The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1915-04-01
THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE AND ITS PEOPLE
Continued from page u

st. Louis, Odessa of Pittsburg, LODI
of Milwaukee Riga and Kiev of oul
Minneapolis. Even Siberia has a
number of cities with a population
from 10000 to $4,000.
i The great obstacle in the way OF
Russian development is the political
condition existing in that country.
Russia is to day an absolute antocrat
liz spite of the douma. The douma
is powerless to introduce legislation
which conflicts with the Tsar's
wishes, and he can at any time issue
and enforce any decree without the
douma's permission or approval.
How such state of autocracy is toll
Grated by a nation of such immense
population is declared by Rabbi
Lefkovits to be a result of the Rus
sian character of submission, due to
union of church and state. The
Tsar as head of the church, can in
woke both military and ecclesiastic
power to enforce his DEGREES. The
Tsar and the Mobiles like to think
that there is something peculiar
about their country and people that
make them incapable of self govern
ment; in fact thy firmly believe their
mode of government is for the best
interests of the governed; while there
is a growing class of educated men
and women. who think otherwise.
There is the division between men
who build up classical tradition,
but are not quite big enough to give
the tradition the new life it SO bad
ly needs, and the men who reject
the past, altho they are not quite
sure of the future, or even Of the
present. The fate of the country
lies between the autocratic power,
surrounded by its military and &C.
clesiastic princes and dukes, an d
that class of intellectuals, or so
called reformers, who are waking
the people to their rights and to a
sense of liberty. Of the present
ruling class of all republic
countries it may be said that no
matter how great their genius and
ability may be, they are enough the
product of history and environment
to prevent their flats from ever be-
ing acceptable laws to later gen
Grafton. The truly wise know that
freedom is essential to permanence.
We have then in Russia a people
whose traditions are curious COM
mingling of the scandinavian mill
tary spirit with the Slav love tor
community life and government.
The Tartar invaslons forced these
communities 10 unite for their NUT
ual defense, and at the same time
undoubtedly left tinge of barbar-
ity behind that still crops out upon
occasion. However, the study of
Russian history suggests that the
character of the people and of all its
institutions, civil and political, was
strongly influenced by it's medieval
religion. In so far as it was Christ
ian it brought the country IN its
early history into sympathetic rela-
ton with the west, bnt in as much
as it was Byzantine and came from
Constantinople, being out of sympa-
thy with the Slavs of Poland who
were Roman Catholic, and the Ger
mans and Scandinavians farther
north who were Protestant, it clos
ed up the main line of expansion
which eastern culture would other
wise have taken, aud her face was
henceforth turned to the east. Its
language, both spoken and written,
also had great effect upon the es-
arrangement of Russia from the west
of Europe. The influence of Rus
sian speech was wholly isolating be-
cause of difficulty in translating the
strange characters. both printed and
written. 1t has bound the country
to models of literature and types OF
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