russia from within

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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II ADVENT OF THE BUREAUCRACY One of the most notable peculiarities of the anti- aristocratic movement in Russia is undoubtedly the fact that it is directed by the Nobility. It seems likely that this latter class is destined to play the same part in the Russian Revolution as the tiers flat did in France. True we have been assured over and over again that Revolution is impossible in Russia, where no regularly constituted bourgeoisie exists. But what was the role of the French bourgeoisie in the Great Revolution ? That of a class relatively wealthy and well educated, in opposition to a system of arbitrary government which debarred it from the free exercise of its economic and intellectual forces. In Russia the corresponding r6le is filled by a section of the rich commercial class, and still more by the Nobility. This state of things results from the formation of a bureaucratic caste, itself the consequence of the democratic reforms of Alexander II. Up to the middle of the last century the direction of political affairs was concentrated in the hands of the Nobility, under the close personal superintendence of the Tsar. It was the heyday of power of the aristocratic caste. Middle-class officials there were, but they were trusted with nothing better than mere routine work, and could never aspire to any high position. The appalling revelations of theCrimean War, exposing the incapacity of this regime, forced Alexander II. to undertake " the great reforms of the sixties." The abolition of serfdom, simultaneously with the establishment of the zemstvos, and of reforms in connection with the administration of justice, the press, and public education, threw open official employment to crowds of young men of all classes on the sole condition of their showing capacity. Once th...
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0559726198

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