New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-11-20
SIGNS OF THE TINES IN RUSSIA.

SIGNS Or The HINES ~ nj SNLa'
European Russia is just now the scene of vari-
GUS social and industrial movements which must
be regarded as highly significant 1t is true
that for many years people have frequently
been saving 10 herer and 10, there in
Russia, anticipating the dawn of vast reYolu-
tion and yet the signs have proved delusive
and the revolution has not come. But even
upon the seemingly endless plains of Russia
there is no road so long but that it has turn
ing The longer the Russian revolution is de-
layed the nearer in the future it must be. 1t
NAV not--let us hope it will not-be violent
one But it Will come. 1t must come. HUI
mainly forbids that vast people shall remain
forever in the squalid degradation which is the
state of the Moujik millions. Turgenief was
fond of likening the Moujik to the Sphinx. For
every Sphinx there sooner or later Is an
Gdipus.
One Of the marked signs of the times is the
revolt against socialism. At present there is
what is regarded as a community of ownership
in land. The so-called Mir system makes every
village a commune. Each peasant has his al
Iotment but he is unable 10 consider ii his own.
It belongs 10 some great land owner, or to the
Mir, or to the Little Father, or 10 some one
else than the occupier. So the latter takes no
interest in it. save to get his living from II in
n
permanent improvements upon it, for he thinks
that as soon as he has done so he may be evicted
and the improved land be allotted to some one
else. Critics of socialism have long maintained
that such would be the result of communistic
ownership of land. Russia proves it to be so.
1t is a hopeful sign that agitation has begun
for the abolition of the village commune and the
reorganization Of society on an individuaist IN
stead Of a socialist basis. If such a change Is
effected may expect TO see the Moujik ac-
quire habits Of energy and thrift such as have
hitherto been so conspcuousy and so dis
astrously lacking
Another important sign of the times is the
development OF n land owning middle class
the bourgeosie so hated by socialists This IS
being done at the expense Of the hereditary no
bility which has hitherto largely mOnopoized
real estate IN fact large proportion Of the
Mrs, or village ccmmunes are settled ms ten
ants upon the great landed estates OF mobiles
Proiiigacy and extravaganza as we'll as other
causes have compelled many Of the mobiles TO
sell their estates for what they will fetch under
the hammer OF the auctioneer. In seven OF the
Volga provinces. six OF them among the most
densely populated in the empire there are thus
to be sold this month more than 2242 square
miles Of land, an area nearly half as large as
the State Of Connecticut In such sales Jews
and foreigners are ineligible as purchasers. The
land therefore goes, usually in lots of moderate
size. TO what we may term the middle class
which is thus gaining substantial footing and
much influence. Beyond doubt If such n class
shall become dominant in Russia a peaceful
and benefcent revolution will be effected
Perhaps the most interesting feature Of the
case, at least to the disinterested and phlo-
sophie observer, is the fact that both these sig
nhcant movements are distinctly anti-soci9l-
istic. 1t has been supposed that socialist prin
ciples are strongly rooted in Russia. and that
the natural change of system in that country
would be in the direction of the commune.
Such now seems not to be the case The Mon
Jlks are turning against even such measure OF
socialism as they have, for they want owner
ship of land by individuals and not bv the Mir
any more than by the hereditary noble or nv
the Car; and the decline of the nobility is mot
by corresponding rise Of a bourgeoIsie an aIe
ment which is above all antagonistic IN social.
Ism. Such movements are auspicious above anv
others or recent years. They do not threaten
a violent revolution, which in Russia would no
an lndescribably terrible thing. Rather do they
promise the establishment of a state OF tbinqs
winch Will enable and encourage some liberal
minded Gar to break away at last from tho
traditional Russian system" which since tho
days of Peter has made successive autocra+s &c
slave as it has made the Russian neonIe its
victims. When such independence of tho ..svs
TEN Is attained, through the deveIonmant 90
such movements as these, there will NOT no loci,
ing statesmen to act upon it.
--------------