The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-02-11
The Gear and the Revolution.

LIE Gar anu the EeVO1uLlOn.
There are those who still profess to
believe that there is no revolution in
progress in Russia; that the occur
rences Of the last three months in that
country suggest only an industrial
strike, given potency by the injection
of socialistic oratory and mutterings of
nihilistic terrorism. The actual con-
ditions, however, indicate that there is
something very like revolution IN
the autocratic empire, when the only
public bodies endowed by imperial
ukase with any semblance Of a repre-
sentative character in the provinces,
the district and provincial zemstvos,
permitted by the car to hold a con-
gress in St. Petersburg, demand, in
addition to the enlargement Of their
purely local functions, that there be
regular participation Of national rep
resentatives sitting as an especially
elected body, to make laws, regulate
the revenues and expenditures and to
control the legality Of the action Of the
administration. Prince Sviatopolk-
Mirsky secured an interview for a dep
utation of. the zemstvos with the czar,
who, after considering the program Of
reform, replied favorably to the de-
mands except those relating to popular
participation in national affairs thru
parliamentary body. ,4..-.
From that time to the present pc
titions from all European Russia have
been coming in to the car making IA
tional demands for the change indi-
Gated, which mean the revolutionizing
Of the autocratic government; revolu-
tion, indeed, in as true sense as was
the action of the English barons when
they brought to King J John Magma Char
ia for his signature. The suspicion and
jealousy Of the English people as to
their liberties have, thru the ages,
proved the security of their privileges.
There are times when suspicion becomes
sterling virtue, and the suspicion of
| the Russian reformers as to the eff
fectuation Of the promises Of the car
is stimulating them to persistent agita-
ton, the czar having SO. far committed
himself to the zemstvo demands, ex-
cept as to constitutional government,
! that he will have to make show Of
backing his ukases with performance.
Two years ago the czar issued mani
festo based upon Demtchinsky's report
on the bureaucracy, in which he de-
clared the state was ripe for reforms
which would "deyelop the welfare and
fundamental pillars Of Russian village
life and Of the nobility and peasantry,"
and revision Of the laws affecting the
rural population was promised. The
zemstvo congress at st. Petersburg, in
November, while it's demand for ma
tional parliament was rudely denied,
stimulated the czar to make his council
Of ministers begin the construction Of
a series of laws which embody the es-
sential points of the English Magma
Charta. If such is the result, the, con-
i tinuance Of the agitation will inevi-
tably sap the foundations of the totter-
ling autocracy.
4 The reactionaries insist the Russian
people are "unftted for any govern.
ment but the autocracy. If they are,
they would not be showing as they
are such rational interest in represen.
tative government. The car himself
knows that Russia has traditions of
4 the vetch or popular assembly; Of the
ancient republic Of Novgorod; Of the
early establishment Of principles of a
wise and discriminating equity; and
when the power Of the sovereign was
controlled by the states general Of the
nation Despotic Russia has been es.
tablished on the ruins Of the old re.
public Of Novgorod. The safety Of the
car depends upon his progress toward
some of the equities Of the elder day.