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SEVENTH SERIES
VOLUME XXXII.

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No. 3240 August 11, 1906.

CONTENTS.

FROM BEGINNING
Vol.

The First Month of the Duma, By Professor Paul Vinogradoff

CCXLX.

INDEPENDENT REVIEW 323

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"Soft Siena" and Her Children. By Rose M. Bradley
NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER 332
By M. E.
LONGMAN'S MAGAZINE 342

Wild Wheat. Chapter XVII. Through an Attic Window.
Francis (To be continued.)

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X.

The Dread of Boredom

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THE FIRST MONTH OF THE DUMA.

There has hardly ever been in history a task equal in magnitude and difficulty to that which has been placed before the first Russian Parliament. In the religious and political struggles of seventeenth-century England, the fabric of society remained solid on the whole; tendencies like those of the Levellers and of the Fifth Monarchy Men were not widespread, and not difficult to restrain. The leaders of the Puritan Government came mostly from the ranks of the same middle class which subsequently carried out the Restoration; and the fierce civil war, which at one time seemed to endanger the very existence of the country, resolved itself into a compromise under the guidance of a parliamentary oligarchy. The French Revolution produced a deeper upheaval of the social order, and broke more thoroughly with historical traditions; but it never put national unity in question, and redeemed its most terrible features by an exaltation of patriotism which held Europe at bay, and reconciled to New France many of its staunchest opponents. The Russian revolutionary movement is aimed, not only at a complete reversal of a rotten political system, but also at a renewal of society itself by the most sweeping reforms of modern times. And, at the same time as the efforts of popular representation are concentrated in St. Petersburg in a death struggle with Ministerial bureaucracy, all the conquests and acquisitions achieved by Russia in the course of three hundred years are challenged by the minor nationalities subdued, but not reconciled, to Russian rule. And the predominant people itself seems to have entirely lost all sense of national personality, and all wish to assert its claims. It would be strange indeed if, under these cir

cumstances, the doings of the new Representative Assembly should not display, by the side of noble aspirations and regenerating ideas, the features of violence and passion, the onesided judgment and lack of equilibrium, so characteristic of revolutionary epochs.

Every revolutionary assembly is, in a sense, the direct offspring of the régime which it is called to overthrow: it is generally led by the law of contrast to assume the counterpart of what has been held before, and, for this very reason, acts on the same plane with its most deadly foe. Oppression engenders violence, centralism-disruptive tendencies, privilege-levelling schemes, militarism-pacificism. This spirit of contradiction does not conduce to high statesmanship; but it is not such statesmanship that seems wanted in the beginnings of a revolution, but the action of elementary forces. Only when those have spent themselves to a certain extent, the conscious, scheming agencies of political forethought begin to assert their right.

Quite apart from the complexity of the thousand and one questions accumulated before the Duma, from the impatient cravings of classes and groups pressing for recognition and satisfaction at the same time, there is the initial difficulty of dealing with an impossible, and yet legally powerful Government. A new authority has to be created at all costs in the place of the old bankrupt one, which nevertheless holds the field in a formal and material sense. And this task has to be effected by means, not of a civil war, if possible, but of parliamentary action. Georg Brandes declared once that the Russian crest-the double-headed eagle -reminded him of one of those double

headed monsters which, according to the newspapers, are sometimes brought into the world. The irreverent comparison turns out to be a prediction. In its present political condition, the Russian Empire has certainly two heads and two brains; and the result of this monstrous duplication is the paralysis of the whole system.

Before reviewing the chief acts of the Duma during the first month of its existence, let us glance at its leading groups and parties, and try to realize some of their psychical peculiarities. In a sense, the Duma consists, not of several parties, but of one. There is hardly any other House of Representatives which has put on record so many unanimous votes. Men coming from the most different corners of an immense Empire, men who have nothing in common as to social standing, education, manners, men who can hardly understand each other's speech, have again and again joined in almost unanimous resolutions when they were asked to condemn the policy of the Government. The faint disagreement of some seven or ten out of a House of four hundred, on some of these occasions, only served to put more emphasis on the overwhelming predominance of the spirit of opposition. The Duma is at one as an Opposition group; and discord begins only when it is not faced by a Government which seems to possess a magical power of removing all dissensions from its midst.

And yet, while the country was still in the preparatory stage of elections, there was an abundant crop of combinations calling themselves parties: one could easily reckon up some nineteen or twenty of these. Where are they now? Most have burst like soap bubbles; and even those few that survive have generally shrunk to a very small compass. The Extreme Right,

the Reactionaries, are not to be found in the Duma. In order to discover

them one has to look to the Council of the Empire, where some stalwarts of this stamp are still to be observed. Not long ago it was believed that the majority of the peasants would send staunch defenders of autocracy, orthodoxy, and exclusive nationalism, to the Lower House; but if such elements exist among the more backward of the peasants and clergymen, they have not mustered strength to show color.

An even more remarkable spectacle is presented by a group which at one moment seemed likely to become the ruling party in the country-the Octobrists. By their condemnation of revolutionary agitation, and their advocacy of moderate reforms, they seemed on the way to attract most of those who have much to lose by any revolution, even the most unavoidable one-the propertied and commercial classes, the well-to-do among the peasants. By their appeal to historical traditions, they struck a note which ought to have found an echo in the hearts of patriotic Russians. As a matter of fact, they succeeded in bringing into the House only a score of men; and even this small number melted considerably in the heat of the first debates. We need not dwell at length on the causes of this defeat. Only one, the chief one, has to be noticed, as it is characteristic of the attitude of their remnant in the Duma. A party of moderate reform and national tradition cannot do without a substantial national authority of some kind. If it is driven to oppose and condemn all the acts and officials of the monarchy it wants to support, it is left with nothing but a shadow to defend. Indeed, with the best of intentions, the Octobrists have not done much more hitherto in the Duma than to cavil at some of the expressions used by their more fortunate competitors in their denunciations of the old régime of bureaucracy. Nor is it less significant that the party has

not even been able to start an influential paper of its own. This deplorable state of affairs cannot be ascribed either to the inertia and blunders of the leaders, or to a lack of political principles to fill up a programme. The Moderates and Conservatives of Russia have no standing ground, because the official world, in whose keeping the historical institutions of Russia still remain, is entirely devoid of moral authority; it calls forth nothing but hatred and contempt, and casts a blight on all those who may be suspected of a wish to compromise with it. And so there is nothing for Octobrists and Moderates but to stand by, and to join in the vituperations which are the order of the day.

The most numerous and influential party of the Duma consists of some 150 Constitutional Democrats, the "Party of the People's Freedom," as they style themselves. They march in serried ranks, and are followed on all important occasions by various minor groups, which may grumble against the Jacobin despotism of the cadets, but have, nevertheless, to follow the latter's lead. This combination of members may be likened to the political Radicals of Western parliaments; and any working majority in the House would have to be built upon this basis. The central ideas of these groups may be summarized in the view that Russia ought to be governed by a Constitution of an advanced Western type, and that comprehensive social reforms should be carried out, if possible, by parliamentary means. The programme of the cadets and of their allies, mostly compiled from Western patterns, certainly contains many points absolutely necessary to a country which wants to reorganize its institutions on a parliamentary basis. At the same time, it bears undoubtedly a doctrinaire stamp; it is bookish in its origin, and does not take sufficiently into account

the peculiar conditions in which political work has to be achieved in Russia. Practice will undoubtedly enforce many limitations; and, in fact, the cadets have already had to pull up in many respects after their enthusiastic rush at the elections. But the object lessons of the future will have to be paid for, and, presumably, very dearly. There is another weak side in the position of the cadets, which is perhaps even more harmful than their doctrinairism-I mean their connection with the revolutionaries. If the Moderates are crippled by their leanings towards a monarchy, which of late has done nothing but disgrace the country it is called to represent, the policy of the cadets is vitiated by the obligations contracted by them in regard to the revolutionary movement. Although parliamentarians abstaining from actual revolt, they have to threaten the Government with the prospect of revolt; and they are sincere when they declare that they stand nearer to the Socialists and Terrorists than to the officials and soldiers who have to keep up the existing order. This is undoubtedly a dangerous and ambiguous position; and if the cadet party were ever entrusted with the functions of government, it would not find it very easy to cancel some of its present declarations.

Another important party is formed by the deputies of the so-called Labor group. Some 100 in number, they are chiefly peasants, but include also the few artisans who have got into the Duma. They come from the millions accustomed to look upon the upper hundred thousand with invincible distrust, and would not scruple one moment to destroy their artificial preponderance. They do not make much difference between the varieties of "gentlemen," and are not more lenient to the Liberals among the latter than to the Conservatives. The leaders of

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