— 22 —
rights (autonomy), whilst Russia would be constituted in a great federated State.
These same deputies met the deputies of Poland, Lithuania, Georgia, Armenia, Esthonia, Latvia, and White Russia to defend their national rights.
But the first and the second Dumas were, the one after the other, dissolved by the Government of the Tsar.
As to the third and fourth Dumas, the system of election was changed in favour of the wealthy classes. The elections took place under violent oppression of the police and the Reactionary party. The Russian people, strictly speaking, were not accurately represented. With the exception of some deputies elected by chance, the Ukraine was without representatives in these two Dumas.
(b) Local Self-Government.
At the time of the third and fourth Dumas the Local Self-Government represented but little better the rights and the wishes of the people. These local self-governments were the Zemstvos, founded also on the property franchise. The elections also were carried out under administrative influence, but the Ukrainian Zemstvos found themselves in a too close relationship with the country to remain absolutely deaf to the needs of the people.
Even before the pretended constitutional régime at the time of the terrible reaction at the end of the nineteenth century some Zemstvos of the Ukraine had had the courage to pronounce themselves in favour of the demands of the people, and notably those concerning the language and the national schools, the prohibition of which was both painful and dangerous for the country.
The Zemstvo of Tchernigov showed a courageous example regarding these national demands. In 1893 and long before that date, and then in i8g8, they put forward among their national claims the urgent demand for the introduction. of the Ukrainian language in the schools.
