The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-02-16
PROBLEM OF REDS
TOLD LAST NIGHT
Prof. C. r. Lavell Spoke in open
Forum In Congregational Church
on Russian Revo-
luton.
REASONS FOR TROUBLE
Grinneil College Man Explains Mat
ters Which Have illuminated IN
Revolution and Trouble in
Cars Land.

In spite of the intense cold, very
satisfactory audience greeted frol. "
Is. Layell of Grinnell last night at tne
open forum. He spoke on Inc rus.
sian Revolution, giving the historical
tsetting of the great movements IL
Russia that have eliminated IN the
soviet state. To understand the Rus
sian situation, he said, we have 10
keep in mind the great difference De-
tween Russia and western europe:
All the other countries are kindred
peoples, deriving their education, laws
and culture from Rome. But the
Russians are alien peoples, from Asia
almost exclusively Russia was evan
gelized by missionaries from Con.
stantinople, but after two hundred
wears it was conquered by the Tar
tars. AS late as the time of the
founding OF Philadelphia, the Rus-
slams were barbarians. When Peter
the Great founded St. Petersburg, at
the opening of the 18th century, ne
turned the faces of the Russians
westward, in 1903. This can be called
the beginning of the Russian revolu-
ton. Through the 18th century,
little of western influence came 10
Russia, but it came to only few.
Then came the French revolution,
1889, which broke down more OF The
wall of isolation. One dominant
quality of all Slavs is inertia, sluggish
ness of mind and action, due partly
to ignorance In the minds Of few
grew demand for the overthrow of
the aristocracy. This introduced nj
hilism, the terrorism which brought
the assassination of Alexander In
1881.
The government of the car was
beaurocracy Pan-slavism, that dream
of uniting all the slavic peoples I'm
der the rule of the czar, was great
dream, but impossible. The govern
ment of the car was corrupt and in
competent. AS consequence three
parties arose, the first, called the ca
diets, the constitutional democrats,
were the liberals, corresponding to
Cromwell, Pitt and Washington. The
second, the social revolutionists, made
up of nihilists and old liberals. The
third the social democrats, the Marx
Ian socialists, came to Russia when
industry began.
BY 1900 all observers saw that rev.
olution would soon come to Russia,
and it came in 1905, FASTENED by the
Russo-Japanese war. A general strike
was called, and the workingmen for the
first time realized their power. The
car granted the duma, which was
national form Of the village dumas
that had been in existencesince 1860.
The national duma met in 1906, to
counsel but not to legislate. The next
step was to confer legislative power
upon the duma. Among the peasants
the zemstvos were already in opera
ton. These could help the duma to
become all-Russian. Then the CO.
operative stores and factories which
had been established all over Russia
had taught the people unity Of action.
Added to these were the local soyiets,
or councils of workingmen, to whom
were afterward added the soldiers.
When the czar's government abso-
lutely failed in 1917, ending with the
abdication of the car in March, the
duma was in session, and with the
national committee of the zemstvos,
it took charge. Most vi these men
were members of the constitutional
democratic party. =,
When Soviet Met. .,
The council or soviet of working.
men in st. Petersburg met and hin.
dered the action Of the duma, when
in July kerensky took over the gov
eminent until he was compelled to
flee by the bolsheviki headed by
Lenine and Trotzky in November,
1917. This is the date of the last
great revolution.
The word bolsheviki means the
majority, and was used first in the
convention of 1903. 1t has come to be
simply a party name, as has the
word menshevik, meaning minority.
Lenine, in 1903, laid down his
premises as to a socia,istic state
which would be governed not by all
the people, but by few. Tor the good
of all. He declared that of one hun
dred people, but one was I'm eff
Gent bolshevik, thirty-nine scoundrels
and sixty fools, the one could handle
the thirty-nine and rule all the hun
dred. The new Russian state is a
republic governed by soviets of work
ingmen. The soviet is simply coun.
ell or union Of local, then city, then
county, then provincial, then regional
and then national scope, the national
or All-Russian congress of soyiets
meeting at Petrograd. Only workers