The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-04-23
Vxr HAT is the zemsky sobor? Press w dispatches announce on alter

vxr HAT is the zemsky sobor? Press M dispatches announce on alter
 nate days that this elusive body is and is not to meet; that it is and is not wanted; that 1t would and would not remove the great evils which are trou- bling the empire. It is worth while to know something about this body about which so much is said and of which so much is hoped or denied. In recent number of the Revue Bleu" of Paris, Professor Maxine Kovalevsky of the University of Moscow discusses the origin and history of this ancient parliament" He says:
 AS their origin the sobors were not assemblies composed of delegates of the different Russian classes, and the first ever convoked, that under Ivan the Ter rible. consisted of men elected from two classes-that of the warriors, known as service men, and that of the financial agents of the government. The sobor of 1566 which is the first of which we have accurate details, was composed of these men, although there were other assem- plies of a different makeup. For exam pie, some of the sobors were composed of representatives of the Muscovite peo- pie and of the nobles, as well as of rep resentatives of the clergy, and this form of sobor was even convoked for the pur- pose of electing the Czar of Muscovy. This was the case for Boris Godounoff, and for the false Demetrius, the alleged son of Ivan the Terrible.
 M. Kovalevsky says that the real his- tory of the Russian representative as- semblies properly commenced in l6l2. At that time Russia was passing through a crisis of great magnitude The enemy was at the gates of Moscow; the Polish King, Kasimir. had succeeded in appoint ing his son, Vladsas, cZar of Muscovy; the Swedes, with Delagardi, were masters of a great portion of the territory which had formerly belonged to the republic of Novgorod; and the Cossacks were ravag- ing the environs of the capital and en- deavoring to make the country accept their own pretender. At this moment a patriotic movement was started in Nijni- Novgorod, and an appeal was made to the city militia of all the towns which were still free from the enemy. A warrior, as- sisted by a simple merchant, was able to united under the Russian flag the whole country for the good of orthodoxy and the Russian state and to this war rlor and this merchant we owe the as- sembling of the great sobor of 16l3, to which the towns as well as the country sent their delegates. To these men the honor is due of having collected the money necessary for the defense of the country.
 By means of the money collected this sobor drove the Poles and Swedes from the country, pacified the Cossacks, and succeeded in restoring that regime which had been established after the dynasty of Rurik, a regime of which serfdom formed the base and military benefits the apex. To this sobor is also due the honor of having eliminated all of the foreign pre- tenders and having placed on the Rus sian throne a young nobleman who did not belong to princey family, but who was related by alliance to the extinct dynasty of Rurik. This young man, Michael Romanoff whose father languish- ed a hostage in a Polish dungeon, was not able to hold the reins of government himself but was supported by the sobor for many years. in public and private affairs. During the second half of the reign of Michael the sobors became less frequent especially from the day that the father of the czar returned from Poland and was named chief of the Russian church, sharing the throne with his son. During the last years of the reign, how ever. the sobors again obtained their full powers. when Azov was captured from