New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-08-20
RUSSIAN IRON AND GERMAN STEEL.

The assassination of the Cars chief Of pO-
lice, few hours after HOedel was beheaded
in Berlin, has brought Russian Nihilism and
German Socialism face to face. We took pains
yesterday to point out one of the most strIk-
ing analogies between these two destructive
forces the fact that each nation is the victim
of its own illusions, each having entered upon
q period of change and development with inn
moderate expectations, and each being over
whelmed with disappointment over the political
and economic results Aside from this COM
mon cause of popular distrusl and social rest
lessness there are other points of resemblance;
and we wish TO direct attention to one of
these: the similarity of the repressye meas
ures 10 which the two Imperial Governments
have resOrted.
At the outset, it must be borne in mind
that the dangers 10 be apprehended from this
revolutionary and atheistic movement are
greater in one empire than in the other
owing to the fact that the proportion
of urban to rural population is relatively
larger in Germany than in Russia. The Czar's
dominions are less densely populated than the
states of Central Europe. st. Petersburg and
Moscow have each population of over 600,-
600, but there are only two other cities that
number more than 10000 souls, and only
seven more that have over 10000. Mr.. Mac
kenzie Wallace estimates that barely one-teDth
of the population of European Russia live in
cities. The frontiers have been extended so
RAPIDLY, and there has been so much
cheap land, that the people have dwelt apart
on large farms. Village industries have not
been developed into urban trades, and outside
of the few cities to which we have referred
there is no middle class. Moreover, the peas
ants are ignorant aud unable 10 read cheap
newspapers and political pamphlets. Under
such conditions the growth and dissemina-
tion of new ideas must be exceedingly
slow. In the cities the secret societies
have it in their power to do mis-
chief, but in the thinly-populated rural
districts, as Turgeneff has shown In "Virgin
"Soil," their arguments fall upon deaf ears.
Germany, OH the other hand Is studded with
cities; the people are close together, and
every body can read and inasmueh as a fond
ness for speculative theories is q national
characteristic, new ideas respecting govern
ment, society and religion travel fast. The
returns of the recent Parliamentary elections
show how important part the cities of Ger
many have played in the Socialist agitation.
In Berlin the Social Democrats polled over
80, 900 votes In Hamburg 10000 and IN
Altoona, Kiel, Breslau, Dresden, Leipsic, MI
remberg and Elberfeld large number. The
ministry made their gains in the rural dis
tricts where there was a reaction against Lib
eralism, but barely held their own ground in
the centres of population. This was a very
different result from that reached in France
year ago, when the Republican vote was dis
tributed between city and country more
evenly than ever before, and a strik-
ing proof was afforded that the preju-
dices of the rural population against Liberal
ism were gradually passing away
We pass now to the policy Of repression by
which each government is striving TO stamp
out doctrines that are not only revolutionary
but anarehical. In Russia the tension of the
imperial system will be increased, but the
Government will not find il necessary TO
adopt extraordinary measures. 1t is only in
the few large cities that the tendencies of the
secret societies are fraught with danger, and
those centres of population will be placed
under the surveillance of the police.
Arrests Will be multiplied and the
Siberian mines filled with new tenants I;
the press will be subjected to rigid censor
ship; and if these new assassins are arrested
Jury trials will be dispensed with, and any
miscarriage of justice such as the acquittal Of
Vera Sassulitch viii be obyiated. Further
than this it win not be necessary to go. In
Germany, however, where, as we have OK
planned. the danger from Socialism IL more