Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/202

176 aims and general principles were nevertheless almost identical. These groups consisted mostly of the industrial and the merchant classes, with a fairly large proportion of the "middle" gentry. They constituted the Octobrist group, which nominally upheld the Constitutional Manifesto of 1905, and the Nationalist group, the latter being characterized by a more reactionary spirit, which often assumed the ugly form of an antagonism to the "foreign" nationalities, particularly the Jews.

These two groups lent their entire support to the policies of the late Premier Stolypin. They advocated his schemes in the Douma, in the Zemstvos, in the press, and wherever else their influence could be brought to bear. There seems to be no doubt that, without their aid, Stolypin's program would not have had the slightest chance of being successfully carried out. They considered Stolypin a great statesman, for, besides breaking up with an iron hand the revolution of 1905, he had come forth with a well defined agrarian program, which put an end to the old and historic Russian institution,—communal land-ownership. As a result of his reforms, thousands of peasant communities were broken up, migration to towns began, and incidentally, more favorable conditions were created for the industrialization of some parts of the country. But the chief effect of the reform, as far as the conservative elements were concerned, was that it made Russian gentry, the land-owning class, feel more secure in its possessions, for the safety of which they entertained grave doubts during the stormy years of the revolution.

Upon this point, then, the conservative and the reactionary elements had so much in common that their political affiliation was a matter of course. But the ultra-reactionary elements, true to their very nature, entertained fond hopes that the country might return to the conditions which obtained before the bloody upheaval began to introduce changes. And, in so far as Stolypin was not in sympathy with their views on this subject, they considered him as a "dangerous radical," and, consequently, their enemy. They believed that Russia needs no reforms whatever, except a further strengthening of the powers of the governors and of the local police. These extreme reactionaries, representing some of the largest land-owners among the gentry, were opposed, before the War, even to the Douma itself. They repeatedly petitioned the government for the