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102 PROBLEMS CONFRONTING RUSSIA
Revolution, however, has now brought about great changes
of a democratic and radical character in the social standing
of the soldiers with their officers, and must also affect what
was considered the prerogative of the latter—viz. duelling.
From the democratic point of view of equality in honour
there is no plausible reason why duels should be confined to
officers only. But if on account of equality of rights the
privilege of duelling must be extended to the privates of the
army, this would at the same time entail a reductio ad
absurdum of the whole institution of duelling. The
Revolution may therefore revolutionise also the existing regulations
about duelling of officers of the Russian army. But even a
greater influence upon the practice will probably be exercised
by the close, friendly relations which very happily unite
Great Britain and Russia. There seems no more fruitful
aspect of these friendly relations than in a co-ordination of
the English and Russian point of view upon the duel
honoris causa.
It is a strange coincidence that it was approximately at
the same time that England suppressed duelling and Russia
introduced it, for very different if not diametrically opposed
reasons. This institution existed in England for centuries
as a relic of feudal times, until civic progress and the dictates
of reason prevailed against it. On the contrary, Russia,
who was not labouring under the same historical conditions
as England, and had hitherto not believed in duelling,
adopted it in her somewhat indiscriminate imitation of
Continental Western methods. The present-day social
influence of England upon Russia may now produce a
fundamental change in the aspect of duelling in that country,
as a result of the foreign, not Russian, origin of the practice,
and the desire to follow the lead of England in this matter.
There is perhaps no civilized country in the world which
has more reason to reconsider its views on duelling than
Russia, who has had the great misfortune to lose through it
two of her most gifted poetical geniuses, Pushkin and
Ler-montoff. And since Russia has, thanks to the Revolution,
shown her intention of becoming an up-to-date country, she
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