A year in Russia

by Maurice Baring

St. Petersburg, November 9th.

I arrived here this morning from Moscow. The chief piece of news which is being discussed is the dismissal of Trepoff. Of Trepoff one always hears contradictory accounts: some people saying he is an inveterate reactionary, a Jew-baiter, &c.; others that he is a man of great common sense, liberal in policy as far as this is compatible with common sense, and never afraid of speaking his mind. I heard from people who ought to know that he was strongly in favour of the granting of the Manifesto of October 17th. What aroused the general hatred against him was his “order for the day” telling the soldiers not to spare cartridges, should there be disorders. I met him once here before the war broke out. I thought he seemed a sensible, strong-willed person. When he was Chief of the Police at Moscow he had the reputation of being sensible, of keeping order well, of being rather heavy-handed, and of committing foolish gaffes from time to time. I am certain he is neither the monster he is made out by the Liberal press here and abroad, nor yet the Cromwellian genius other people would have us believe him to be. I expect that his strength lies in the fact that he does not mind saying what he thinks. In St. Petersburg this quality is so rare that people who possess it appear to be geniuses.

November 12th.

I went this afternoon to hear a performance of Beethoven’s “Fidelio.” I don’t think the young lions in the gallery realised that this opera was the complete expression of the “Liberation movement” in Germany!

The number of hooligans who now infest the streets is great. A story is circulating of a hooligan who stopped a man and demanded his watch. He gave it. The hooligan then asked for his coat. He gave it also, the hooligan giving him his own coat in exchange. When the man who had been robbed got home he found his own watch and 170 roubles in the pocket of the hooligan’s coat.

November 14th.

The official declaration of the postponement of the Polish constitutional liberties is causing a good deal of talk and excitement.

One point with regard to Poland which people sometimes overlook is that there are Poles in Germany; Poles in the North of Germany besides those in German Poland; and moreover a great many Poles. German Poland also is an important factor in itself. The situation therefore is analogous to what would happen if Ireland were a country shared between France and England, and if England had been at war with Germany or any Power, just as Russia has been at war with Japan, and if while that war lasted France had promised to cause no trouble on our Irish frontier. Whether the German Emperor made any definite promise not to interfere on the Polish frontier during the Japanese War it is impossible to say; what at all events is certain is that an independent Poland would not be viewed favourably in Germany, because it would tend to produce an independent German Poland and a discontented and rebellious Polish population in North Germany. One has only to read Bismarck’s Memoirs to see that one of the keynotes of his policy was a friendship with Russia based on common interests and action with regard to Poland. It is unlikely that the German Emperor has departed from this traditional policy. However that may be, at this moment the situation in Poland, the prolonged strike which has continued steadily long after the strikes have ceased in other parts of Russia, calls for some immediate action. Two courses were open to the Government: either to grant autonomy at once or to enforce order by martial law. There is a rumour current here that the German Emperor, who would, as has already been explained, be strongly opposed to anything like Polish autonomy, had come to an agreement with the Russian Emperor on this point. The Russian newspapers to-day say that German troops are being moved to the frontier. In any case we are face to face with the fact that martial law has been proclaimed in Poland; and any sentimental sympathy with the Poles which one might feel is counteracted by the fact that had they only waited until the Duma or the Constituent Assembly met in Russia they would probably have got autonomy without any trouble. Whether the enforcement of martial law in Poland is a wise measure or not is another question; but it is one of two necessary courses.

The fact is that the Poles, like the Liberals here, are in a great hurry. They wish everything to be done at once, and changes which have taken some centuries to elaborate in other and calmer countries to be brought about here in a few days. The Liberals are now crying loudly that nothing will satisfy them but a Constituent Assembly based on universal suffrage. They are unwilling to wait a few months until order can be restored, and until the Duma can meet and vote on the adoption or the non-adoption of such an assembly. They wish it to come straight into existence, like Pallas from the brain of Zeus. All that is written in the Liberal papers here must not be taken as an absolutely impartial and dispassionate record of facts. A well-informed, sensible, and Liberal Russian told me yesterday that some of these papers—and among them not the most Radical, some of which, he said, were managed by sincere and able men—were merely for opposition for the sake of opposition, and that whatever Count Witte said or did they would say it was wrong; some of them act the part of deliberate inciters and wish merely to add fuel to the general excitement. I am not of course alluding to Liberal newspapers which have an old-established and solid reputation such as the Russkie Viedomosti of Moscow. There is a newspaper here which was especially violent in insisting on the fact that not only General Trepoff but also all the military should be removed from the town; these violent articles did not prevent them from sending privately to General Trepoff to ask for a squadron of Cossacks to protect their office, begging at the same time that this request might be kept secret.

The “Intellectuals” of Russia have many qualities, but everything they say must not be taken as being irrefutable; they are human, like the rest of us. They are less practical than some of us, even if we do not agree with a well-known French manager of a café here, who said: “Les Intelligents!” (with a snort of disgust). “Ce sont les intelligents les plus bêtes que j’aie jamais vus.” What one is hearing constantly said by sensible people is that before any political theory or system is carried into effect order must be restored; that the reforms which have been granted cannot be carried out in detail in a day; that there is one man capable of carrying these reforms out, and that he is Count Witte; that to oppose Count Witte for the sake of opposition is merely criminal, because if Count Witte throws up the sponge the game will be lost and the result will be universal anarchy, the only remedy for which will be universal and drastic repression. The trouble is that Count Witte is a man of business, and no one else in Russia is. It seems to me that the Liberals by their action are in danger of creating a party of reaction. For the so-called “reactionary party” did not up to the present moment exist. That is to say, there was practically nobody of any importance who wished to revert to the state of things before the granting of the Constitution. On the other hand, there are a great many people who think that the maintenance of order is all important.