The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-01-23
The Russian Awakening.

The Russian Awakening.
"What Is the third estate7 The ma
ton. What is it nows Nothing. What
fought it to be9 Everything
Such was the observation of Able
sieyes at the time Of the French revo-
luton. It is recalled today by the sit
uation at st. Petersburg.
The Russian people asked the "Little
Father to give them bread and liberty
10 eat 1t. He gave them bullets and
Eaber cuts. The illusion as to the
sacrosanct nature Of the car has been
largely dispelled by the reply Of the
,autocrat Of all the Russias, who has
evadsd the petitions Of his people and
is in retreat in his palace Of Tsarkoe
lEelo, twenty-odd miles from the capital.
] When Louis XVI was informed by
the duke Of Liancourt Of the storming
Of the Bastille, the king asked: els
this, then, a revoltq' emo, sire,' re-
piled the duke, cit is revolution And
so it proved. So the barbados, the
furious workmen, the frenzied populace
peacefully seeking an audience with
their "Little Father,' but shot. down
like wild beasts by the soldiers in the
streets of st. Petersburg, suggest again
the spelling Of the word Revolution"
Even if the czar repents of his folly
and comes in to meet his people, he
has lost their confidence, and the blood
Of the slain, who will be accounted
martyrs to liberty, will become the seed
of regenerated Russia; the rejected
demands of the people stand today the
prophecies of the ultimate fact accom-
plished. ........
/ The army appears in the st. Peters
burg tragedy as the faithful servitor of
the autocracy, and it is but natural that
they should support the power which
gives them sustenance. A military re-
volt in Russia is possible, but remote
The revolt Of Prince Troubetskoi,. col
onel of the etat major and military
governor Of Kieff, eighty years ago, had
the objective Of constitutional govern.
ment and he and his associates seized
the opportunity presented by the
change in the succession from Constan
tine to Grand Duke Nicholas. The seat
of the conspiracy was St. Petersburg
but the leaders built too much upon
their imaginations, and when they had
assembled considerable body Of troops
in Great Izaak square, they hesitated
and the hesitation was fatal, the garri
son surrounding them and raking then
cho%
tempt to bring about a great military
revolt failed, and the ignorance of the
plain people was shown by their Devil
derment when told to shout for 6
constitution the meaning Of which
they did not know.
Y The French revolution was begun BY
nearly the whole French nation, the mi
tial demand being for a constitution
modelled upon that Of England, an6
suggested by the disciples Of Monies
euieu. but the movement, unfortunate
~, after the death Of the moderate ani
practical Mirabeau, fell into the hands
Of mon Of the stamp Of Danton, Mara
and Robespierre, apostles Of anarchy
who fastened the progress of Franc,
Into the arms Of despotism under tn,
empire. X - -..,,
Russia may, by increasing the re
dictionary repressive measures, add {
Few degrees to the expressions Of autoc
racy or, If you please, bureaucracy
but the doom Of that system is writer
n like the inscription on the wall at Bel
Z shazzar's feast. It is absurd to char
acterize the st. Petersburg affair as .
merely local reform movement insti
gated by babbling demagogues. Fo
bevcral months the cry for reform ha
come from hither and yon, from the ru
raj communities and municipal bodies
u not only for the betterment Of local ad
ministration and equal rights for all
but for the participation of the peopl
in national affairs thru a constituent
assembly, instead Of the repressiv
agency of the bureaucracy. 49,.
Autocracy committed it's crownin,
blunder in, turning upon the people
seeking a peaceful interview with thei
4 sovereign. Neither M. Witte nor Min
lister Sviatopolk- Mirsky, Of whom nue.
was expected, seem to be able to civ
the car any rational counsel, May tn
GEAR read the signs Of the times, whicI
point to the collapse Of autocracy in tn
i only two countries which are cursed b,
it-Russia and the rotten entity calle,
Turkey. ~@
The Hepburn bill raises some salarie
and also an issue. The president raise
S the issue, the congressman look after tn
salaries.