Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/118

 preserved many virtues in private and family life, but they were not enlightened enough to have the right ideas concerning the needs of the State and the methods of public life. In this way the constitution of the country was doomed to degeneration. From the sixteenth century till the fall of Poland more enlightened minds tried to forward ideas of reform and produced a very rich political literature on the "Amendment of the Republic" as well as a long series of active attempts at improvement. But all those attempts were powerless against the ignorance of public opinion.

Meantime to the east and the west of Poland there arose two great military powers. Peter the Great, being a despotic ruler, had transformed by force the Old Muscovy, with her growing anarchy, into a modern, strongly organised, bureaucratic and military power. On the other side the absolute kings of Prussia had organised their state and their army, and this army became, under Frederick the Great, the first military force in Europe. Because of their absolute rule neither of those powers needed any preparation of public opinion to introduce reforms. Quite different was it in Poland with her liberties and with her democratic rule by the gentry. There intended reforms had to be passed by the Diet, and it was necessary to overcome not only the conservatism of ignorant public opinion and the opposition of powerful magnates, who were often led by personal and family ambitions, but also the foreign intrigues which worked in the country.

Nevertheless, after the first partition, a strong reform party appeared. It began its work by reforming public education in the modern western sense and it