The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-01-26
Repression in Russia.

The Gear Nicholas has no word for
his people favored with some SEM
blance of the paternal affection pro-
fessed for them so often. His words
are military orders to the army, desig-
mating General Trepoff as the governor
general of st. Petersburg to preside
over the state of siege decreed for that
city. Trepoh himself, formerly chief
Of police of Moscow, like his father,
whom the young woman, Vera Sassu-
Itch, tried to kill, is a faithful servi-
tor of relentless autocracy, and there
is small doubt Of his ability to keep
order after the method Of Sunday last,
st. Petersburg's protest against the
cars wav of receiving petitioners has
opened the eyes Of tens of thousands
of the peasant class, who form the vast
majority of the population of European
Russia. Their preponderance is i'm
mense. Their political power under the
Russian system is nil. It has been fire.
quently said by writer's on Russian af-
fairs that no revolution is possible in
| of the government, unless the peasant
class moves in that direction. AS a
matter Of fact, the workingmen of St.
Petersburg and Moscow, who are now
demanding reforms beyond the indus
trial reforms they desire, ARE largely
from the peasant class; the army is
largely recruited from the same class.
The communal system represented by
the institution known as the mir is de-
scribed by Mr.. Wallace in his book on
Russia as fine example of representa-
| tive, constitutional government Of the
extreme democratic type. But the as
semblies of the mir are not representa-
| tive at all. The heads of the com.
munal households meet and manage
their local affairs, interfering with in.
dividual domestic affairs, and divide
and allot the communal land as they see
fit. The village elder is elected, but
the members of the community shirk
the holding of the office. The power of
the mir is social and is admitted by
Wallace to be despotic. If a member is
permitted to leave the commune, he is
still bound to pay his proportion Of i'm
peria1 taxation and perform his mill
tary obligations, and he may be re-
called by the mir wherever he is. The
car, in his recent ukase, promised tc
exempt the peasant from bondage to
the mir, so that he could go where he
wished in Russia free from it's imposi
lions.
The zemstvo is kind of local pro
vincial body supplementary Of the &C
ton of the rural communes, looking
after repairs of roads and bridges, pri
mary education, sanitation, condition OF
crops, and election of justices of the
peace. It meets once a year ano
chooses an executive bureau, and is
composed of landed proprietors and
peasants, who take part in the discus
sions. The zemstvo is better calculated
than the mir to introduce the peasant
to some knowledge Of representative
| government, but in Russia no descrip
ton Of administration is exempted from
| imperial interference and control.
! Last year there were increasing evi
dences Of discomfort among the peas
antry, and the workmen in the cities
who have numerously come from the
rural communes, are in close touch with
their brethren. It is, indeed, officially
admitted that revolutionary ideas have
been spreading among all classes il
Russia for several years, and that there
has been an ominous extension of Sc
cret revolutionary societies thruout The
country.
The most self-destructive policy Of
j Russia. has been the maintenance of al
enormous standing army. constan