Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/127

Rh the army, to preserve the indirect system of election, and so on. The sources available to me have not enabled me to ascertain how far Pestel, as member of a secret society, shared the conclusions and views of his associates.

Enough has been said to show that Pestel had given detailed consideration to the chief political and social problems of his day, and that he desired Russian reform to be carried out as an organic whole. He was not satisfied with a constitution, but aimed at a far-reaching internal transformation of men as well as of institutions. His plans, therefore, were something more than constitutionalist and republican; they were democratic and socialist. His socialism was carried to its logical conclusions as we see in his views regarding inheritance and various other matters.

Nevertheless, Pestel shared many of the prejudices of his time. Noteworthy was his preference for political centralisation, which he advocated in opposition to those who favoured federative schemes. Pestel lays great stress upon the state, upon its unity and indivisibility. Unity is to be secured by the linguistic unification of the entire realm. With the exception of the Poles, all the races and tribes inhabiting Russia are, to use his own expression, "to be amalgamated to form a single people." This amalgamation is to involve civilisation as well as language. Complete Russification is essential. Not merely is the Russian tongue to be used exclusively throughout the realm, but the very names hitherto used by the separate nationalities are to be abolished.

This scheme for Russification is to be applied above all to the civilised national sections under Russian rule, to the Finns and to the Germans; the Poles, as already stated, are to constitute the solitary exception. Pestel's attitude towards Poland is politically significant for his own and for subsequent days.

In Alexander's time, Russian Poland was entirely distinct from Russia at once politically and in point of civilisation. Not only did the tsar respect the political constitution of Poland, but he even had thoughts of restoring to that country the provinces that had formerly been Polish. Influential statesmen and publicists were, however, opposed to this plan—such men as Karamzin, and the decabrist Nikolai Turgenev, of whom we shall shortly have to speak as constitutionalist. Prince Orlov, the decabrist, and his friend Dmitriev-Mamonov