Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-14
Russian Prince Kropotkin
Arraigns Car Nicholas
'pecial Correspondence Of The Star.

DR1NCE PETER KROPOTKIN, IA.
nous Russian writer, scientist and
revolutionary, has scathingly attacked
the car as the man responsible for the
atrocities which in the last two years
have reached unprecedented proportions.
The charges are made In a speech which
Prince Kropotldn was to have delivered
at a mass meeting called In London to
protest against present-day conditions
in Russia. and although he was prevented
by illness from delivering 1t, he sent q
draft for publication.
There are In this country" he writes.
"a few persons who consider 1t q good
international policy to maintain that the
present car is not responsible for the
shameless reaction which now triumphs
in Russia: that all this is the work Of his
ministers. No statement could be more
remote form truth and more harmful.
IF Nicholas II does not take an active
part in the details ofagovernment it is he
who settles the broad leading lines Of the
policy Of his ministers: 1t is he who con-
tinually interferes in their acts-always to
direct them tn the sense OF the darkest
reaction.
Anti Semitism; the persecution Of the
nom Russian nationalities; the carte
blanche given to the so-called Union of
the Russian people, and the impunity
accorded to the tools Of this union-the
murderers Of the three members Of the
duma, Hertzenstein, Karavaef and Vol
los; the high patronage accorded to such
medieval sort of fanatics as the monk
the priest Eliodor: the wrecking Of the
universities; the tortures In the prisons.
accomplished under the high protection
of the throne-in all these directions we
have seen the open. and often demon
strative, personal interference Of the
present autOcrat.
.'The result Of all this IL terrible. Ma
tionalities like the Firms and Georgians.
which had hitherto been the best frineds
Of the Russian nationality, have been
made bitter foes Of 1t. since everything
that Is dear to them Is trampled under
foot by the present government The
same must be said also Of the nearly
seven million Of Jews and tho consider
able Mussulman population OF the en-
pire.
4
with the Russians themselves things
stand NO better. The universities have
ors have been driven out. and hundreds
Of chairs are now vacant. All the efforts
Of the nation to get universal elementary
education are paralyzed by these dark
forces which find such q cordial recep-
ton in the back rooms Of the cars
palace.
what is worse than all the natural
calamities is that the demoralixing in
duence of the present regime is pene-
trating SO deeply into the body social Of
Russia, that years and years will be re-
Quired before its evil work will be root
ed out. When every subaltern police Of
ficer knows that he may violate any ex-
listing law, do anything he likes and
even sneer at the highest judicial insti-
tution-the senate-provided he makes a
profession of religious veneration to the
person Of the autocrat car: when the
head Of the police OF south Russian
town who has just been condemned by q
law court for having killed in broad day
light two men, simply because he was in
furiated by their resistance to his illegal
exactions-when such q man knows that
he will be pardoned by the car IL he
only expresses his devotion to autocracy
in words sufficiently sorvile-when q
country has come to this. then the abyss
of depravity which prevails now in all
branches Of the administration ceases to
be a wonder.
'.Worse than that. One cannot wonder
that amidst the young generation all
hope in human progress, all faith in
human nature are dying out to such an
appalling extent that self-annihilation Is
considered now by many Of this honest
conditions Of life. No wonder that sui
eide is the arm they resort to as their
only possibility to utter their last cry OF
despair"