MAXIM GORKY ON RUSSIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8102, 23 March 1906, Page 3

MAXIM GORKY ON RUSSIA.

THE FAMOUS WRITER'S PREDICTIONS. Writing from St. Petersburg on February 3rd, Maxim Gorky, the celebrated Russian author, said:—l predict that a year from this Russia will be as free as is the United States to-day. We have oaase to be thankful, but do oaase to be satisfied. The greateft danger at present to be faced is that the people, exhausted as they are, may relax their efforts. Last Ootober it seemed that the popular cause was irresistible. They forced the autocraoy to abdicate and to issue a manifesto limiting its own power. They gained undue confidence and imagined that they could ai any moment exact further concessions. But since that time, though there have Deeu two general strikes, AND NUMBERLESS ARMED OUTBREAKS, we have obtained no further privileges. Latterly the bureaucracy has gained confidence, and we have had a revival of arrests, newspaper oppressions, and acts of terrorism. The fight is therefore not half over. The Czar's advise-s are undoubtedly under the delusion that they can continue to resist the demand for government based absolutely upon ttoe wiJl of the people. The revolutionary movement must continue until tbey surrender that delusion. Our effort? hitherto has been to force further concessions before the Duma, wbiob satisfies nobody, can meet. The Government is attempting by a means of a mixture of force and cajolery, to keep itself alive until the meeting of the Douma. But we do not want TO HAVE GERMAN CONDITIONS . reproduced here. We want an absolutely ffree government. That can only be achieved if the people frame the government themselves. For that reason I rejeot the Douma and every other concession granted by the i<zardom, and demand a constituent assembly whioh will make its own constitution for the whole Empire. The real question before Russia to-day is whether she herself or THE FRIGHTENED REMNANT of the old Government is to frame the political and social conditions of the future. As things at present Btand, the old.regime is to conduct : its own-funeral —that is to say, we are to have a Douma or Parliament granted from above, with power limited by the Emperor. The franchise is limited; the Douma' powers are limited; it is a grant to misery. That is not what we want. We want to do the burying of the auto•cracy ourselves. And the resurrection of the new Russia that is to be mast bo in our nands. It is very doubtful whether the Doama can meet. The first difficulty is the holding of elections. How can you bold elections in the Baltic provinces, where all but a few towns have been in the POSSESSION OP REVOLUTION--ISTS for months past? How can you hold them in Siberia, with which all communication is out off on three days out of tour? Either the Doum a will not meet at all or it will represent so small ,a portion of our population that it will not dare to undertake any large general measure. A useful Douma is therefore an impossibility. Absolutely, I am convinced that until the convoking of a constituent assembly has set the seal on the people's triumph, there will be no peace. You must admit that Rus eia, FALSIFYING ALL THE PREDICTIONS of reactionaries here and abroad, has qualified for it. In action the extremist of our revolutionists have shown restraint. There has been no class war. The Jews have been massacred by the same lawless class whioh occasionally butchers "Intellectuals." The Government has winked at the massacres because they distraot attention. Jew-baiting has occurred where the Government still possessed an authority which it refused to execute. The only way to put a stop to it is to punish thos'e guilty of negligence. This will be done once the people have power.