New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-06-27
RUSSIAN INSTITUTIONS.
ANTE. RAGozIN's TRANSLATION OF NJ.
BEAULIEU'S WORK.

THE EMPIRE OF THE TsARs AND THE RUS s.
SLAMS. BY Anatole Leroy Beaulieu, Member OF
Third French Edition with Annotations by
ZenaYde A Ragozin. Part II. ne lhsu'u'i0's'
svo PIP L.. sec. c. =. Putnams Sons.
"Enoueh borrowing. enough Initiating; We need
something National. indigenous. Russian Siavic'
This. says NJ Beaulieu as translated by Nine
Ragozin, is the common reply of Russians VINO
are asked TO define the changes they hope for in
the government of the Empire. They would
fool inundated. he adds "at being free after
tho manner Of a little 0ecrepit. rotten western
Nation like the English the Belgians Tor in
stance On this point their patriotism may rest
easy: they need not feaI any such thlhg lol
quite while These phrases furnish the Key
20 the authors treatment of the institutions oi
Russia He sees likelihood OF freedom lor
the Nation in the near future and yet Wherever
he turns there are signs Of disinteGrauoh IN ule
older social and political devices OF the country
Even the commune. sacred embodiment Of
ancient Slavic ideas. Is gradually yleldlhg l" the
torce Of individual character. Only the unre-
stricted movement Of the peasan,ry IS requls'e
% make the old village life impossible The
rustics will sooner or later scatter to escape inc
maugn influence of the small capitalist. the INST
as they call him. who is almost everywhere
gathering up the property of his neighboTs as far
sc that is possible and is ruling those who fan
into his mower with no light hand. The Ola
tradition Of complete subsection TO the commune
e SLOWLY fading away. AS 1t departs must go
with II the political contrivances which can only
reach the peasant through the minute organism
of which ne is part. For this system Is not an
artificial thing. II IS constructed in the only wa!
that could be understood by the farm laoorer
with his prejudices and his customs which nave
descended to him through long line Oh an
cestors For him the mir has really oeen
supreme God alone can Judge Y. Is one OF his
proverbs In dealing with the vast mouohesS
n,oss % which he belongs the only thing for men
OF culture TO do was to adapt their me'houS u
n,s mind. They might hope to understand him.
hu, they could never hope to he understood by
him unless they kept wholly within the narrow
nor,zon of his thought. He necessarily mag
,red the greater world to be like the little world
,,,,b which he was familiar 1t was their DuSl-
ress IN make this resemblance as accurate as
they could They had to do with one VINO Kne"
no rights save those which he held of his COM
,nune and was conscious of no duties or oohga-
tions save those which he owed to H. lie Was
horn into an organism which sufficed for tsei
IN all things which he could imagine. IL Is io
wonder that the word mir. the name Vi inc
Russian communal organization should also
mean world or universe
Figuring National life under geological FORMS
the village is the single cell. the lowest term OF the
Russian political life The individual man as YET
has hardly begun 10 count the structure any more
than in that Of the remotest Eastern natohS
While the liberties Of the commune are ehuieSS'
those os It's members are correspono'nsN IT,
s.rc,ad The mir can buy lease. rent or sell
land: its rules and above all It's lmmemorldi
customs are binding within its own limits. The
bidding Under the modern passport system
they NAV be driven to crime simply by the neg
Iect of the communal authorities Away from
,oroe they cannot obtain work unless their papers
hear ,nspection They are liable TO be expelled from
tho cities to which they have resorted and to be
treated as outlaws Not infrequently the ex-
annie Is followed OF the girl. native OF Smo-
lensk who killed herself in 1879 because her pass
port had not been renewed in time ana the
family by whom she was employed refused 10
keep her without II. Her case and that OF others
LED to renewed efforts 10 limit the power OF the
commune. But 1t can also punish its members.
The strongest defence Of the scourge is that II Is
the weapon Of the village courts. 1t is they that
habituate the peasant to whipping. so that ne
mas taken 1t as a matter of course. even where
officials or others had right to nfct a pen
altv of any kind upon him. Worse than all, the
pitilessly done at the rate Of thousands Of cases
annually The meaning OF II Is that the out
lawed wretches have no other refuge than ST.
IBERIA. Now. as long as this despotsm was that
of the majority the peasant would naturally
submit 20 It. But reform revolution cannot
be faY away when the rights and prvi-
leees and powers Of the mir have fallen into the
hands of a group Of well-to-do men, or perhaps
those OF the village oramseller.
But the political significance Of the mir has
always consisted in the fact that 1t the
only thing which the peasant understood. THE
whole Of Russian life appears 10 Iave been
modelled after this traditional type. from which
Tsarian Moscovia and Imperial Russia have
deviated more and more" II there had been no
external influences affecting the country, no
foreign usages to initiate. the deviation might
never have occurred. and the commune
group Of families might have remained the type
of the patriarchal state combining and ruling
vast brotherhood of village organisms. On the
other hand, If it had not been for the mujik's
utter incapacty TO see in Russia anything but
an enlarged commune. the movement toward
Western forms OF civilization would have been
far more rapid than it has been. The peasant
farmer continues 80 regard the country as
family and the Tsar father invested with
absolute authority" And the fear that some
time the autocracy and the commune may come
together and that the former may rest directly
on the latter is far from idly held IN Russia.
Everything between would be crushed like grain
between the upper and neither milstones. What
IS between is not merely the administrative
bureaus. the army Of policemen. the crowds OF
endoent mobiles. 1t comprises also--M Beau
lieu is quoting the language OF the orator Ynri
Samarin-"the whole of lettercd Russia its entire
culture" But M Beaueu. while he describes
these two forces. the one that Of the ruler, the
other that OF the as the only original ee-
ments in Russian political life still maintains
that they could not preserve the Empire without
ola sT,,cs