BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 276, 10 August 1918, Page 11

BOOKS OF THE DAY

"THE ECLIPSE OF RUSSIA." 'Dr. Dillon's new Look, "Tlie Eclipse of Russia" (J. JI. Dent and Co., per Whitcombo and Tombs), is moxo specifically devoted to wlmt may Iμ called the basic causes of tho great Russia:! revolution than any previous work dealing with that epoch-making event. Tho author has long enjoyed tho reputation cf being an expert .authority on tho government, foreign policy, and statesmen oE Russia, in which country ho spent some years. Ho was tho trusted friend and confidant of tho famous '.statesmanfinancier, Do Wittc, to whoso memory his book is dedicated, and 'whom tho author clearly holds to havo been at onco tho wisest, most lionsst, and most fnr6eeing public man modem Russia has produced. Dr. Dilloji lias enjoyed special opportunities for gaining inside irformation sis to the general, course of Russian politics during tha past quarter or' a centuTy, and ho presents his readers with, a general survey of modern Ilussian history which for comprehensiveness is unequalled. It may ibo that ho lias attempted rather too much, and that in places his -narrative*, .seems to lack cohesion. But for its intimate pictures of Court and political life, its fciilightGiiing oxposition of the tangled web of ]{usBian autocracy, and, abovo all. ils chairncter sketches of men like Do Wilte, Pobiedonosteff, Stolypin, Trepoft', and Do Plileve, such nbominablo wretches as the notorious figonte-provocatoiirs. "Fathfr" Gapon and Azeff, and scores of other famous or infamous Russians, it is well worth reading. Dr. Dillon gives an in'tereeting account of tho Russian body politic in the pre-war decades. The' weals, egotistical monarch, the, intriguing Tsarina, the vicious and ambitious Grand Dukes, tho reactionary clerical party headed by PobidJoupsteff. (ho corrupt military chiefs, thi> selfish and extravagant nobility, tlw apatl\ctic bour-, gcois, tho ga-eedy fljurcaucmts, the wellmeaning but utterly' impractical "Intellectuals"—all these aro drawn with a sure and vigorous jjer.. ■ At the haso of this utterly rotten social system came the peasant. Ono hundred and forty millions of people, who wore kept in such a plight as "to mako ono wonder," with the author, "a3 much at their pre-revolutionary patience as one has wondered since at their anarchist frenzy." Says Dr. Dillon:

Too often the Russian peasant dwells in a hovel moro filthy thau a sly. moro noxious tli.au a .phosuhorio match factory. Ho goes to bed at six, and even five, o'clock in the winter, because he cannot afford money to buy petroleum enough for artificial light. Ho has no mciit. no egga. no butter, no milk, often no ca.hbauc, and lives mainly on black bread and potatoes.

Time and again utter starvation lias threatened millions of tho -peasants, for they haro lacked even their staplo food. Dr Dillon ciuotes instances of this. When the reserves left White Russia for the seat of war, thore wero many households in which not even a pound of ryecorn waa left for tho support of the families who had lost their breadwinners.

And yet (says Dr. Dillon) these stavvins* men, women, and children had raised plenty of corn to live upon—for tho Eussia.ii tiller of the noil oata chiefly black bread, aud ia slatl when ho has enough of that. But they were forced to sell _it immediately after the harvest, in orocr to pay tho taxes—and they sold it for nominal priccs-so cheap that the foreigners could resell it to them cheaper than Russian corn merchants.

Sunk in deepest .ignorance, many of Hie peasants, despite a natural and passionate devotion to religious exercises, had littlo standard of right and wrong. Their religion was a mere fanaticism, finding vent at times in the most horrible deeds. Can it bo wondered at that when the revolution came there should havo been eo many acts of frenzied cruelty, that the peasants behaved moro like maniacs than reasonable human beings? It w only when reading such a book as this; of Dr. Dillon's that the immensity ot tho task before those who attempt a reconstruction of Russia can bo fully understood. ~ . Dr. Dillon never disguises his contempt for the ex-Tsar,- "this shallow, wealc-minded,. shifty creature. _I« was impossible," he says, "to trust him either to redeem his words to stand by tho Ministpr who acted upon or even to refrain from intriguing against his own responsible agents for tho purpose of undoing the work which he and they had undertaken and achieved conjointly." In affairs of State as in private life "faithlessness was the trait that vitiated his best actions and aggravated his worst." When he ascended tho thTjjne passivity and dilhdenco appeared to be liis lading characteristics. At the _ iirsfc meelin" of the Council of tho Empire fie great dignitaries specially noticed tlio "childish constraint, the shambling gait, furtivo glances, and spasmodic movements" of tho new potentate. •

An undersized, pithlcß3 lad Fidlcd liiln tho apartment in which those hoary dignitaries were respectfully, awaitiim h.m. With downcast nyea, and in n nhrill, lalectto voice, ho haetily blurted out a, single- eentenco: "Gentlemen, in the namo of my late father, I tlianls you for your services," hesitated for a second, aud then, turning on his heels, was gone. i.tiey looked at each otlier, sown in amazement, many uttering a mental prayer for tlie weal of the country; and aftor an awkward pause 'dispersed to,th(!ir hr.mc 3.

But tho "Father of His People' 'exhibited a very different demeanour when, a fortnight or so later, he received tho repreventatives, of the zemstovs. those cmbryoiiic. county councils," the author calls them. In the interim Nicholas J.I had been coached, "hypnotised," as Dr. Dillon puts it, by "tho lay-bishop of Russian authority," that fillister champion of reaction and unqualified absolutism, Jl'. Pol>iedouo.itcft', who had ' the eccrot of spiritually anointing and intellectually equipping tho chosen of the Lord."' Most of the addresses, were coucliitl in very flowery termsr-terms almost of personal adoration. But others reflected a jarring note, and smacked of a spirit of liberalism.' The Council of Jver in particular "expressed tho modest hopo that His Majesty's confidence might not wholly bo restricted to tho. bureaucracy, but would likewisn 1)0 extended In the Russian people and to tho zeinetovs, whoso*devotion to the throne was proverbial." Says Dr. Dillon:

This was a, reasonable wish, it could not seriously lie dubbed a crime; and even if it bespoke a certain spirit of mild independence, it. was. after all, the act. of a single zemstov, whereas the men had como to do homage to the Emperor were the spokesman, not of one nemstov, but of all Kußsia. Yet tho antoerat strutted pompously into the brilliantly-lighted hall,and with Unit ted brows and. tightly-drawn lips, turned wrathfully 'pon the chosen men of the nation, and stamping his littlo foot, ordered them to put aivay such chimerical notions, whioli he would never entertain. Nicholas had now become, in his own jnind at least, "God's lieutenant, the earthly counterpart of lite Divine Master" and.from that time forward he, •was filled with a "spirit of solf-cxnlta-1 lion which went on saining strength in accordance- with tho psychological law that, pride usurps as much sp.ico ns scr- ; vility is ready to yield." As a result of this famous egotism ho meddled continuously in many affairs of State, domestic and foreign, unwittingly thwarting tho course of justice, underraining legality, impoverishing his subjects, bixuting his fervent lovo of peace, nnd , plunging hie tax-burdened people mto the horrors of sanguinary and needless wars.. Further on, Dr. Dillon «li=eusses tiie Tsar's predilections for adventurers of the Cagliostro type, clover, unsmipu-' lous spiritualistic mediums ami ehiirhitiins of various Lypcs. Suspicious of all nroiuul him, he made his most trusted ndvisers suspicious of tlieir imperial mas-, ter. Ho would formally agree to some particular course of policy and forth-, with use bis secret agents to defeat tho,.

very objective to which, ho had apparently accorded a willing, even enthusiastic, assent. One of the worst tr.aits in the Tsar's character teems to have been his selfishness, his almost incredible callousness-. Dr. Dillon assures us that Nicholas was deficient in the sensibility which characterises the average- human, being. When,'as tho i:esult of gross official mismanagement, the popular fete hold on Iho Khodyiikn, Plain ended iu. a- catastrophe which cost the lives of thousands of .tho people, he made no change in the official programme,- and the very next dny entertained over ■Jβ) guests at dinner. When the news of tho destruction of his licet by tho Japanese readied the Tsar he was playing tennis. He. made no verbal comment upon Iho catastrophe, - but merely shrugged his shouldt'i-s and wont on with his gamp. According to De Witte, he had ,; the .slyness of tho maniac, and also, the method and tho stubbornness."

Dr. Dillon has less to say of the Tsarina. Speaking- gcner.illy, he.defends her against certain of the moro ignoblo charges which have been brought against her, but he. shows none the less that sho was a most unfortunate adviser for such an egotist as Nicholas. She headed what Dr. Dillon calls tho "boudoir Cabinet," which became all-powerful at Petrograd during the three or four ye.irs immediately preceding the revolution, and which, whatever ils intentions, became a mere register of Gorman behests, a collection of puppets whose- strings were pulled from Berlin. Tiolshe.-isjv. Dr. Dillon dismisses with scorn as "Isarism upside down." "It suppresses newspapers. ■ forbids liberty of the. Press, arrests or banishes tho'elected of 'tho nation, and connives at or encourages crimes ot diabolical ferocity. . . . Genuine Socialism means Mic organic ordering o. the social whole, and of this iu tho Bolshevik process there is no draw." The chapters in which Dr. Dillon exposes the clever trickery of Germany, more especially in connection with tho Russo-Japanese war, should be read by all who want to get at the first causes of the preseut struggle. The chapter also in which liasputin and his influence at Court are discussed is a masterly piece of careful analysis of a complex and baffling character. Rasputin, Mr. Billon holds, was "much moro a' symbol than an influence,". and the author's account of this extraordinary man coine.3 as a wholesome corrective to the cheap sensationalism of writers such as 11 r. William le Queuw Tho book may seem to lack actuality in the paucity of its references to the events of the revolution and to latter-day developments thereof, l'orhaps it may bo followed by another work in which the story of Russia's political chaos may be brought up to date. Meanwhile, as a study of tlio causes which made the revolution not on!y possible, but inevitable, it must be classed as a very important contribution not only_ to Russian but to European history. (N.!i. price/ 165.).

Australia in the Great, War. "Australia in the Great War" (Cassell aad Co., per H. aad Vi. Mackay) is a liiLudsaiucly produced pictorial and permanent record of the doings of the Australiiin Impcr'iuj i'oice in France, in billet, furlough, hospital, and mi the field of honour. Here wo have n really wonderful collection of realistic pictures of war as our gallant Australian cousins have known it, pictures reflecting every possible phase of the .soldier's training and lighting, both in tins trenches and in the open. !Xo liner nor'-more-striking series of war photograph.?, has yet been published. Some- of the 'pictures show tho -awful ruin inflioted upon tho once happy and prosperous towns luid villages of France by the. ruthless H'.in; others show tho Australians in the trenches or in their bivouacs after a hard day's lighting. Ambulance and hospital work is represented in every detail, and in several of tho pictures the tienmm prisoners, some downcast, and sullen, others supremely cheerful at the comforting thought that they aro at last out of it, are prominent. The visits of I'oyalty and other distinguished visitors to tho front are depicted, and eom , . , interesting illustrations are given of the Australian soldiers on. leave in l-lngiand. The illustrations representin? incidents in tho deadly struggle* in which the Australians'took part at 'Mcssincs and Poziercs are specially realistic and interesting. When one contemplates these in this interesting and valuable publication one grasps more adequately the tremendous difficulties with which our soldiers have had to contend on the Western front. Every public library in the. Dominion should possess a copy of this supremely interesting record of Australian determination, patience, ami gallantry. As. the net profits from the hook (tho price is 6s. net) are tn be deviled to the Australian Soldiers' Kepalrii>. ; ion Fund, it is to lxi hoped that the :-;:'.es will be very large. ' '