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32 RUSSIAN-BULGARIAN RELATIONS [chap. iv.
Council gave me the impression then of being very
uncommunicative and, up to a point, very much
depressed; I doubt very much whether, in his heart
of hearts, he had preserved unbounded confidence in
himself and his system. In an uncongenial atmosphere,
surrounded by the high dignitaries of St. Petersburg,
this country squire displayed an openness and
straightforwardness which won universal esteem, but his task
was in no way made easier thereby. On the other
hand, his long rural career, more particularly his term as
governor of a province, had developed in him leanings
towards patriarchal despotism. These tendencies
alienated all truly liberal minds. The flattery heaped on him
by a certain portion of the Press, and the Octobrist
section of the Duma—which only existed through his
protection—all combined to dim his mental vision;
having commenced his ministerial career as a champion
of the " Zemstvo," i.e. of provincial self-government, he
ended it—sad to say—as the unlucky head of the
political police of the old regime ! All the same, in
spite of his errors, Stolypin preserved a perfect honesty
of purpose, and a strong and upright character. His
death deprived the Conservative party of a man who,
on going out of office, might have become an eminent
political leader. But even if he had remained at the
head of the Government, Stolypin would never have
allowed the Government machinery to get so completely
out of order and to reach a pitch of dilapidation which
made possible the new victorous thrust of the
Revolutionists. The Revolution was ill-timed and disastrous,
for in the midst of a world war it aimed at establishing
an ultra-Socialist Republic in Russia, and in the mad
attempt it destroyed all patriotic feeling in the country.
In the sphere of foreign policy, Stolypin played a
more important part than was generally supposed. He
undoubtedly possessed certain German sympathies,
while remaining intensely Slavophile and Nationalist,
and consequently firmly attached to the system of
the French alliance. The German Empire attracted
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