Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
the university delivered a long, ineffably silly speech.
He said that the Black Sea might vanish (be dried up?),
but the memory of it would never disappear; for it was
immortalized by Aïvasovski’s paintings. The press, on
this occasion, was represented only by Suvórin, the
editor of Novoye Vremya, as the other newspapers
had been unable to see in Aïvasovski an artist of any
rank.
Taken as a whole, the official world in Russia is
doubtless no worse than elsewhere. The spirit of deference,
timid snobbery, and arrogant leaders of society are its
characteristics everywhere. At the same time, perhaps
the lack of culture and the natural simplicity is even
greater, which is the more unfortunate because the
higher officials in Russia have a far greater
uncontrolled range of power than in any other European
country.
Russia, as is well known, is divided into departments:
Russia proper, into fifty; Poland, into ten; — and on the
frontier three, four, and five of them are placed under
one governor-general. In addition, the largest cities,
like St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kharkof, Odessa, have
governors-general, who possess a military dictatorship.
Until the abolition of serfdom, in 1861, the governor was
the absolute ruler in his department, — a lesser Tsar,
over about a million and a half inhabitants. Since then,
the situation is changed only to the extent that he is
surrounded by a group of heterogeneous committees of
control. But the whole of this apparatus is of extremely
slight practical importance, since nearly all of these
committees consist of officials under the governor, or of
other officials of low rank, the watchword of whose life
is and must be official servility. Instead of sharing in
the governor’s responsibility, these committees
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
