The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-07-28
CLOSING MOSCOW BOOKSHOPS.
INSTANCES or NEW FEELING
AMONG RUSSIAN PEOPLE.
Literature That II Read and How n IL MS
trlbuted Present Power and Infuenco
Of the Noble Arbitrarily Imposed
Fines Upon Newspapers for Police Fund.

I" Wv ~ hNhNP's''s
Fines Upon Newspapers Tor Police Fund.
II IL not two years since the Gar prom
ised over the sign manual political free
dom to his people. and in that short space OF
time the whole face OF Russia has changed.
Sc far IA the people of Russia are con-
oerned, writes the Moscow correspondent
Of the London Evening STANDARD. the old
regime IL still in full force. yet the people
have ceased to DO impressed with a sense
Of their servile condition. They no longer
react. "a the scientist says, 10 the biting
acids of arbitrary tyranny.
Those who know and yet despise the
Russian people and they are mostly them
selves Russians, but OF the ancient caste OF
1nobles"-explain the change as due 10
that preeminent quality Of the Russian.
good nature" otherwise an infinite capac-
iy for sufferance. II is upon this tradi-
tional quality of the Russian people that
all the schemes OF reform" propounded
by the Government" are ultimately based.
They all prcsuppose that the Russian will
continue for ever to suffer the whips and
scorns Of a caste which was practically
destroyed forty years age at the emanci-
patton.
The anobles- OF Russia. az such, nave
very little power and influence in the coun-
try to-day: yet it il for this class alone that
the Government" still persists in passing
arbitrary relief bills" the latest of which
is the new electoral law. Eighteen months
ago a raging flame OF. popular indignation
would a swept across the length and
breadth of the land. To-day everything is
received with a shrug of the shoulders and
an expression of confidence in the future.
-.--.. zl.a.. - ~,,l nGatala ~ M
longer heard with a scowl. but with tongue
in cheek.
The prisons and police iockups are filled
to suffocation; executions by martial law
take place by threes and fives every day;
long trains of exiles to remote corners OF
the empire leave Moscow every few days;
no man may speak above his breath any
of the opinions which n~inety-nine men out
of every hundred nave held for a year past.
and spoken of without reserve up 10 a week
ago; newspapers appear in the form OF
sheets of advertisements. the rest blank,
or Use the language Of the Sphinx. OF even
cease altogether-everything in a word il
going on IA in the good old times.
But the people bear themselves with con-
fidence. exercise caution without fear.
and no longer rage impotently. III am not
very greatly mistaken this is no more the
Russian good nature"-by which is really
meant what we call either apathy or stu
~pidity-but a new feeling altogether in
Russia. The people have been "constitu-
tionalized." and nothing else matters;
Whatever the bureaucracy may do the END
will be the same; IN fact the more glaringly
bureaucratic" they show themselves now
the sooner tina end will come.
| happened to witness in one OF the prin-
cipal streets of Moscow recently the cere-
mony Of CLOSING a bookshop," one Of the
favorite police methods Of repression.
The district chief Of police was afixing his
seals TO the door in the presence OF an
amused crowd. while soto roce passed
around good humored remarks which may
be rendered AT it again. -The same old
camel" and the like.
In fact people rather pitied the police,
the ordinary police, for their futility. The
ordinary police rather pity themselves.
threatening strikes in the last year. but they
are still under the orders Of the secret
political police, or gendarmerie, the "blue
pigeons" whom all Russia hates. fears and
despises. II ia by orders based on gen.
darmerie spies information hat bookshops
are shut and almost every other act OF
senseless tyranny il carried out. These
are the officials who spend lavishly he re-
sources Of an impoverished treasury in
creating political crimes and incidentally
demoralizing the public by their universal
spy system.
The other day | saw a couple Of izvosciki
(the Russian cabby")-me ~boys-refuse
two fares in succession. and scenting
something interesting contrived to hear the
following sugg s-tive exchange OF ideas:
What do you get, them" Eight rubles a
day" (wh ich is a fortnight's wages for his
class OF W ork). $50 did |, until | traced So
and So, and now they give me ten rubles
a day" They were police spies, and could
afford TO neglect fares under the circum-
stances.
Another class Of people whose occupation
enables them to hang about the streets
indefinitely is the beggars. and in spite
of the strictest orders against allowing
beggars TO loiter their number has never
been so great as now, nor dld the regular
ordinary police Gyer pay 80 little attention
to them. Indeed. one gets To know the
beggars. and ] know of men who in the
past few months have appeared indifferently
as beggars. as newsboys and as policemen
in uniform. Russia laughs, and is not much
impressed.
In the last three years the State has
doubled the expenditure on police. the
acknowledged expenditure; that u.s.. apart
from the various secret service funds that
go for the same purpose. For instance,
in the last few days the Government"
Unsolicited more than two thousand pounds
in arbitrarily imposed fines on the Moscow
newspapers. The same system il in prog
ress all over Russia. The money so col
lected goes to "A special fund at the Ministry
Of the Interior for increasing the emolu-
ments OF the police"
But to return to the bookshop question.
In the last twelve months bookshops deal
ing with the literature now solely in demand
In Russia have sprung up like mushrooms
after rain in every street OF any Importance.
As fast as one is closed on suspicion OF selling
political pamphlets which do not propagate
the ideas Of the Government" another
opens. There is very little difficulty in pro-
curing publications Of every kind whether
forbidden by the police or not. When
there is a public 10 buy for cash n hundred
thousand copies Of IA book in one day no
amount Of despotic repression will prevent
the demand being met.
One of the last successes. the record by
an Ex-Governor of his career in Office. sold
25,OO0 copies in a week and il now eagerly
sought at a high premium. These are not
isolated instances by any means. Russia
IL making up for lost time; for a century
or more past she has been denied access 10
the knowledge most vitality interesting to
the nation; now il is coming suddenly upon
her. Five years ago Russia was living
on TRANSACTIONS from English. French.
German. Swedish. Italian. DC; to-day the
only TRANSACTIONS to he found are those of
n~oIitical pamphlets. Novels are n drug