Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - I. The evolution of the state and social organisations of Russia
<< 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 never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
24 PROBLEMS CONFRONTING RUSSIA
after Tartar rule. To confirm his power still more, he
adopted certain Byzantine attributes of statesmanship.
Byzantium, from whence Russia has invested herself with
the Christian religion, also exercised an influence in clerical
hierarch}^. Then came the time of the Europeanisation of
Russia under such reformers as Peter the Great, Catherine
II, and Alexander II. They were dazzled by the
civilisation of Western Europe, and instead of reverting to the old
traditions of Russian State rule, they thought to secure
quicker progress by adopting the forms of West-European
culture. As Germany was the neighbouring State it was
only too natural that an infiltration of German methods in
Russia took place to a certain extent. The " Tabel of
Rangach," the Act by which Peter the Great organised the
whole State Service, is strongly influenced by German
bureaucratic ideas. Thus the Russian State employee, the
Chinovnik (Chin means rank), became in his character a
sort of strange cross-breed between the Tartar Collector of
Taxes, the Baskak, and the German Regierungsbeamte. He
was considered as a more or less heterogeneous element in
Russian life and did not enjoy popularity. Gogol’s Revisor
is a proof of it.
Another feature of Russian democracy is the absence of
feudal relics of the past and of plutocracy—this bastard of
aristocracy !—which is paving the way to social revolution.
Russian democracy manifests itself in a thousand ways ;
for instance, in Russian 1 terature and art. Can there be
anything more democratic than the works of Count Leo
Tolstoy, Gorky, and many other Russian writers, or the
art of Verestchagin ? It is most characteristic that
Englishmen who have lived for many years in Russia and know
Russian life well, often maintain that more personal
freedom is enjoyed in Russia than in England.
This, however, refers to the social side of Russian life.
In public life and as regards a constitutional system Russia
is, of course, not yet the equal of Great Britain—the world’s
model of public life. Nevertheless, the progress of
constitutional freedom was more pronounced when the Duma was
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
