TREACHERY OF THE AUTOCRACY

On the outbreak of the war the premier was Ivan L. Goremykin, a typical autocrat, who had served under four czars, and who was now well past seventy. As though utterly unconscious of the war situation, he carried his administration on as he had done previous to the war. First of all, he began a determined campaign of persecution of the Jews, at a moment when the most violent anti-Semites would be irritated by such a course. He even went so far as to have a number of pogroms perpetrated and he spread persistent rumors that the Jews were betraying the cause of Russia, in spite of the fact that they were playing a leading part in the social organizations and were more than proportionately represented in the army. Then he instituted similar persecution among the Ruthenians and the Poles, and when Galicia was occupied by the Russian military forces Goremykin sent there a number of petty officials whom he instructed to make the inhabitants into Russians according to old methods. Then when the commander in chief, Grand Duke Nicholas, issued his manifesto promising the Poles liberty, the Goremykin ministry completely ignored the promise. And finally, a number of political refugees, who had returned from abroad to offer their services, either in the army or in the social organizations, were imprisoned or sent to Siberia.

Even the reactionaries who had previously supported all that the Government stood for were indignant. This feeling became most manifest in the Duma. In 1914 the Duma had been a reactionary body, the majority of the deputies being in favor of trusting entirely to the Government. In August, 1915, a most astonishing thing happened, the Duma, with a large majority, which included Conservatives, Liberals and Radicals alike, drew up a demand for a series of reforms, including the institution of a cabinet responsible to the people through itself. Another demand was for a general amnesty for all political prisoners. This was the famous Progressive Bloc. Goremykin refused even to discuss the program. Instead, he hurried to the czar to get his signature to a decree proroguing the Duma, in which he succeeded. The result was that the whole population rose in threatening revolution, and this time the threat was not from the revolutionary elements. Even former leaders of the Black Hundreds were among the protestants. It was then that Rodzianko, the president of the Duma, addressed a letter to the premier, placing the responsibility of Russia's recent defeats squarely on him and added: "You are obviously too old to possess the vigor to deal with so difficult a situation. Be man enough to resign and make way for some younger and more capable man." Then Goremykin resigned.

But the change was for the worse, rather than for the better, for the next premier was a close friend and associate of Rasputin, a younger man, to be sure, and more capable, but whose capabilities were to be turned in the wrong direction. Boris Sturmer, a German by blood and sympathies, former governor of Tver, one of the blackest of reactionaries, was appointed to fill the vacant premiership.

Sturmer, where his predecessor had perhaps been merely incompetent, now set about consciously to make a separate peace with Germany, and this object he hardly took the trouble to hide. Through the censorship he suppressed the loyal press and encouraged a number of papers which openly denounced Russia's allies and demanded a separate peace with the kaiser. Then he sent agents to Switzerland, there to confer with representatives of the German Government, so openly that it was known all over Russia, even among the peasants, that a separate peace was being prepared.[Back to Contents]