Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/90

A little later a memorandum was presented to the Czar recommending that their old powers should be restored to the zemstvos, that they should be arranged in groups, and that these groups should elect delegates to a central or national zemstvo.

The effect of these various demonstrations was seen when in February, 1903, the Czar issued a manifesto holding out high promise. He declared that the fundamental principle of property in common 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 administration." 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 November last was in many respects the most remarkable assemblage in Russian history. It was almost like a states general. It put forth a declaration of principles 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 subjects. It calls for the overthrow of this centralized administration of local affairs; for independent legal tribunals for the protection of personal rights; for free speech, free press, and free conscience; for equal civil and political rights for peasants; for the greater independence and extension of the zemtsvo institutions, and for national representation through an elective body which shall participate in legislation.

These demands are unprecedented in Russia, and their concession would inaugurate 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 safeguard 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 insurance for workmen; to reduce the discretionary 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 establish representative institutions; it does not provide for elementary education; 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 restrictions which now burden the people; and the ukase itself distinctly treats these reforms as the beginning of "a series of great internal changes impending in the early future."

In considering the character, trend, and methods of these changes the peculiar conditions of Russia must ever be remembered. 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