A year in Russia

by Maurice Baring

July 18th.

Things are going badly in the Duma, and there is likely to be a split among the Cadets on the subject of a proposed Manifesto to the people, a counterblast to the Ministerial Declaration.

July 19th.

During the last week not only were rumours circulating to the effect that the resignation of the Ministry had been accepted, but certain members of the Right positively affirmed that a new Cabinet taken from the Duma had been formed. It is said now that this task was offered to M. Shipov, who is the most important representative of the Moderate parties outside the Duma, and that he refused it. Now, since yesterday fresh rumours, which have had a bad effect on the Bourse, are afloat to the effect that all idea of forming a Ministry from the Duma itself has been abandoned, and that the Government is contemplating the dissolution of the Duma and the appointment of a military dictatorship. Whether there is serious foundation for these rumours I do not know, but it is obvious that there are only four courses open to the Government:

1. To form a Coalition Ministry under some Liberal leader outside the Duma.

2. To form a Ministry from the majority of the Duma.

3. To dissolve the Duma.

4. To do nothing.

The Government is said to have tried the first course and to have failed. The second course it appears to regard as being out of the question. The third course is said to be under consideration now. The fourth course answers to the Government’s policy up to the present.

I have talked with several Conservatives lately—not Moderate Liberals, but Conservatives of the old régime—and their indignation against the Government was extreme. One of them said that the formation of a Ministry from the majority of the Duma, namely, the Cadets, with whom he had no sympathy, was the only chance of saving the situation; that he could understand the policy of dissolution; but the Government did neither the one nor the other, and the people who were paying for this mistake were the landlords with the destruction and devastation of their property. Another said to me that there were at present two great dangerous elements in Russia—the revolutionaries and the Government—and that of the two the Government was the more dangerous. A third, a large landed proprietor, said that he preferred to be despoiled by expropriation rather than to have all his estates devastated and his houses burnt. A Government taken from the majority of the Duma, he added, was the only solution, but it should have been done two months ago; now it was too late. I mentioned the dissolution of the Duma and the possibility of a dictatorship. “You would want five hundred dictators, not one,” he answered, “and what is the use of a dictatorship when the whole country is on fire? The action of the Government has been like this: it is as if some people had set a town on fire, locked up the fire engines, and then talked of putting a dictator at the head of the fire brigade.”