Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-03-12
Three-headed Russia.


Were the Russian eagle depicted with
three instead Of two heads, it would SYM
bolize very aptly the present state Of the
Empire. Instead of being divided, Is is
generally supposed, into two opposing
camps of loyalty and disaffect ion, Rus
sia is portioned out into three distinct
parts-two small but violent minorities
pulling vehemently in opposite directions,
and a vast, sluggish majority, whose only
wish is to sit still. The "patriot'' Pam
Slavists, who prolonged the Crimean wa p
for year after its authors death, and who,
untaught by that terrible lesson, precipi-
tated the struggle Of 1877, are still as
clamorous as ever for foreign conquest,
Russian aggrandizement, and the extern
sion of the Cars prOtectorate over all Sla-
vonian nationalities alike. The Nihilists,
again, as their name denotes, hold the
''down with everything" creed, and wish
to annihilate the whole existing order Of
things, without troubling themselves much
as to what should be put in its stead. Be-
tween these two extremes lies the great
mass of the people, stolid, ignorant, un-
progressive, stupidity contented, caring as
little for national glory on the one hand
as for popular freedom on the other.
Nihilism has been defined as the conflict
of despotism and revolution; but it would
be more correct to call it war of city
against country-of Russia solidified into
communities, against Russia sOwn broad
cast over moor and prairie. Disaffection
loves a crowd, for it is thus more easily
propagated. The students. massed to-
gether in their universities-the artisans,
crowded into great townsville soldiers,
coOped up by thousands in their camps or
barracks-these are Nihilism's congenlal
food. 1t is the restless, inquiring, unsatis-
fed townsman, daily exchanging ideas with
scores Of others like himself, and reading,
or having read to him, the verdict of half
a dozen newspapers upon the questions of
the day, by whom tumults are kindled and
plots organized. The provincial "Mujik,"
on the other hand, content with his black
rye loaf and tumbler of weak tea, his
sheep-skin frock and tar -besmeared boots,
knows little and cares less about anything
beyond the limits of his own village, his
| formost thought being to make sure of his
lighted candles and his sugar cake on
Easter Sunday, and to keep his stove heat
ed and the chinks Of his log-hut well
stopped during the four months frost
Thus, then, Russia's chariot of state,
liable to be overturned by the plunging of
two runaway horses in opposite directions,
is steadied by the 'drag" of her inert mill
lons Of peasant population. Should these
ever be gained over by either school Of ex-
| tremists, revolution will follow, as a mat
ter of course; but this contingency seems
| still tolerably remote. Not without rea-
son did the Russian G0I0S Voice. assert
sometime previous to the late troubles,
that Socialist opinions find no place in
| Russia, and instead Of alarming the Gov
ernment, only bring ridioule upon the
would-be propagators." Recent events,
! indeed, have somewhat belied this rose
colored theory, but 1t is still true in the
main. The Turk himself is not more hos
| tile to anything new and strange than the
ordinary Russian. During the evil con-
flct of December, 1926, when the adherents
Of the Grand Duke Constantine strove to
prevent the elevation of his brother Nicho-
las to the throne, the former attempted
TO spur the zeal of their followers with the
shout Of Constantine and the Constitu-
tioni" In any other European country,
this cry would have found an echo in every
heart, but the phlegmatie Russians were
only puzzled and offended by, the mystic
| rious word ''Constltutzia," which their
leaders finally explained away as meaning
simply "Constantine's wife" While such
men are in the majority, there is no imme-
| diate fear Of revolution. ...