AN INSIDE VIEW OF RUSSIA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 119, 6 August 1875, Page 9

AN INSIDE VIEW OF RUSSIA.

<-+ Op all European countries Russia would be thought to be about the most secure from the invasion of socialistic and communistic ideas j for of all European countries its central power is the most complete and absolute, and its administration the most searching, swift, and effective. Yet it appears that the spread of radicalism has been so rapid there within a few years as to cause the Government " grave apprehensions." Were it only the laborers out of work in the large cities, or the serfs chafing at the restrictions under which they still suffer on the great estates, the matter might, perhaps, be disposed of by a single quiet order from the Minister "of Police. The contagion, however, has crept into the upper strata of society ; nay, has invaded the households of " very high officials " at St. Petersburg. The wife of one of the most eminent nobles at the Russian court is said to have been discovered in league with socialistic conspiracies $ and it is no longer a secret that many of the aristocracy have, for good reasons, been placed " under the eye of the police." Secret consignments of men and women of rank to Siberia are by no means a gloomy romance of bygone days. Every now and then a person of distinction is missed ; and then the whisper goes round, with much significant head-shaking, tiiat he or she has been compromised in a democratic plot, and will never be seen more. There is an evident reaction in the domestic policy of the Czar. Most of his concessions to the press and free speech have latterly been with. Opposition to the measures of the Government is dumb perforce. The dreary reign of undiluted despotism has been resumed. When an 'atmosphere of terror invades the Winter Palace, there seems some reason to believe that our gushing orators, who talk about the " crumbling thrones of Europe," may not, after all, be indulging in a very extravagant hyperbole. Certainly, if the throne of 0 Peter the Great is not .secure from the iconoclasm of the commune, where is to be found a throne in Europe that is ? The dallying of the Russian high-born with radical ideas recalls the fatal error of the French courtiers of Louis XV., in petting Voltaire and applauding Rousseau. Alexander of Russia has in many ways alienated his nobles ; but their revenge, if it takes the form of democratic conspiracy, will ruin them, if their plots should succeed, as surely as the dynasty of the Romanoffs.