The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-04-22

were deprived of most of their privi-
 leges. they were excluded from the mu.
 nicipal councils of the cities; their ad-
 nittance into the middle and primary schools and to the committees was re- stricted. They were driven out en
 masse. from certain parts of the em-
 pire, in which, thanks to the toeration
 which reigned under Alexander 1T, they
 had been able to establish themselves.
 The seventies of the censorship were
 redoubled Many of the most influen-
 tial journals were suppressed. Military
 law was established in the large Rus
 sian towns which gave privileges to the
 provincial governors and the prefects
 of customs which were often abused.
 While, about 1873, the apostle who
 went about the country carrying good
 news to the people was the most strik-
 ing character in Russian life, under
 Alexander TIT, 1t was the .'careerist"
 who became the characteristic type.
 This type, which, in France, Alphonse
 Daudet has named the Struggle for
 Life,' was represented by the young
 official, with no kind of moral aspira-
 ton, with no sort of ideal, seeking to
 obtain by every imaginable means, the
 greatest possible number of material
 advantages. Men of this type multi
 piled as rapidly as weeds. A leaden
 gloom fell upon Russian society. Peo-
 pleN lived from day to day in a sad, mo-
 notonous fashion, without having even
 a glimpse of anything better.
 Revolutionary plots grew less ire quent little by little, and finally ceased
 entirely, at least as far as the public knowledge, extended. In any case,
 there were no more astounding political assassinations. This was one of the singularly happy features of the reign of Alexander TIT. Let us hope that, the progressive party in Russia has already perceived how odious and foolish and disadvantageous it is to resort to brute force #
 Alexander III being now dead, the hopes of the liberals strongly revived. They thought that the reactlonary par ty would, OH the accession of Nicholas IT, be broken up, as had happened af- ter the death of Nicholas I. Nothing of the kind occurred. The men who had surrounded Alexander III remained in power during the reign of his son, and the greater part of them are in power now. The course of political opinion did not change. Some reactionary measures were still taken. National ism in narrow sense continued to flourish. None of the exceptional measures which had been enacted against the unhappy Israelites were re- pealed. Thus apparently everything is going on since the death of Alexander TIT just as 1t did during his life. But, however, it is not quite that. We are conscious, in spite of everything, that the force of the reaction is blunted. It is not as yet receding, but 1t Is, howev- CT, no longer advancing.
 Russia is at the turning point. The 1 liberals have not to a marked degree the courage of their convictions, not do the reactionaries dare engage in any to great violencel Welive from day to day, and no one knows whither one is tending. It seems even as if people were delighted not to go anywhere. 1 Some legislative measures of very slight importance have been enacted. But no | one seems to have the courage to attack | the great political problems, ripe for so many years. Life formulates it's impe- | rious demands, but the government, in | its inability to act, seems to wish to | stop up its ears and close it's eyes. | Russia continues to finger along in su perannuated and nearly vanished insti- | tutions, hardly worthy of the eighteenth | century, and continues to be an archaic | state. The breath of no powerful and | generous idea seems to animate this country. Not single man. no great | character, no conspicuous personality | appears to captivate the crowd and to vibrate in the hearts. The novel IS re- duced to superficial impressionism, which paints daily life exactly as it is, without in the least attempting to in- terpret it. It would seem as if the nov elists are chiefly ambitious to reduce themselves to the level of photographic and to carefully avoid all traces of an independent thought.
 At this present moment Russian so- ciety seems to be without aspirations, and with no ideal of any kind. There Is not single great question about which intellectual war is waged. The most sacred principles count but scep- tics and unbelievers. It would seem as if the chosen few of Russian society (among whom, in other times, such powerful currents of thought have been l, oroduced) had lost the faculty of feel ng the beating of their own heart. An atmosphere dull and gray pervades the whole. There is absolute stagnation.
 For how long will this state of things asst? Ten, twenty, thirty years? Who will be the deliverer? Who win come Q drag Russian society from its dull md llfeless state? Alas, no one can answer this question.