The Red Reign: The True Story of an Adventurous Year in Russia

The Red Reign: The True Story of an Adventurous Year in Russia

The Russian revolution is one of the vital issues of the world to-day. The political revolt, presenting, as it does, so many unique and dramatic developments, tends to distract the attention of the world from the broader, deeper, and certainly not less important, phases of the movement which are found in the social and economic upheaval. The working out of these forcespolitical, social, economicin one stupendous movement, constitutes one of the great revolutions of history. Revolution implies absolute change. Whether civil war, or intense parliamentary struggle, or both, is the method of accomplishment, is of small consequence. The ultimate outcome is the same. The present movement of the Russian people toward a changed condition of life is but the manifestation of underlying forces of history and destiny to which all nations must yield. Revolution in Russia during the first quarter of the twentieth century is as inevitable as the bursting of a Pele or a Vesuvius; as inexorable and pitiless as an earthquake, or the passing of ancient empires.{xviii} Revolutions are not made. They are not built upon the propaganda of a political or economic cult. They do not depend upon the will of menwhether rulers or parliamentsas do wars. Revolutions are the result of internal unwholesomenessdisease rooted in the body politic, too deep to be poulticed out by ameliorating reforms. The Russian revolution would be viewed as a world catastrophe were it not that the disease, of which the revolution is but a symptom, is infinitely more of a world menace. That disease is autocracy. Autocracy is a system of government incompatible with twentieth-century civilization. Reforms which are reconcilable to Russian autocracy are inadequate to meet the present needs of the Russian people, and the meeting of these needs necessitates reforms of such far-reaching and radical a nature, that autocracy cannot admit them and continue to exist. Further, certain reforms and fundamental requirements are now so demanding and so acute that autocracy cannot much longer stand out against them. The period of transition from autocracy to constitutionalism, republicanism, or whatever the ultimate form of government accepted in Russia shall be, we call revolution. The word has no arbitrary meaning. It simply designates a period of national upheaval and struggle. In this sense the Russian revolution may be said to have come to a head on Bloody Sunday, January 22, 1905, and will culminate only with the capitulation, or overthrow, of autocracy. The abyss toward which the Russian government is now tending is but the Nemesis of history. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 61557
Author: Durland, Kellogg
Release Date: Mar 4, 2020
Format: eBook
Language: English