Bolshevism | Page 8

means to add to the
persecutions of the Jews and the various non-orthodox Christian sects.
In his determination to hammer the varied racial groups into a
homogeneous nation, he adopted terrible measures and so roused the
hatred of the Finns, Armenians, Georgians, and other subject peoples,
stirring among them passionate resentment and desire for revolutionary
action. It is impossible to conceive of a policy more dangerous to the
dynasty than was conceived and followed by this fanatical Russophil.
The Poles were persecuted and forced, in sheer despair, and by
self-interest, into the revolutionary movement. Armenians were
persecuted and their church lands and church funds confiscated; so they,
too, were forced into the revolutionary current.
Worse than all else was the cruel persecution of the Jews. Not only
were they compelled to live within the Pale of Settlement, but this was
so reduced that abominable congestion and poverty resulted. Intolerable
restrictions were placed upon the facilities for education in the
secondary schools, the gymnasia, and in the universities. It was hoped
in this way to destroy the intellectual leadership of the Jews. Pogroms
were instigated, stirring the civilized world to protest at the horrible
outrages. The Minister of the Interior, Von Plehve, proclaimed his

intention to "drown the Revolution in Jewish blood," while
Pobiedonostzev's ambition was "to force one-third of the Jews to
conversion, another third to emigrate"--to escape persecution. The other
third he expected to die of hunger and misery. When Leo Tolstoy
challenged these infamies, and called upon the civilized world on
behalf of the victims, the Holy Synod denounced Tolstoy and his
followers as a sect "especially dangerous for the Orthodox Church and
the state." Later, in 1900, the Holy Synod excommunicated Tolstoy
from the Orthodox Church.
The fatal logic of fanatical fury led to attacks upon the zemstvos. These
local organizations had been instituted in 1864, by Alexander II, in the
liberal years of his reign. Elected mainly by the landlords and the
peasants, they were a vital part of the life of the nation. Possessing no
political powers or functions, having nothing to do with legislation,
they were important agencies of local government. The representatives
of each county constituted a county-zemstvo and the representatives
elected by all the county-zemstvos in a province constituted a
province-zemstvo. Both types concerned themselves with much the
same range of activities. They built roads and telegraph stations; they
maintained model farms and agricultural experiment stations similar to
those maintained by our state governments. They maintained schools,
bookstores, and libraries: co-operative stores; hospitals and banks.
They provided the peasants with cheap credit, good seeds, fertilizers,
agricultural implements, and so forth. In many cases they provided for
free medical aid to the peasants. In some instances they published
newspapers and magazines.
It must be remembered that the zemstvos were the only representative
public bodies elected by any large part of the people. While the
suffrage was quite undemocratic, being so arranged that the landlords
were assured a majority over the peasants at all times, nevertheless they
did perform a great democratic service. But for them, life would have
been well-nigh impossible for the peasant. In addition to the services
already enumerated, these civic bodies were the relief agencies of the
Empire, and when crop failures brought famine to the peasants it was
always the zemstvos which undertook the work of relief. Hampered at

every point, denied the right to control the schools they created and
maintained, inhibited by law from discussing political questions, the
zemstvos, nevertheless, became the natural channels for the spreading
of discontent and opposition to the régime through private
communication and discussion.
To bureaucrats of the type of Pobiedonostzev and Von Plehve, with
their fanatical belief in autocracy, these organizations of the people
were so many plague spots. Not daring to suppress them altogether,
they determined to restrict them at every opportunity. Some of the
zemstvos were suspended and disbanded for certain periods of time.
Individual members were exiled for utterances which Von Plehve
regarded as dangerous. The power of the zemstvos themselves was
lessened by taking from them such important functions as the
provisioning of famine-stricken districts and by limiting in the most
arbitrary manner the amount of the budget permitted to each zemstvo.
Since every decision of the zemstvos was subject to veto by the
governors of the respective provinces, the government had at all times a
formidable weapon at hand to use in its fight against the zemstvos. This
weapon Von Plehve used with great effect; the most reasonable actions
of the zemstvos were vetoed for no other reason than hatred of any sort
of representative government.
V
The result of all this was to drive the zemstvos toward the revolutionary
movements of the peasants and the city workers. That the zemstvos
were not naturally inclined to radicalism and