of protracted negotiations" -- were Shipov, Trubetskoi, Urusov, and M. Stakhovich, i.e., the future leaders of the Cadets, and of the Party of Peaceful Renovation,[131] and of the Octobrist Party. The negotiations, it turns out, were broken off on account of Durnovo, whom the "liberals" refused to accept as Minister of the Interior, while Witte demanded this in the form of an ultimatum. Urusov, however, a leading light of the Cadet Party in the First Duma, "ardently supported Durnovo's candidacy". When Prince Obolensky suggested Stolypin for the post "some of those present supported the idea, others said that they did not know him". "I remember definitely," writes Guchkov, "that no one raised the objection of which Count Witte writes in his letter."
Now the Cadet press, in its desire to emphasise its "democracy" (don't be funny!), particularly, perhaps, in view of the elections in the first curia in St. Petersburg, where a Cadet opposed an Octobrist, is trying to sling mud at Guchkov for those negotiations. "How often," writes Rech in its issue of September 28, "the Octobrist fraternity with Guchkov at their head, joined hands with Mr. Durnovo's colleagues in order to please the powers that be. How often, with their eyes riveted on the powers that be, did they turn their backs on public opinion!" The same reproach
page 251
levelled by the Cadets at the Octobrists is repeated in a number of variations in the leading article of Russkiye Vedomosti of the same date.
But, pardon me, gentlemen of the Cadet Party, what right have you to reproach the Octobrists, since your representatives also took part in those very same negotiations and even defended Durnovo? At that time, in November 1905, were not all the Cadets, like Urusov, in the position of people who have "their eyes riveted on the powers that be" and "their backs turned on public opinion"? Yours is a "family quarrel"; not a matter of principle, but rivalry between equally unprincipled parties; that is what we have to say apropos of the present reproaches levelled by the Cadets against the Octobrists in connection with the "negotiations" at the end of 1905. An altercation of this sort only serves to obscure the really important and historically undeniable fact that all shades of the liberal bourgeoisie, from the Octobrists to the Cadets inclusive, "had their eyes riveted on the powers that be " and "turned their backs" on democracy from the time our revolution assumed a really popular character, i.e., from the time it became a democratic revolution because of the democratic forces taking an active part in it. The Stolypin period of the Russian counter-revolution is characterised specifically by the fact that the liberal bourgeoisie had been turning its back on democracy, and that Stolypin was able to turn for assistance, sympathy, and advice first to one then to another representative of this bourgeoisie. Had it not been for this state of affairs, Stolypin would not have been able to give the Council of the United Nobility dominance over the counter-revolutionary-minded bourgeoisie and obtain the assistance, sympathy, and active or passive support of that bourgeoisie.
This aspect of the matter deserves special attention, precisely because it is lost sight of, or intentionally ignored, by our liberal press, as well as by such organs of liberal labour policy as Dyelo Zhizni. Stolypin not only represented the dictatorship of the feudal landlords, and anyone confining himself to this characterisation has understood nothing of the specific nature and meaning of the "Stolypin period". Stolypin was minister during a period when counter-revolutionary sentiments prevailed among the entire liberal
page 252
bourgeoisie, including the Cadets, when the feudal landowners could, and did, rely on these sentiments, when they could, and did, approach the leaders of this bourgeoisie with "offers" (of hand and heart), when they could regard even the most "Left" of these leaders as "His Majesty's Opposition", when they could, and did, refer to the fact that the ideological leaders of the liberals were turning towards them, towards the side of reaction, towards those who fought against democracy and denigrated it. Stolypin was minister during the period when the feudal landowners bent all their efforts to inaugurate and put into effect as speedily as possible a bourgeois policy in peasant life in the countryside, when they had thrown overboard all romantic illusions and hopes based on the muzhik's "patriarchal" nature, and had begun to look for allies among the new, bourgeois elements of Russia in general and of rural Russia in particular. Stolypin tried to pour new wine into old bottles, to reshape the old autocracy into a bourgeois monarchy; and the failure of Stolypin's policy is the failure of tsarism on this last, the last conceivable, road for tsarism. The landowner monarchy of Alexander III tried to gain support in the "patriarchal" countryside and in the "patriarchal element" in Russian life in general. That policy was completely defeated by the revolution. After the revolution, the landowner monarchy of Nicholas II sought support in the counter-revolutionary sentiments of the bourgeoisie and in a bourgeois agrarian policy put into effect by these very same landowners. The failure of these attempts, which even the Cadets, even the Octobrists can no longer doubt, is the failure of the last policy possible for tsarism.
Under Stolypin the dictatorship of the feudal landowner was not directed against the whole nation, including the entire "third estate", the entire bourgeoisie. On the contrary, the dictatorship was exercised under conditions most favourable for it when the Octobrist bourgeoisie served it with heart and soul, when the landowners and the bourgeoisie had a representative body in which their bloc was guaranteed a majority, and an opportunity was provided for conducting negotiations and coming to an agreement with the Crown, when Mr. Struve and the other Vekhi writers reviled the revolution in a hysterical frenzy and propounded
page 253
an ideology which gladdened the heart of Anthony, Bishop of Volhynia, and when Mr. Milyukov proclaimed that the Cadet opposition was "His Majesty's Opposition" (His Majesty being a feudal relic). Nevertheless, despite all these favourable conditions for the Romanovs, despite all these conditions being the most favourable that can be conceived from the point of view of the alignment of social forces in twentieth-century capitalist Russia, Stolypin's policy ended in failure. Stolypin has been assassinated at a moment when a new grave-digger of tsarist autocracy -- or, rather, the grave-digger who is gathering new strength -- is knocking at the door.
* *
*
Stolypin's attitude to the leaders of the bourgeoisie, and theirs to him, is most fully characterised by the relations that existed at the time of the First Duma. "The period from May to July 1906 was decisive for Stolypin's career," writes Rech. What was the centre of gravity during that period?
"The centre of gravity during that period, was not, of course, the speeches in the Duma," states the official organ of the Cadet Party.
That is a valuable admission, isn't it? How many lances were broken at that time in tilts with the Cadets over the question of whether the "speeches in the Duma" could be regarded as the "centre of gravity" during that period! What a torrent of angry abuse and supercilious doctrinaire lecturing was let loose in the Cadet press against the Social-Democrats who, in the spring and summer of 1906, maintained that the centre of gravity during that period was not the speeches in the Duma! What reproaches were levelled by Rech and Duma at the whole of Russian "society" at that time because it dreamed about a "Convention" and was not sufficiently enthusiastic over the Cadet victories in the "parliamentary" arena of the First Duma! Five years have passed since then; it is necessary to make a general estimate of the period of the First Duma, and the Cadets proclaim quite nonchalantly, as if changing a pair of gloves, that, "of course, the centre of gravity during that period was not the speeches in the Duma".
page 254
Of course not, gentlemen! But what was the centre of gravity?
"Behind the scenes," we read in Rech, "a sharp struggle was going on between the representatives of two trends. One recommended a policy of compromise with the people's representatives, not even shrinking at the formation of a 'Cadet Cabinet'. The other demanded vigorous action, the dissolution of the State Duma and a change in the election law. That was the programme advocated by the Council of the United Nobility which enjoyed the support of powerful influences. . . . At first Stolypin hesitated. There are indications that on two occasions, with Kryzhanovsky acting as intermediary, he made overtures to Muromtsev, proposing to discuss the possibility of forming a Cadet Cabinet with himself as Minister of the Interior. But at the same time Stolypin undoubtedly maintained contact with the Council of the United Nobility."
That is how history is written by the educated, learned and well-read liberal leaders! It appears that the "centre of gravity" was not the speeches, but the struggle of two trends within the Black-Hundred tsarist Court clique! Immediate "attack", without delay, was the policy of the Council of the United Nobility, i.e., the policy not of individual persons, not of Nicholas Romanov, not of "one trend" in "high places ", but the policy of a definite class. The Cadets clearly and soberly see their rivals on the right. But anything to the left of the Cadets has disappeared from their field of vision. History was being made by "high places", by the Council of the United Nobility and the Cadets; the common people, of course, took no part in the making of history! A definite class (the nobility) was opposed by the party of people's freedom, which stands above classes, while the "high places" (i.e., Our Father the Tsar) hesitated.
Is it possible to imagine a higher degree of selfish class blindness, a worse distortion of history and forgetfulness of the elementary truths of historical science, a more wretched muddle and a worse confusion of class, party and individuals?
None are so blind as those who will not see democracy and its forces.
page 255
Of course, the centre of gravity during the period of the First Duma was not the speeches in the Duma. It was out side the Duma, in the struggle between classes, in the struggle waged by the feudal landowners and their monarchy against the masses, against the workers and peasants. It was precisely during that period that the revolutionary movement of the masses was again on the upgrade; the spring and summer of 1906 were marked by a menacing upsurge of the strike wave in general and of political strikes, of peasant riots and of mutinies in the armed forces in particular. That, Messrs. Cadet historians, was why there was hesitation in "high places". The struggle between the trends within the tsar's gang was over the question whether, bearing in mind the strength of the revolution at the time, they should attempt the coup d'etat at once, or whether they should bide their time and lead the bourgeoisie by the nose a little longer.
The First Duma fully convinced the landowners (Romanov, Stolypin and Co.) that there could be no peace between them and the peasant and working-class masses. This conviction of theirs was in complete accordance with objective reality. All that remained for them to decide was a question of minor importance; when and how to change the election law, at once or gradually? The bourgeoisie wavered; but its entire behaviour, even that of the Cadet bourgeoisie, showed that it feared the revolution a hundred times more than it feared reaction. That was why the landowners deigned to invite the leaders of the bourgeoisie (Muromtsev, Heyden, Guchkov and Co.) to conferences at which they discussed the question of whether they might not jointly form a Cabinet. And the entire bourgeoisie, including the Cadets, conferred with the tsar, with the pogromists, with the leaders of the Black Hundreds about the means of combating the revolution; but never once since the end of 1905 has the bourgeoisie ever sent representatives of a single one of its parties to confer with the leaders of revolution about how to overthrow the autocracy and the monarchy.
That is the principal lesson to be drawn from the "Stolypin period" of Russian history. Tsarism consulted the bourgeoisie when the revolution still seemed to be a force; but it gradually applied its jackboot to kick out all the
page 256
leaders of the bourgeoisie -- first Muromtsev and Milyukov, then Heyden and Lvov, and, finally, Guchkov -- as soon as the revolutionary pressure from below slackened. The difference between the Milyukovs, the Lvovs, and the Guchkovs is absolutely immaterial -- it is merely a matter of the sequence in which these leaders of the bourgeoisie turned their cheeks to receive the . . . "kisses" of Romanov-Purishkevich-Stolypin and the sequence in which they did receive these . . . "kisses".
Stolypin disappeared from the scene at the very moment when the Black-Hundred monarchy had taken everything that could be of use to it from the counter-revolutionary sentiments of the whole Russian bourgeoisie. Now this bourgeoisie -- repudiated, humiliated, and disgraced by its own renunciation of democracy, the struggle of the masses and revolution -- stands perplexed and bewildered, seeing the symptoms of a gathering new revolution. Stolypin helped the Russian people to learn a useful lesson: either march to freedom by overthrowing the tsarist monarchy, under the leadership of the proletariat; or sink deeper into slavery and submit to the Purishkeviches, Markovs and Tolmachovs, under the ideological and political leadership of the Milyukovs and Guchkovs.