New-York tribune., 1885-03-08

Of the Emueror Nicholas In brefcst time Iosto,
nearly destroyed tine press. to when ne tn;aed
a narfjeuar rancOr for having bitterly crlticlscH
his politics and most exnltngy appiauden nus orie
disgrace All the best papers were suppressed All
that had been issued in the last twehty,seuonG G Tho
and circulated freely with the sanction OF tne
censors were subjected by TOstoi to now REVISION.
and one hundred and twenty live works conPiisins
the productions of the best national ana lorrlgn
scholars, pubcists and critics, with 500 volumes Oh
supsrannnated reviews. were retired from library
and reacng rooms & 1T was .nd narqS r,SSie"Sns ~
Bur it was not enough to destroy books Inc
suTest way to prevent diffusion OF light and Know;
don wns 10 prevent the production OF readers ana
noSoJy will accuse Connt TOstoi of having over
lookod any measure to obtain such q prasoworthy
result After eighteen years OF rnites waT war or
against eslaoatioa itself SUPERIOR secondary nn.
even primary schools were considered as scats OF
Nihist tontagion. The Government din lts utmost
IN minimizo this unavoidable evil. When unable
TO destroy i entirely it reduced education to com
stsa 1st as s Door no a The
wers transformed into police Offices The gray
headed professors were mistrnsted no Tess tn'n
| learned body, but police officer appointed ny tne
| Government to spy on the professors, while ms
students. Ffom The time of Magnizk and Runich
never tho position OF men OF sciehco 50 ue s
ing one Tho best professors abandonsd rne
Uiolts which filled up by I0istols creatures
ready to make teaching tool OF any government
The General discomfort found its expression in tho
Zeinstv vo-Organs of our provincial seii-goyernmenf
| In a series of petitions formulated with all the
ret:cence and respect something's seryiiltyl que 10
| the general de, ire for radical reforms, going some
times to demands for a Cons stitnton. 10 stop snch
| manifestations. which greatly excited pubic
| oninion tie Government reduced the Zemstvo to
| abso ute ins;gnifcance. The Governor,Generals
we're ordered to stop by tner veto an
| that might lead to any unpleasant deciaratlol.
| Severe administrative punlshnents were lreeiy
| inflicted The representatives. VINO had ile ms.
fortune to dispease the Government nc AomsIV9
were more and more deprived OF any serious control
of local affairs in order to intrust the Goyernment 10
| the tchiaorniks- of every description. Thus were
| crush, i the hopes of tho NEST moderate and most
illogical OF Russian political parties-nanely, that
which was ready to accept the a1doGracy era as as
national government, provided 1t lett 10 the local
| institutions some freodOm to manage with certain
economy and good order the local AFFAIRS 1t was
| clear that the Government was decided 10 trust
And at the same time, rs if with particular view
to illustrate to what sort OF people the country TO
! be given as prey, there now come one after ilo
other series of most scandaous Grim nal processes
against whole scores of these very sch'nocn's SHOW
| ing all their dcpravity, vehaiity anu heip'eSs
What must have been the unavoidable conse;
qIences OF such conditions Is easy & 10 ccc;a
which now is governing Russia by making the Ioor
minded and easily alarmed , EnPeIOr us o"o"oh'
If there il class where anti-gOvernmental propa-
panda has the smallest chance of any success. it s
| the regular army. The dcspots know ~ 100 wei.
| Int eyervthing has its limits With all the
measures taken to ISOLATE the army from The rest OF
Russian subjects and 10 create ior =, tha"n
of the common veal there are cases when the puDllc
| discomfort and the national aspirations Tor new
| forms and new liberties acquire such an oycrpow-
| ermg strength that they break all the barriers
which despotism has artiicialy raised between sons
| of the same country in order TO divide into slaves
| ani slave-drivcrs SO il IN France before the
| great Revolution when the regular army shed WIN
the insurrection: So 1t begins IN Russia now: we
| NAV an1 that there was n peculiar circumstance
which contributed greatly to the alienation OF the
military. 1t was the personal eoniuct OF the
1 .t..l, ltnh m
ridiculous and contemplate to soldiers. Rarely had
RonanoH however hateful, been coward.
The small circle OF military officers vino initiated
| tie moyement very soon grew In number so c0nsd-
erably that a division in many circles was required
Following the advice of stromberg ,hey put
central military committee TO rule over the orsanLa
| ton while recognizing the supremacy of the
superior body. while H. under tho name of Executive
| The garrison of the capital and it's neghboring
| towns was the first arena of the propaganda But
from the very beginning the provinces were not Tor,
gotten aud flia organizations were founded IN all
| tine principal military centres of the Empire
| What is the approximate strength of the move
ment in tie nrmyf In speaking of a conspiracy
whose first safety is its secrecy We have tut one
means to ascertain its eKienslrn: the number ToGI oi
| imperfect and indirect-we must confess ";
because it is the missed blow. the mines which by
some mischance have exploded before the time. that
we ca cnlate Nevertheless the number Of martyrs
convey always n certain idea OF the forces WORKING
conveys an idea of the Importance aud ferocty of
| pitchel battle Unhappily even this indirect
indication is lar from being entirely IN onr posses
sion. We are quite unable to ascertain the precise
number Of ari ests made by the police IN any class
whatever The Government keeps the proioundest
secrecy on this delicate point. No Russian paper
ever drops a word about political arrests such
offence woula bo followed by immediate suppress
sion. The only sources OF information are the clan
| testine publications. such as the sNdr0fnd0 oto
Having the advantage of pcriccir irtrnstworthness
snch testimony wants very much as TO precision ne
reyOntionsts have too much to do to be able to fulfil
the functions of reportorial work. Sometimes these
functions are overlooked so much that tho Ma
rodnaio rOo Obliged to base its information on
foreign papers. certain number Of isolated arrests
| fail to be mentioned in its chronicle, douhtlc' 9.
Then comes the omission OF details OF the greatest
officers. the Narodamo gOiO mentions but rarely
| their grades and their arms. con ntentlng itself IN
most with the generic term: aoiiicers OF tne
armyr But the most pnZzling OF all Is the absence
| of precise numbers every time group of officers il
arrested. One must he satisfied with vague terms;
and so forth. We may say that there is rather the
list of the police scheming for making arrests than
of arrests themselves But we must he satisfied
with what we have. ., >.
According 20 the authority OF the hdrodnaio Polio,
in the three years of the reign OF Alexander III,
among divers military bodies stationed in fourteen
principal cities of the Empire. there were thirty
eivht police ra>zas OF these twcnty-one
were followed by isolated arrests OF ons or two
officers; tito remaining seventeen by arrests OF
whole groups of officers. sometimes nine or twelve
and more. In tn. arrests were extended to
officers of all arms and many bodies stationed in
many distant cities
AS TO divers arms as represented by the lists Of
arrests we must sconclulc tiiat the ihiahtry dnu
artillery give the greatest contingent OF conspr-
, at0rs. The navy comes next Among the eighty
three officers whose arms mentioned by the Ma
2 r0daaO IOhO there fOrty-0ne officers of the
infantry, twenty-seven officers of artillery, and
, fourteen officers OF the navy. The grades are
usually omitted. In tho small number where the
arodnaio VOiio makes exception. we find two
c0lonels. one leutenant-colonel one major, three
CAPTAINS and fourteen lientenants. For the
remainder the grades are missing.
Now if after having suggested rs far as possible
an idea of the number of officers taxing part III the
II | Nhst revolution, we wanted to show the qadtfb
"a | of its elements we have only to look on the per