2. How the resistance of Governments may overcome
Revolution.
In the greater number of the revolutions enumerated above, we
have seen governments perish by their weakness. As soon as they
were touched they fell.
The Russian Revolution proved that a government which
defends itself energetically may finally triumph.
Never was revolution more menacing to the government.
After the disasters suffered in the Orient, and the severities of
a too oppressive autocratic régime, all classes of
society, including a portion of the army and the fleet, had
revolted. The railways, posts, and telegraph services had
struck, so that communications between the various portions of
the vast empire were interrupted.
The rural class itself, forming the majority of the
nation, began to feel the influence of the revolutionary
propaganda. The lot of the peasants was wretched. They were
obliged, by the system of the mir, to cultivate soil which
they could not acquire. The government resolved immediately to
conciliate this large class of peasants by turning them into
proprietors. Special laws forced the landlords to sell the
peasants a portion of their lands, and banks intended to lend the
buyers the necessary purchase-money were created. The sums lent
were to be repaid by small annuities deducted from the product of
the sale of the crops.
Assured of the neutrality of the peasants, the government
could contend with the fanatics who
were burning the towns, throwing bombs among the crowds, and
waging a merciless warfare. All those who could be taken were
killed. Such extermination is the only method discovered since
the beginning of the world by which a society can be protected
against the rebels who wish to destroy it.
The victorious government understood moreover the
necessity of satisfying the legitimate claims of the enlightened
portion of the nation. It created a parliament instructed to
prepare laws and control expenditure.
The history of the Russian Revolution shows us how a
government, all of whose natural supports have crumbled in
succession, can, with wisdom and firmness, triumph over the most
formidable obstacles. It has been very justly said that
governments are not overthrown, but that they commit suicide.
