Show t I RusiaJp1ieava1Both Political and Social Revolt Has Not Failed fly lnOl 1IAXI11E HOVALCV5KY Femutu UlNlorlan and Member Council or Empire Von ask mo why has the JJussinii revolution ftnlid I begin by denying till fact My opinion is that it has not foiled but is going on at the present limp nnd if sonic ore despairing it is because they do not ronlize the real nature of be movement The movement is far from being only political it is i es JtC spntinlly pociiil It began years ago i and its chiof result f re-sult will be the creation of n llupsinn democracy Centuries ago Harrington in his Occnnn expressed z i iv tho idea new for his time that power belongs to those mil who own the land Now Russia soil is rapidly passing into the hands of the pendants Tlic first Diima intended I in-tended to accelerate tho movement through legislation legisla-tion The reaction which followed was chiefly created by the fnct that the Ihissian nobility was frightcnqd by HIP radicalism of the measures proposed But the movement which has for its end the transference of the land into the hands of the peasants in i none the less going on perhaps mow rapidly than before The ministers with M Stolypin at their head are 1 buying the lands of ruined noblemen in order to resell them at lower prices to the peasants This measure is certainly more ruinous to the Russian treasury treas-ury than the one we had in view but it achieves the same end The dissolution disso-lution of village communities another obnoxious measure of the same ministryis yet on the wholo advancing he I day of a democratic rising upon one side it creates a numerous class of peasant proprietors and upon I the other a much more numerous class of rural proletariats A collision between them becomes every day more probable Our industries are unable to employ all those who having no more settled interest in the land are deserting the villages And Russian agriculture agri-culture is not likely to become a secondary bianch of our national economy In such conditions tho rising of the country people in tho near future seems to me very probable and all 1 hear from persons living in the country only confirms my apprehension The peasant is losing his con lidcnco in the czar as the natural protector of the country Ieoplc against the landed squires The orthodox church is each day losing even more of its moral hold upon the people because of its total lack of independence toward civil authority and the nobility The radical Protestant sects such as the Dukhobors the Mcnnouites the Stoundists Baptists are gaining every day new adherents among the peasantry All this is not calculated to suggest the idea that tie have not to fear in the future a new agrarian movement And for that reason I answer in the affirmative your question Do I think that the agrarian question ques-tion will lead to new disturbances in the near future Yes I am afraid it will |