The Fortnightly Review: No. CCCCLXIII, New Series [‎644r] (178/239)

PEACE AND INTERNAL POLITICS : A LETTER FROM RUSSIA. 147
Mirsky. The newspapers of St. Petersburg and Moscow boldly
discuss Constitutional projects, denounce the bureaucracy, publish
official secrets, and discount the appointments and dismissals of
Ministers, going even so far as to reprint a story made in Germany
that certain Kussian Ministers were to be put on trial for offences
in connection with the war. The Novosti, replying to the Moscow
Viedomosti s description of certain protesting Liberals as
“ lunatics,” did not hesitate to ask : “ What can be said of a
system of government against which even lunatics are driven to
revolt? ” The right of public meeting, though forbidden both by
law and by administrative precedent, has similarly been acquired
in fact. Liberty of conscience, unlike these other liberties which
have been taken practically by force majeure, now exists by law.
To crown these the Government has been obliged to hurry on the
project of national representation promised in the Buluigin
Rescript of February 18th. An entirely new Russia has sprung
into being.
The last hope of the Autocracy is that though it must let this
new Russia live, it can prevent it coming to maturity. Agitation
can no longer be stopped. But it may be retarded. In accord
with this negative policy, the popular representation scheme
entrusted to M. Buluigin, and now before the Council of Ministers,
has been planned in a way which, while disgusting the reaction
aries, will satisfy not a single Liberal. On the Constitutional
question the mass of Liberals are united. They want what they
call a ‘‘New Zealand Constitution.” In particular, they want
universal suffrage. Careful foreigners, whose first instinct is to
weigh the supposed ” fitness ” or “unfitness ” of races for Con
stitutional rule, regard this as a Liberal extravagance. The
Liberals’ point of view is different. They have heard so often
and so painfully the objection that Russia as a whole is too back-
waid foi Constitutionalism that they will not now admit that any
single province or class is too backward. It is impossible, they
say, to have an educational franchise, because that would exclude
the mass of the population of those very provinces wdiose need of
representation is greatest. Social conditions provide no other
hard and fast voting qualification. Cautious and experienced
Liberals like Professor Miliukoff declare that universal suffrage is
essential to speedy reform ; with a limited franchise, the first years
of Russia s political emancipation will be spent in combating the
demands of the voteless to participate in the national life. A
democratic Constitution given once and for all will eliminate
politics from the internal problem, and leave the road free for
productive reforms. With the demand for universal suffrage
hand in hand go other radical claims \ and it has not seemed out
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