and Mensheviki wrangled and dis1 Hayes, Modern Europe, p. 485. puted, great forces were at work among the Russian people. By 1910 the terrible pall of depression and despair which had settled upon the nation as a result of the failure of the first Revolution began to break. There was a new generation of college students, youthful and optimistic spirits who were undeterred by the failure of 1905-6, confident that they were wiser and certain to succeed. Also there had been an enormous growth of working-class organizations, large numbers of unions and coöperative societies having been formed in spite of the efforts of the government. The soul of Russia was once more stirring. "The end of 1910 and the beginning of 1911 witnessed a new series of strikes, such as had not occurred since 1908. The first were students' strikes, inaugurated in support of their demand for the abolition of capital punishment. These were quickly followed by important strikes in the industrial centers for economic ends-better wages and shorter working-hours. As in the period immediately preceding the first Revolution, the industrial unrest soon manifested itself in political ways. Without any conscious leadership at all this would have been inevitable in the existing circumstances. But there was leadership. Social Democrats of both factions, and Socialists of other groups as well, moved among the workers, preaching the old, yet ever new, gospel of revolt. Political strikes followed the strikes for immediate economic ends. Throughout the latter part of 1911 and the whole of 1912 the revolutionary movement once more spread among the masses. "The year 1913 was hardly well begun when revolutionary activities assumed formidable proportions. January 9th-Russian calendar-anniversary of Bloody Sunday, was celebrated all over the country by great demonstrations which were really demonstrationstrikes. In St. Petersburg fifty-five thousand workers went outand there were literally hundreds of other smaller "strikes" of a similar nature throughout the country. In April another anniversary of the martydom of revolting workingmen was similarly celebrated in most of the industrial centers, hundreds of thousands of workers striking as a manifestation against the government. The 1st of May was celebrated as it had not been celebrated since 1905. In the various industrial cities hundreds of thousands of workmen left their work to march through the streets and hold mass meetings, and so formidable was the movement that the government was cowed and dared not attempt to suppress it by force. There was a defiant note of revolution in this great uprising of the workers. They demanded an eight-hour day and the right to organize unions and make collective bargains. In addition to these demands, they protested against the Balkan War and against militarism in general. "Had the great war not intervened, a tragic interlude in Russia's long history of struggle, the year 1914 would have been the greatest struggle for the overthrow of Czarism in all that nation's history. Whether it would have been more successful than the effort of 1905 can never be known, but it is certain that the working-class revolutionary movement was far stronger than it was nine years before. On the other hand, there would not have been the same degree of support from the other classes, for in the intervening period class lines had been more sharply drawn and the class conflict greatly intensified. Surging through the masses like a mighty tide was the spirit of revolt, manifesting itself much as it had done nine years before. All through the early months of the year the revolutionary temper grew. The workers became openly defiant and the government, held in check, doubtless, by the delicate balance of the international situation, dared not resort to force with sufficient vigor to stamp out the agitation. Mass meetings were held in spite of all regulations to the contrary; political strikes occurred in all parts of the country. In St. Petersburg and Moscow barricades were thrown up in the streets as late as July. Then the war clouds burst. A greater passion than that of revolution swept over the nation and it turned to present a united front to the external foe. "2 Feeling of Suspicion toward Govern ment. There soon arose, after the first great defeat of Russia in 1915, a feeling of suspicion that not only was there incompetence in the government but that there was actual collusion with the Germans, and men began to think that Russia was about to make peace with Germany to save herself from the liberals. This suspicion came from the like autocratic character of the two governments, from the closely-woven blood ties between the two ruling houses, and perhaps most of all from the strong and persistent German influence in Russian governmental circles. This influence persisted in marriages among government officials. It had long been noted that many Germans had wormed their way into the affairs of government by marriage with Russian women of the bureaucratic classes. Further, among the land holders many Germans were found who had married into the lands or had acquired them through official connections. This strong German influence had long been distasteful to the middle and wealthy classes in Russia, who welcomed the war as a means of destroying it. By the close of 1915, both the middle class and the proletariat or working-class were convinced that the Russian government was playing into the hands of Germany. When the Duma met in Nov2 Spargo, Bolshevism, pp. 73, 75. |