Russia | Page 5

Production and Export of Grain--How Far this Has Benefited the Landed Proprietors.


CHAPTER XXXI
THE EMANCIPATED PEASANTRY
The Effects of Liberty--Difficulty of Obtaining Accurate Information--Pessimist Testimony of the Proprietors--Vague Replies of the Peasants--My Conclusions in 1877--Necessity of Revising Them--My Investigations Renewed in 1903--Recent Researches by Native Political Economists--Peasant Impoverishment Universally Recognised--Various Explanations Suggested--Demoralisation of the Common People--Peasant Self-government--Communal System of Land Tenure--Heavy Taxation--Disruption of Peasant Families--Natural Increase of Population--Remedies Proposed--Migration--Reclamation of Waste Land--Land-purchase by Peasantry--Manufacturing Industry-- Improvement of Agricultural Methods--Indications of Progress.


CHAPTER XXXII
THE ZEMSTVO AND THE LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT
Necessity of Reorganising the Provincial Administration--Zemstvo Created in 1864--My First Acquaintance with the Institution-- District and Provincial Assemblies--The Leading Members--Great Expectations Created by the Institution--These Expectations Not Realised--Suspicions and Hostility of the Bureaucracy--Zemstvo Brought More Under Control of the Centralised Administration--What It Has Really Done--Why It Has Not Done More---Rapid Increase of the Rates--How Far the Expenditure Is Judicious--Why the Impoverishment of the Peasantry Was Neglected--Unpractical, Pedantic Spirit--Evil Consequences--Chinese and Russian Formalism-- Local Self-Government of Russia Contrasted with That of England-- Zemstvo Better than Its Predecessors--Its Future.


CHAPTER XXXIII
THE NEW LAW COURTS
Judicial Procedure in the Olden Times--Defects and Abuses--Radical Reform--The New System--Justices of the Peace and Monthly Sessions-- The Regular Tribunals--Court of Revision--Modification of the Original Plan--How Does the System Work?--Rapid Acclimatisation-- The Bench--The Jury--Acquittal of Criminals Who Confess Their Crimes--Peasants, Merchants, and Nobles as Jurymen--Independence and Political Significance of the New Courts.


CHAPTER XXXIV
REVOLUTIONARY NIHILISM AND THE REACTION
The Reform-enthusiasm Becomes Unpractical and Culminates in Nihilism--Nihilism, the Distorted Reflection of Academic Western Socialism--Russia Well Prepared for Reception of Ultra-Socialist Virus--Social Reorganisation According to Latest Results of Science--Positivist Theory--Leniency of Press-censure--Chief Representatives of New Movement--Government Becomes Alarmed-- Repressive Measures--Reaction in the Public--The Term Nihilist Invented--The Nihilist and His Theory--Further Repressive Measures-- Attitude of Landed Proprietors--Foundation of a Liberal Party-- Liberalism Checked by Polish Insurrection--Practical Reform Continued--An Attempt at Regicide Forms a Turning-point of Government's Policy--Change in Educational System--Decline of Nihilism.


CHAPTER XXXV
SOCIALIST PROPAGANDA, REVOLUTIONARY AGITATION, AND TERRORISM
Closer Relations with Western Socialism--Attempts to Influence the Masses--Bakunin and Lavroff--"Going in among the People"--The Missionaries of Revolutionary Socialism--Distinction between Propaganda and Agitation--Revolutionary Pamphlets for the Common People--Aims and Motives of the Propagandists--Failure of Propaganda--Energetic Repression--Fruitless Attempts at Agitation-- Proposal to Combine with Liberals--Genesis of Terrorism--My Personal Relations with the Revolutionists--Shadowers and Shadowed-- A Series of Terrorist Crimes--A Revolutionist Congress-- Unsuccessful Attempts to Assassinate the Tsar--Ineffectual Attempt at Conciliation by Loris Melikof--Assassination of Alexander II.-- The Executive Committee Shows Itself Unpractical--Widespread Indignation and Severe Repression--Temporary Collapse of the Revolutionary Movement--A New Revolutionary Movement in Sight.


CHAPTER XXXVI
INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND THE PROLETARIAT
Russia till Lately a Peasant Empire--Early Efforts to Introduce Arts and Crafts--Peter the Great and His Successors--Manufacturing Industry Long Remains an Exotic--The Cotton Industry--The Reforms of Alexander II.--Protectionists and Free Trade--Progress under High Tariffs--M. Witte's Policy--How Capital Was Obtained--Increase of Exports--Foreign Firms Cross the Customs Frontier--Rapid Development of Iron Industry--A Commercial Crisis--M. Witte's Position Undermined by Agrarians and Doctrinaires--M. Plehve a Formidable Opponent--His Apprehensions of Revolution--Fall of M. Witte--The Industrial Proletariat


CHAPTER XXXVII
THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN ITS LATEST PHASE
Influence of Capitalism and Proletariat on the Revolutionary Movement--What is to be Done?--Reply of Plekhanof--A New Departure-- Karl Marx's Theories Applied to Russia--Beginnings of a Social Democratic Movement--The Labour Troubles of 1894-96 in St. Petersburg--The Social Democrats' Plan of Campaign--Schism in the Party--Trade-unionism and Political Agitation--The Labour Troubles of 1902--How the Revolutionary Groups are Differentiated from Each Other--Social Democracy and Constitutionalism--Terrorism--The Socialist Revolutionaries--The Militant Organisation--Attitude of the Government--Factory Legislation--Government's Scheme for Undermining Social Democracy--Father Gapon and His Labour Association--The Great Strike in St. Petersburg--Father Gapon goes over to the Revolutionaries.


CHAPTER XXXVIII
TERRITORIAL EXPANSION AND FOREIGN POLICY
Rapid Growth of Russia--Expansive Tendency of Agricultural Peoples-- The Russo-Slavonians--The Northern Forest and the Steppe-- Colonisation--The Part of the Government in the Process of Expansion--Expansion towards the West--Growth of the Empire Represented in a Tabular Form--Commercial Motive for Expansion--The Expansive Force in the Future--Possibilities of Expansion in Europe--Persia, Afghanistan, and India--Trans-Siberian Railway and Weltpolitik--A Grandiose Scheme--Determined Opposition of Japan-- Negotiations and War--Russia's Imprudence Explained--Conclusion.


CHAPTER XXXIX
THE PRESENT SITUATION
Reform or Revolution?--Reigns of Alexander II. and Nicholas II. Compared and Contrasted--The Present Opposition--Various Groups-- The Constitutionalists--Zemski Sobors--The Young Tsar Dispels Illusions--Liberal Frondeurs--Plehve's Repressive Policy-- Discontent Increased by the War--Relaxation and Wavering under Prince Mirski--Reform Enthusiasm--The Constitutionalists Formulate their Demands--The Social Democrats--Father Gapon's Demonstration-- The Socialist-Revolutionaries--The Agrarian Agitators--The Subject- Nationalities--Numerical Strength of the Various Groups--All United on One Point--Their Different Aims--Possible Solutions of the Crisis--Difficulties of Introducing Constitutional Regime--A Strong Man Wanted--Uncertainty of the Future.

PREFACE
The first edition of this work, published early in January, 1877, contained the concentrated results of my studies during an uninterrupted residence of six years in Russia--from the beginning of 1870 to the end of 1875. Since that time I have spent in the European and Central Asian provinces, at different periods, nearly two years more; and in the intervals I have endeavoured to keep in touch with the progress of events. My observations