Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/18

6 industrial and merchant classes, together with the educational activities of that peculiarly Russian social institution, sometimes called "the third element" but better known as the "intelligentia", almost destroyed the social importance of the decaying gentry. For thirty years after the Act of Emancipation the gentry sold 65 million acres of land, which represents 31% of their possessions, and this despite the fact that the specially established "Bank for the Gentry" did everything in its power to help the Russian noblemen meet the competition of the new social factors in Russia.

Only ten years ago the world witnessed another attempt of Russia to make a step forward, now toward constitutional democracy. The bitter political struggle that followed this movement ended, as we know, in a few reactionary measures, but in the long run, Russia gained much more than the opposing factions probably realize, or are willing to admit. Whatever might be said of the "Electoral Law of June 3rd", that assured the gentry a leading part in the Douma, the fact remains that Russia has a kind of Parliament. Political discussion, which was formerly confined to the bureaucratic circles and was strictly forbidden in the press and society, is now possible. The Douma has come to stay,—even the worst and boldest enemies of constitutionalism in Russia do not go beyond recommendations of restriction upon its powers.

The "Europeanization of Russia" has been a process fraught with difficulties, but Russia has finally demonstrated the fact that she is just as much adapted to Europe's culture, as is any other part of the world. It is true that every reform was met with strong, and often overwhelming opposition that came, not only from the conservative authorities, but also from the social and intellectual representatives of Muscovite Russia. And this was significant. It meant opposition to the mere imitation of foreign models. It enabled old Russia to battle with Europe's influences through scores of her philosophers and leaders of thought. These men applied their gigantic intellectual powers toward an attempt to find Russia's "own way in the world", to spare her the painful transplantations of European institutions, such as capitalism, a landless proletariat class, large cities full of unemployed and prostitutes, and factories that rob the city population of fresh air. Men of the type of Chomiakov, Dostoyevsky, and Soloviev, openly despised Europe's culture, which seemed to them "unchristian and unhuman." Western civilization frightened them by its formalism, its