The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1889-04-07
THE RUSSIAN POLICE.
Close Supervision of These Officials Over the
Movements of Citizens and Strangers.

Movements of Citizens and Strangers.
George KEENAN,. in April Century.
There is probably no country IN the
world where the public power occupies a
wider field, plays a more important part,
OF touches the private personal life OF the
citizen at more points than it does IN
Russia. In a country like England or the
United States, where the people are the
governing power, the functions OF the
police are simple and clearly defined, and
are limited, for the most part, TO the pre-
vention or the detection of crime, and the
maintenance of order in public places. In
Russia, however, where the people are not
the governing power, but hold TO that
power the relation of an infant ward 10 q
guardian, the police occupy very dlfferent
and much more important position.
The theory upon which the government
OF Russia proceeds is. that the citizens not
only incapable of taking part In the man
agement of the affairs of his country, his
to manage even the affairs of his own
household; and that, from the time when
he leaves his cradle and begins the struggle
of life down to the time when his weary
gray head is finally laid under the sod, he
must be guided. directed, instructed, re-
strained. repressed, regulated. fenced IN,
fenced out, braced up, kept down and made
to do generally what somebody else thinks
1T best for him. The natural outcome or
this paternal theory of government IS the
concentration of all administrative author
ity in the hands of a few high officials,
and an enormous extension OF the police
power. Matters that in other countries
are left to the discretion of the Individual
citizen, or to the Judgment of a small group
of citizens, are regulated in Russia by the
Minister of the Interior through the lmPe-
rial police. If you are a Russian, and wish
to establish a newspaper. you must ask the
permission of the Minister of the interior.
Ii you wish to open a Sunday-schOOl, or
any other sort of a school, whether in a
neglected slum of st Petersburg or in a
native village in K~amchatka. you mi
ask the permission of the Minister of Pub
lie instruction. Ifyou wish to give a con-
of an orphan asylum, you must ask per.
mission of the nearest representative of
the Minister of the Interior, then submit
your programme of exercises to q
finally hand over the proceeds of the
entertainment to the police, to be embez-
zled or given to the orphan asylum, as it
may happen. If you wish to sell news
papers on the street. you must get permits
sion, be registered in the books of the po-
big as a saucer around your neck. If you
wish To open a drug store, a printing Office,
a photograph gallery, or a book store. you
must get permission. Ii you are a phOtOg-
rapher and desire to change the location of
your place of business, you must get per-
mission: If you are a student and go to a
public library to consult Lyells ''Princi-
pies of Geology" or ~Spencers Social
Statics," you win find that you cannot even
look at such dangerous and incendiary vol
umes without special permission. If you
are q physician, you must get permission
before you can practice. and then, if
you do not wish to respond to
calls in the night, you must have permits
sion to refuse to GO; furthermore, if you
wish to prescribe what are known In Russia
as powerfully acting" medicines, you must
have special permission, or the druggist
will not dare to fill your prescriptions. If
you are a peasant and wish to build a bath
house on your premises, You must get per-
mission. If you wish to thresh. out your
grain in the evening by candle-light, you
must get permission or bride the police. If
you wish to go more than fifteen miles away
from your home, you must get permission.
If you are a foreign traveller you must get
permission to come into the. empire, per-
mission to go out of it, permission to stay
in it longer than six months, and must
notify the police every time you change
your boarding-place. In short, you cannot
live, move, or have yOur being IN the
Russian Empire without permission.