The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1919-02-01
SUDDEN CHANGE
UPSETS RUSSIA
Albert B. Clarified Discusses
Bo|shevism At Meeting Of
Trades Assembly.

The delegates to the Federated
Trades Assembly last Friday evening
listened to very able address on
An,ericaMization by Mr.. Albert B.
Clarified, secretary Of the local COM
mittee. The speaker was born IN i,us-
STA, is an exile from Siberia where he
was sent as a political prisoner, and
is most familiar with Russian life and
! conditions.
Diverting from his main subject Mr..
Clarified gave an inspiring talk on
| Russian politics. He referred to the
reign Of the car, the character Of the
! people, and graphically pictured how
the stage was set for Bolshevism. In
that portion of his address he spoke
| as follows:
A Bloody Dynasty.
I'm March, 1917, Nicholas Roman
! off, the representative of dynasty
that stood for the maintenance of
every evil from which the liberal
| forces of Russia sought relief, uncon-
ditionally surrendered his bloody
throne and the destinies of Russia.
For three long centuries the Rom
anoffs kept the great Empire in dark
| ness and despotism. Nicholas the Sec
ond and last was a typical Romanoff.
His unfitness to lead in reform was
obvious. He had granted privileges
under pressure and revoked them
with the return Of opportunity. He
had exploited the health and morals
of his subjects by the encoura cement
Of cruelty toward the peasantry and
! the collection of hundreds of millions
! h1r Io So1o ne
peasants-the "drunkards" budget.
Revolution From Without.
HE had allowed the liberal forces
OF Russia to elect representatives as
| "felons" under the penal CODE He
had dissolved. the Duma at will, with
the proclamation that the Gear was
responsible "only before Gods throne"
Russia faced throughout her history
| Asia and the East, and Car like the
| late Mich las makes on one the Curl
Gus impression of Tartar chieftain
| dressed in European uniform.
The Russian revolution came as a
| result Of defeat from without, on the
battlefields of Eastern Prussia and
Poland and not as a result of readi-
ness for democracy from within. At
| the opening Of the Twentieth Century
only 10 per cent Of Russia's popula-
| ton lived in cities. The great mass
Of peasantry, like an unleavened lump
| lives on the land, heavy, inert, litter
| ate and superstitious. Its servitude
| till now has been unrelieved even by
the reflection of the busy changing in
dustrial life Of the West.
! Peasants We're Serfs.
| THE serf in Russia owing to econ
omic causes, has been in a condition
of utter dependence on the great land
holding mobiles. He has been the pri-
vate property of his master, like the
negro slave in the ante-be1lum days.
The peasants were driven under the
lash to raise the grain for export and
they have been starving in the midst
of the increasing plenty they pro-
duced. Underfed, they are the. con-
slant prey Of epidemics, physical and
mental
There is in the Russian character
a kind of demoniac trait, more easily
felt than described, but long recog-
nized in its art, it's literature, its
music-a kind of obsession Of despair
ing earnestness, fatalistic, mystical
and irrational. This character turned
into revolutionary channels is showing
a puritanical toughness. 1t makes
revolution a religion. It implants in
the abnormal and degenerative minds
the conviction that government per Sc
is an evil Nihilism was the name OF
4 it in the past and Bolshevism it is
called today, but its nature is the
same.
i BOlshevism Is Inherent.
Revolution instead of becoming a