tion of the Douma as an institution. They organized the "Union of the Russian People," the "Board of St. Michael," and other similar institutions, which came to be known as the "Black Hundred" organizations. These organizations soon proved to be a kind of new "secret government," as they waged a bitter struggle against everything that had even a tinge of liberalism. Thus, Zemstvo, educational, and even administrative institutions came under their ban.[1]
Led by Dr. Dubrovin, Purishkevich, and Markov, these ultra-reactionaries made a practice of "exposing" governors who tolerated liberal newspapers in their provinces. They even brought charges of liberalism against cabinet ministers.
This extreme "right" of the Russian political allignment consists of men who, in their ideas and their point of view, are mediæval, rather than modern. They did not receive their political training in the Zemstvos, those cradles of Russian self-government and constitutionalism. Their views were moulded at the "assemblies of the nobles," where caste ideas reigned supreme. Their knowledge of the "people" came from their occasional visits to the "Tea-rooms," which the "Black Hundred" established all over the country, in order to have some place for preaching its doctrine of autocracy, supported by mob rule. Their political wisdom is not in opposition to religious massacres, "ritual murder" cases, or persecutions directed against the noble efforts of the self-denying and self-sacrificing country-school teachers. They are practically the only social group in Russia that openly despises the Constitutional Manifesto of 1905, claiming that it was forced upon Russia and the Tsar by the "traitor," Witte.
These extremists have a very long list of political "Don't's," but, as might have been expected, they have no positive, constructive program. Probably their whole political creed is summed up in their hatred of democracy and their unwillingness to give up the smallest of the privileges enjoyed by the gentry. They are even opposed to the organization of War Industrial Committees, considering their establishment an infringement upon the principles of autocracy, and the guiding position of the "leading class," the gentry.
They are frightened by the new elements in the life of Russia, which are constantly gaining prestige and power,—the
- ↑ The influence of the Russian clergy is left out in this connection, as the subject is too complicated to be treated in this article.
