Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/183

Rh tration was now centralised in such a way as to increase the strength of autocracy.

The election of justices of the peace was abolished; the competence of the jurors' courts was reduced; the zemstvos were placed under the supervision of the zemskie načal'niki (provincial authorities) and were aristocratised. Urban administration underwent similar modifications.

In August 1881 the police absolutism which had been introduced under Alexander II was strengthened and systematised by the regulation "concerning measures to protect civil order and to secure social tranquillity." This protection (ohrana) was of two kinds, "augmented" and an "extraordinary," the former being introduced for a year and the latter for six months. The minister for home affairs could, however, get the ministerial committee to prolong both varieties, and in actual fact Russia has remained under this “exceptional" regime since 1881.

Administrative repression was deliberately supported by the restriction of education which was desired by the tsar. Pobědonoscev came to reinforce the endeavours of Katkov; and Pobědonoscev, whose influence at court lasted until the close of the year 1905, did his utmost to enforce cæsaropapism against the revolution. He had been tutor to Alexander III (who himself acted as tutor to Nicholas II), and it was the spirit of Pobědonoscev, chief procurator of the holy synod that characterised the mental tendencies of the reaction.

He was the spiritual father of the church schools established in 1884. In the same year, owing to the continuous denunciations of Katkov, the universities were furnished with new statutes, reducing scientific studies to a minimum and practically suppressing the teaching of philosophy and sociology. The only permissible lectures on philosophy must relate to the doctrines of Plato, Aristotle, and their predecessors! Progressive professors were dismissed, to be replaced by persons whose views were agreeable to the government, and the wearing of uniform was reintroduced for the