Mary Platt Parmele - A Short History of Russia

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The King's first act after his escape was to issue a royal proclamation
disclaiming with horror the edict degrading and casting infamous
reflections upon his beloved Queen. It also rescinded the edicts he
had signed under compulsion. It said: "As to the Top Knot, no one
shall be forced. Do as you please"; and he continues: "Traitors by
their crimes have made trouble. Soldiers, come and protect us! You
are our children! You are all pardoned. But when you meet the chief
traitors" (naming them) "cut off their heads at once and bring them.

"Soldiers, attend us at the Russian Legation."

Within an hour all were aware of the repeal of the Top Knot decree, and
several of the cabinet officers had been beheaded on the streets of
Seoul.

Although the Government of the Mikado was innocent of any complicity
with this crime, renegade Japanese officials had been leaders in the
plot, and Japanese ascendancy had received a severe blow. A point had
also been secured by Russia, when the King for one year ruled his
kingdom from her legation at Seoul. It is easy to conceive that the
distracted man, grateful for protection, did at this time, as is
supposed, consent to the purchase of lands and cutting of timber by the
Russians on the Yalu, which the following year (1896) expanded into a
grant of an extended tract, and became the centre of a large Russian
industry in Northern Korea. And it is significant that Admiral
Alexieff was one of the prime movers in this project, which to Japan
seemed to have a thinly veiled political purpose, and which became, in
fact, one of the chief _casus belli_.

In 1899 the Tsar issued an order for the creation of a city on the Bay
of Talien-Wan; and in two years Dalny stood in massive completeness,
with docks and wharves and defences which had cost millions of dollars.
Millions more had been expended upon Port Arthur, and still more
millions upon the railway binding Manchuria to Russia with bands of
steel. This did not look like temporary occupation; like pitching her
tent for a passing emergency. Still, in the frequent interchange of
notes with the powers, there was never an acknowledgment that a
permanent occupation was intended. In displeasure at these repeated
violations of solemn pledges the Western Powers held aloof; the United
States and Great Britain, however, insistently declaring that the
"open-door" policy must be maintained, _i.e._, that all nations must
have equal industrial and commercial opportunities in Manchuria and
Korea, and also that the integrity of China must be preserved.

In the hope of arriving at a peaceful adjustment of their differences,
Japan made a proposition based upon mutual concessions. She would
accept the Russian economic status in Manchuria if Russia would
recognize hers in Korea.

Russia absolutely refused to admit Japan's right to have anything
whatever to say concerning Manchuria--the land which eight years before
was hers by right of conquest, and from which Russia for her own
purposes had ejected her. Admiral Alexieff was Viceroy of the Eastern
Provinces, and to him the Tsar confided the issues of peace or war.
Confident in her enormous weight and military prestige, Russia
undoubtedly believed that the Japanese must in the end submit. But
after five months of fruitless negotiations the patience of the
Government at Tokio was exhausted. On Feb. 8, 1904, the Japanese fleet
made a sudden descent upon Port Arthur. This act, so audaciously
planned, resulted in the destruction of battle-ships, cruisers,
torpedo-boats--nine in all--to which were added the day following two
more battle-ships, destroyed at Chemulpo.

[Illustration: Scene during the Russo-Japanese War: Russian soldiers on
the march in Manchuria.]

There was dismay and grief at St. Petersburg. The Tsar, realizing that
he had been misled regarding the chances of peace and also the military
strength of the foe, recalled Admiral Alexieff from Port Arthur.
Admiral Makaroff, Russia's military hero and ablest commander,
succeeded him. Just as his invigorating influence was being felt in
awakened energy and courage, there came another disaster more terrible
than the first. The Petropavlovsk, flag-ship of the fleet, coming in
contact with a submarine mine or boat, was torn to pieces and sank in
two minutes, with all on board, including Admiral Makaroff and his
entire staff of seventeen officers.

Still benumbed by these crushing blows, the Russians were bewildered by
the electrical swiftness with which the campaign developed, moving on
lines almost identical with those in the war with China, ten years
before. A miracle of discipline and minute perfection in method and
detail, the Mikado's army of little men first secured control in Korea,
then the command of the sea. Then one army division crossed the Yalu
with three converging lines, moving toward Mukden, pressing a
retreating army before them. Then, still moving in the grooves of the
last war, there was a landing of troops at Pitsewo, threatening Dalny
and Port Arthur, the latter already isolated, with railroad and
telegraphic lines cut. Seeing the capture of Dalny was imminent,
without a pause the Russians mined the harbor, docks and defences which
had cost millions of dollars, and the city created by fiat was by fiat
doomed to destruction.

Behind this life and death struggle with a foreign foe, another
struggle nearer home was being profoundly affected by these unexpected
calamities. An unpopular war cannot afford to be an unsuccessful one.
This clash with Japan was distinctly the outcome of bureaucratic
ambitions and policy. It had not one single issue in which the people
who were fighting its battles and bearing its burdens were even
remotely interested. And then again--a despotism must not show signs
of weakness. Its power lies in the fiction of its invincibility.
Liberals and Progressives of all shades, wise and not wise, saw their
opportunity. Finns and Poles grew bolder. The air was thick with
threats and demands and rumors of revolt.

At this critical moment M. Von Plehve, the leader of the party of
reaction, the very incarnation of the spirit of old Russia, of
Pobiedonostseff and the Holy Synod, was in power.

In 1903 there had occurred a shocking massacre of Jews at Kishineff.
This culmination of a prolonged anti-Semitic agitation was quickly
followed by an imperial edict, promising, among other reforms,
religious liberty for all. With M. de Witte, the leader of the
progressive party, to administer this new policy, a better day seemed
to be dawning. But under the benumbing pressure of autocratic
influences, and with his characteristic infirmity of purpose, the Tsar
almost immediately removed M. de Witte, replacing him with M. Von
Plehve, in whose hands the reforming edict became practically
inoperative, and in fact all reforms impossible.

On June 15, 1904, General Bobrikov, the recently appointed Russian
Governor of Finland, was assassinated by the son of a Finnish Senator
within the walls of the Senate. Quickly following this, July 28th, M.
Von Plehve was killed on the streets of St. Petersburg by the explosion
of a dynamite bomb. The Tsar, recognized the meaning of these events,
and quickly appointed Prince Mirski, known by his liberal tendencies,
to Von Plehve's place in the Ministry of the Interior. One of the
first acts of the new minister was the authorizing of a meeting of all
the Presidents of the _Zemstvos_ for consultation over national
conditions. When it is recalled that the _Zemstvo_ is a Peasants'
Court, that it is a representative assembly of the humblest class in
the Empire, and a gift which accompanied emancipation bestowed for
their own protection--when this is remembered, we realize the full
significance of this act of M. Von Plehve's successor. This first
conference of the heads of the _Zemstvos_, which met at Moscow, Nov.,
1904, by permission of Prince Mirski, contained the germ of a
representative government. It was an acknowledgment of a principle
hitherto denied; a recognition never before made of the right of the
people to come together for the purpose of discussing measures of
governmental policy.

In the meantime the Japanese, irresistible as fate, were breaking down
one after another of the supposed impregnable defences about Port
Arthur; climbing over hills of their own dead, fathers, sons, and
brothers, in order to do it. Within the beleaguered fort the supply of
ammunition was running low, only one-quarter of the defenders were
left, and disease was slaying and incapacitating these. Nearer and
nearer came the rain of fire. In vain they listened for the booming of
Kuropatkin's guns sweeping down from the north. In vain they watched
for the smoke of the long-promised Baltic fleet approaching from the
south. No rescue came. On the last night of the year, after
consultation with his officers, General Stoessel signed the conditions
of capitulation to General Nogi. The key to the Russian power in the
East was lost. When the new year dawned the Japanese flag floated from
the Citadel on the Golden Hill, and the greatest siege of modern times
was ended.

On Jan. 1, 1905, General Stoessel wrote to his Imperial Master: "Great
Sovereign, pardon us! We have done everything humanly possible. Judge
us, but be merciful!" He then goes on to state the conditions which
would make further resistance a wanton sacrifice of the lives of those
remaining in the garrison.

St. Petersburg was stunned by the receipt of this intelligence; and
every day added to its dismay: Oyama, leaving the captured fortress
behind him, sweeping the Russians back from Mukden; Kuropatkin sending
despairing messages to the Tsar, who, bewildered and trembling before
his own subjects at home, was still vibrating between the two widely
opposing influences--the spirit of the old despotism, and that of a new
age which clamored to be admitted.

Rescript followed quickly upon rescript; one sounding as if written by
de Witte, the other as if dictated by Pobiedonostseff; while alarming
rumors were coming hourly from Moscow, Finland, Poland, the Crimea, the
Caucasus; and the great fabric before which the world had trembled
seemed threatened at every vital point.

In the midst of these colossal disasters stood a young man not
fashioned for great events--from whom the world and the situation
demand a statesmanship as able as Bismarck's, a political ideal as
exalted as Washington's, a prompt and judicious dealing with an
unprecedented crisis worthy of Peter the Great. And not finding this
ample endowment, we call him a weakling. It is difficult for the
Anglo-Saxon, fed and nourished for a thousand years upon the principles
of political freedom and their application, to realize the strain to
which a youth of average ability is subjected when he is called upon to
cast aside all the things he has been taught to reverence,--to abandon
the ideals he holds most sacred,--to violate all the traditions of his
ancestors,--to act in direct opposition to the counsel of his natural
advisers; and to do all these things at the dictation of men he has
been taught not only to distrust, but to hold in contempt.

Chief among his counsellors is the Procurator Pobiedonostseff, head of
the "Holy Synod,"--that evil genius of two reigns, who reminds him of
the sacredness of his trust, and his duty to leave his divine heritage
to his son unimpaired by impious reforms. Next to him stands
Muravieff, the wise and powerful Minister of Justice, creator of modern
Siberia, and member of the Court of Arbitration at The Hague, who
speaks with authority when he tells him he has not the _right_ to
change a political system created by his predecessors; and still nearer
than these are the Grand Dukes, a phalanx of uncles and imperial
relatives surrounding him with a petrified wall of ancient prejudices.
Confronting these imposing representatives of imperial and historic
Russia are a few more or less discredited men, like M. de Witte and
Prince Mirski, counselling and warning with a freedom which would once
have sent them to Siberia, and with a power to which the bewildered
Nicholas cannot be indifferent, and to which, perhaps, he would gladly
yield were it not for the dominating sentiment about him. Many a man
who could face a rain of bullets without a tremor, would quail and turn
coward if subjected to the same test before such a cumulative force of
opinion.

But this is not a crisis to be settled in the Council-Chamber, nor to
be decided by convincing arguments, but by the march of events. And
events were not slow in coming.

The assassination of the Grand Duke Sergius, uncle of the Tsar, and the
most extreme of the reactionaries at Moscow, of which he was governor,
was the most powerful argument yet presented for a change of direction
in the Government; and others were near at hand.

The derangement of industrial conditions induced by the war pressed
heavily upon the wage-earners; and the agitation upon the surface, the
threatened explosions here and there, were only an indication of the
misery existing in the deeps below. At all industrial centres there
were strikes accompanied by the violence which invariably attends them.

On the morning of Sunday, Jan. 22d, an orderly concourse of workmen, in
conformity with a plan already announced, were on their way to the
Winter-Palace bearing a petition to the "Little Father," who, if he
only knew their wrongs, would see that justice was done them. So they
were going to tell him in person of their grievances. The letter of
the preceding day ran thus:

"Sovereign. We fear the ministers have not told you the whole truth.
Your children, trusting in you, have resolved to come to the Winter
Palace tomorrow at 2 P. M. to tell you of their needs. Appear before
us and receive our address of devotion."

Had these 8,000 or 10,000 men been marching to the Winter-Palace with
rifles in their hands, or with weapons of any sort indicating a violent
purpose, there might have been cause for alarm. But absolutely
unarmed, even for their own defence, led by an orthodox priest carrying
an icon, these humble petitioners were met by a volley of rapid fire
from repeating rifles, were cut down by sabres and trampled by cavalry,
until "policing" had become an indiscriminate massacre of innocent
people upon the streets, regardless of age or sex. Before midnight the
Tsar was miles away at his Palace Tsarskoe-Selo; and there was a new
cry heard in St. Petersburg, a cry unfamiliar to Russian ears,--"Down
with the Tsar!" Those blood-stains in Nevski Prospect will be long in
effacing!

The long-looked-for Baltic fleet, commanded by Admiral Rojestvenski,
was detained at the outset of its voyage by an untoward incident,
having fired into a fleet of British fishermen, which was mistaken for
the enemy in disguise. After being acquitted by a court of inquiry,
the Admiral proceeded, his objective point now being changed from Port
Arthur to Vladivostock, the next most critical point.

On May 27-28th there occurred one of the most disastrous naval
engagements in the annals of war, in the Korean Straits, near Tsushima,
where Admiral Togo with sure instinct of the course which would be
taken, was lying in wait under the cover of darkness and fog.

Nineteen Russian vessels were destroyed, the Japanese ships sustaining
almost no injury. All that remained of the Russian fleet was
surrendered to Admiral Togo, and Rojestvenski, desperately wounded, and
all of his surviving officers, were prisoners of war in Tokio.

With this climax of Russian disaster the end had come. Although Russia
still doggedly refused to acknowledge defeat, and made feint of
preparation for reenforcements and future triumphs, the world saw that
there must be peace; and that the only existing obstacle was the
determination of a proud nation not to be placed in a humiliating
position.

The absolute neutrality of the United States enabled President
Roosevelt to intervene at this critical moment as no European sovereign
could have done. His proposal that there should be a meeting of envoys
for the discussion of some peaceable adjustment of their differences
was promptly accepted by both nations, and with the hostile armies
still facing each other in Manchuria, arrangements were made for the
Peace Conference to be held in the United States in August.

The envoys selected for this mission were M. de Witte and Baron Rosen,
Ambassador to the United States from Russia, on the one hand, and Baron
Komura, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Japan, and Kogaro Takahira,
Minister at Washington from that country, on the other. If the
appointment of M. de Witte had awakened expectation of a presentation
of the Russian cause from the view-point of a progressive leader, the
mistake was quickly discovered. M. de Witte, performing a duty
intrusted to him by his Imperial master, was quite a different person
from de Witte, the exponent of liberal ideas, pleading the cause of an
oppressed people before the Tsar; and an adamantine side of his
character, quite unexpected, was revealed. The fencing between the two
skilled diplomats, de Witte and Komura, afforded a fascinating study in
racial methods and characteristics at a high point of development; the
impression left being that the intense sincerity of purpose in the
Japanese, and the lack of it in the other, was the main point of
difference. The Russian argument throughout was upon a perfectly
insincere basis. The Russian envoy never once recognized that he
represented a defeated nation, steadily maintaining the attitude of a
generous foe willing to stop fighting to prevent the shedding of more
blood. In striking contrast to this was Baron Komura's calm
presentation of his twelve peace proposals, and the sad sincerity with
which he tenaciously maintained their justification by the results of
the war.

Eight of these proposals, of minor importance, were accepted, while the
four of real significance were at once rejected by M. de Witte. These
were: the cession of the Island of Saghalien, already partly occupied
by the Japanese troops; the interning of all Russian ships lying in
Japanese waters; an indemnity of $600,000,000 to reimburse Japan for
the cost of the war, and a limitation of the naval power of Russia.

Many times negotiations were on the verge of breaking; at the last of
these crises, when the hope of an agreement was actually abandoned and
preparations were making for departure, it is said, strong pressure was
brought to bear upon Japan by President Roosevelt which led to a
modification of the terms--a modification so excessive that deep
resentment existed in Tokio, and a satisfaction correspondingly great
was experienced in St. Petersburg. Japan withdrew her demands for
indemnity and for acquisition of territory in the following way: she
saved her adversary from the humiliation of reimbursing her for the
cost of the war by offering to sell to Russia the northern half of the
island in dispute,--Saghalien,--for two-thirds of the sum she had
demanded under the name of indemnity.

The Russo-Japanese treaty of peace, signed at Portsmouth in August,
1905, registers the concession of all the vital points in the demands
of the conquering nation. The popular saying, "to the victor belong
the spoils," does not hold good in Japan! Twice has she seen the
fruits of her splendidly won victories snatched from her by the same
hand; and twice has she looked with far-seeing eyes into the future,
and quietly submitted. Perhaps she realizes that a time may come when
Russia's friendship will be more valuable to her than Saghalien!

The war was over. The march of armies had ceased; but the march of
events, accelerated by the great upheaval, moved irresistibly on.
Realizing that something must be done to pacify the people, a new and
more liberal policy was announced, with de Witte, now Prime Minister,
in charge. Russia was to have a _National Assembly_, a law-making body
in which every class would have representation.

This Russian Parliament was to be composed of two bodies: an Upper and
a Lower House. The one to be called the "_Council of the Empire_," the
other the "_Duma_." These were to be convoked and prorogued annually
by Imperial Ukase. The President, Vice-President, and one-half the
members of the Council of the Empire (consisting of 178 members) were
to be appointed by the Tsar; twenty-four more to be elected by the
nobility and clergy, a very small number by some designated
universities and commercial bodies; each _Zemstvo_ (of which there are
fifty-one) being entitled to one representative. The members composing
the _Duma_, or Lower House, were to be elected by the Electoral
Colleges, which had in turn been created by the votes of the people in
the various provinces of the Empire for that purpose.

The two bodies were to have equal rights in initiating legislation.
But a bill must pass both Houses and then receive Imperial Sanction in
order to become a law; and failing in this, cannot come up again during
the same session. Thus hedged about and thus constituted, it is
obvious that a conservative majority was permanently secured and ways
provided to block any anti-imperial or revolutionary legislation in the
Duma. And when it is added that matters concerning finance and
treasonable offences were almost entirely in the hands of the Council,
we realize how this gift of political representation to the Russian
people had been shorn of its dangers!

The first National Assembly was opened by the Tsar May 10, 1906, with
the form and splendor of a court ceremonial. It was a strange
spectacle, that solid body of 100 peasants seated on the left of the
throne, intently listening to the brief and guarded speech of welcome
to the "representatives of the nation, who had come to aid him in
making laws for their welfare!" And the first jarring note came when
not one of these men joined in the applause which followed.

The first _Duma_ was composed of 450 members. The world was watching
this experiment, curious to find out what sort of beings have been
dumbly supporting the weight of the Russian Empire. Almost the first
act was a surprise. Instead of explosive utterances and intemperate
demands, the _Duma_ formally declared Russia to be a _Constitutional
Monarchy_. No anarchistic extravagance could have been so disturbing
to autocratic Russia as was this wise moderation, which at the very
outset converted Constitutional Bureaucrats into Constitutional
Democrats, thus immensely strengthening the people's party at the
expense of the Conservatives. The leaders in the _Duma_ knew precisely
what they wanted, and how to present their demands with a clearness, a
power, and a calm determination for which Russia,--and indeed that
greater audience, the world at large,--was quite unprepared. That this
seriously alarmed the Imperial party was proved by an immediate
strengthening of the defences about the throne by means of a change in
what is called the _Fundamental Laws_. These Fundamental Laws afford a
rigid framework, an immovable foundation for the authority of the
Emperor and his Cabinet Ministers.

Repairs in the Constitution of the United States have been usually in
the direction of increased liberties for the people. The Tsar, on the
contrary, aided by his Cabinet and high Government officials, drafted a
new edition of the Fundamental Laws suited to a new danger.

The changes made were all designed to build up new defences around the
throne, and to intrench more firmly every threatened prerogative. The
Tsar was deliberately ranging himself with the bureaucratic party
instead of the party of his people; and the hot indignation which
followed found expression in bitter and powerful arraignment of the
Government, even to the extent of demanding the resignation of the
Ministry. What was at first a rift, was becoming an impassable chasm.

If Count Witte had disappointed the Liberals by his lukewarmness and by
what they considered an espousal of the conservative cause, he was even
less acceptable to the Bureaucrats, to whom he had from the first been
an object of aversion--an aversion not abated by his masterly diplomacy
at Portsmouth, for which he received only a grudging acknowledgment.
Whatever may be the verdict of the future, with its better historic
perspective, whether justly or unjustly, Count Witte had lost his hold
upon the situation; and the statesman who had been the one heroic
figure in Russia was no longer the man of the hour. At all events, his
resignation of the head of the Ministry during this obnoxious attempt
to nullify the gift of popular representation was significant; and the
name of de Witte is not associated with this grave mistake made by the
master he has tried to serve.

The reforms insistently demanded by the _Duma_ were as follows:--The
responsibility of the Ministry to that body, as the representative of
the people; the distribution to the working peasants of the lands held
by the Crown and the clergy; a General Amnesty, with the release of all
political prisoners; and the abolition of the death penalty.

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