Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/44

 most dependent on the Government and therefore most reliable. It was that party which contained the largest number of the landed gentry.

I shall leave out the Polish deputies, of whom in the third Duma 82 per cent, were nobles. The Poles, whatever their views on social questions, belong to the opposition, because the Government would not yield to them on the matter which chiefly interests them, i.e. the future organisation of Poland. But let me draw your attention to three groups—the Octobrists, named from the manifesto which granted the constitution in October, 1905, the Nationalists, and the "Rights." In these three groups, the landed nobility form 57, 48, and 44 per cent, respectively ; and these are the groups most favoured by the Government in