Los Angeles herald., 1905-05-21
RUSSIA FREED
FROM FANATIC
P0BEDoNosTSEFFS GRASP IS
BROKEN
CONTROLLED TWO EMPER0RS
Aged Proeurator General, Embttered
and Confined to His Home, Be-
lleves the Government Has
Gone Mad
CONTROLLED TWO EMPERoRs
BY Associated Press.

by RbHOCldteu EEtbo'
ST. PETERSBURG, May 20, 1858
D. m.-The power of M. Pobedonostseff,
procurator general Of the holy synod,
who for rs years, since he induced
Emperor Alexander II to overthrow
Loris Melikoff and abandon his whole
reform policy, has been dominating
the reactlonary influence Of the Rus
sian state, seems shattered at last.
He is over so years of age, is confined
to bed practically continuously, be-
lieves he sees everything for which he
fought slipping away and Is dying an
embittered old man. Yet, with the
threads of life slipping he still protests
with all the fire of his remarkable
mentality
M. Pobedonostseff has been denomi-
mated the fanatic of the west. The
secret of his wonderful sway over the
minds Of two emperors has been his
mistaken belief in and devotion to the
principles of autocracy and orthodoxy
as the twin cornerstones of Russia's
future greatness. Holy Russia, he be-
lieved with all the intensity of his soul,
was destined to dominate the globe
and he was ever fond Of asserting, as
he did to Senator Beveridge of
Indiana:
Russia is not a state; Russia is a
world"
Fought Against Reforms
Figuratively M. Pobedonostseff spat
upon the civilization of the west.
Democracy to him was irresponsible
despotism and liberty was license, and
he was especially hostile to free
press.
In the council of the empire for
quarter of a century none Of the en-
perors ministers could hold his own
agains M. Pobedonostseff and his vic
tories were legion. With all his
might he struggled, in spite Of failing
health, against the new reform move
ment, and in recent months, when he
was unable to win outright, he man
aged at least to secure the appearance
of a draw by inspiring his imperial
master to balance the reform rescript
with the reactionary manifesto.
His last signal triumph was the
blocking of the scheme Of Metropolitan
Antonius for a church council and
restoration Of the patriarchiate, and
in having the satisfaction of seeing its
author practically banished to the
Caucasus
The crowning defeat of M. Pobedo-
nostseff came with the imperial ukase
striking the shackles from religion, the
blow being all the harder because it
with delivered on the anniversary of
his Jubilee as procurator Of the Holy
Synod.
Has Lost All Hope
To intimates who are admitted to his
bedroom, M. Pobedonostseff talks bit
erly. He says he has lost hope and
washes his hands of everything. He
sees only ruin ahead for church and
state.
The government, he declares, has
gone mad, and to allow the people to
play with questions of state as they
would with new toys is deplorable.
The crisis he attributes to the lack of
strong and commanding statesman,
and he severely blames the emperor
for his weakness in yielding to the inn
portunities of the Liberals. On Fri
day he said to a friend:
Ten years ago one of the emperor's
subjects would have been exled to
Siberia for what the emperor now pro-
claims in his imperial manifesto"
Strange to say, Prince Mestchersky,
editor of the Grashdanin and political
defender of the autocracy. gloats over
the downfall of his religious rival.
While admitting the procurator gem
erals passionate love and veneration
fon the church Prince Mestchersky de-
scribes him as the incarnation of mega
tion not only with regard to foreign
ideas but toward anything new.
"If Christ himself should appear be-
fore Pobedonostseff," Prince Mestcher-
sky says, "he would fall down upon his
knees and worship him, but he would
deny the living word. Pobedonostseff
will brook no opposition. He has dom
mated men and made them puppets to
his WILL"