Justice abolished capital punishment.

In their program they can hardly be said to be Socialists; it is rather an agrarian party aiming at the creation of a class of small proprietors, and most of their adherents are peasants and land laborers, while the workers of the towns rally round Tscheidze, who is an orthodox Marxist and whose program appeals to the industrial workingman.

Kerensky, was the link between the bourgeois Duma and the Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates. Through his unique eloquence and moral courage he was able to exert an enormous influence during these first difficult weeks, and the state of his health is a serious matter. It is bad, for he is suffering from tuberculosis of the kidneys, one which has been removed, alas, very late, for the Russian surgeons had not discovered what was really the matter; it was during a visit to Finland that the very serious state of his health was discovered and the necessary operation undertaken.

of

He is sitting in the new Government as the representative, but at the same time as the hostage, of democracy. It would be most difficult to find a substitute, and every well-wisher for Russia will hope and pray that he may be spared for the great mission awaiting him. He made an extraordinary impression on me during my conversation with him; a soul of fire, sincere, and truthful to himself, at the same time a powerful intelligence and a born leader. His powers of work are said to be extraordinary.

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The Constituent Assembly

The big question, besides the prosecution of the war, is the organization and the convocation of the Constituent Assembly. The Government program says the assembly was to meet “ as soon as possible." I suppose the Ministers are likely to put the stress on the last word. Indeed, I hardly spoke with one bourgeois politician without his shaking his head over the impossibility of coordinating the working of this assembly with the active prosecution of the war. They, therefore, sincerely hope to see

the end of the, war in the Autumn. But if the end does not come, they are likely to insist on the necessity of postponing the assembly.

On the other hand, the more extreme elements wish to strike the iron while it is hot, and the last proclamation from the council requests the immediate organization of the assembly. The Premier, Prince Lvoff, has said it was to meet within a period of at least three, at most six, months. The problem is not only one of organization; for instance, how are the soldiers at the front to vote, the vote being not only the act of putting a ballot in a box, but a method of contributing to form a real public opinion on a series of very grave questions? There is also the serious difficulty of having a deliberative assembly sitting discussing intricate constitutional and social problems while the greatest war in history is being waged at the frontier. Indeed, it is highly to be desired that the bloodshed might come to an early end, if for no other reasons, lest the future of Russia should be compromised.

Outlook for the Republic

As to the future constitution, there is officially and outwardly absolute unanimity; the cadets, even the progressives, have put the democratic republic on their program. Indeed, no sane politician, at the present juncture, considers any other solution as possible. Monarchy, and especially the dynasty, is compromised beyond remedy; none of the Grand Dukes is to be thought of as Czar, because it would imply dangerous family connections. But bourgeois politicians are far from enthusiastic republicans. They see the danger in such an enormous empire passing at one single step from an autocracy to a republic, and they are not blind to the advantages of monarchy as a symbol of the unity and the indivisibility of the nation. This did not imply any sentimentalism toward the Little Father, and I was told that the existence of this sentiment even among the peasants was greatly exaggerated. There was only cool political calculation in it. Efremoff went to the length of saying to me: "If we only had had a very popular General—”

where the motley diversity is as great. No doubt, however, there will still be great difficulties in this respect, and more especially this will be the case with the Jews. I had no special opportunity of studying the Semitic problem, and therefore shall only give one piece of information, which shows on one hand its acuity, on the other the apprehensions as to the future.

The leading inspirer of the cadets is said to be an Israelitic Petrograd barrister, Vinaver, a close friend of Milukoff and an exceptionally able man. The Government had nominated him a Senator, member of the High Court, but he declined, because he would not expose the revolution to the risk of being dubbed a "Semitic machination." Generally the Jews took up an attitude of great reserve. Pogroms were still considered as possible.

To return to the problems of nationality, there are two questions under this head which require special treatment, namely, Finland and Poland.

The complete liberation of Finland, the reversal of all laws and decrees issued contrary to the Finnish Constitution, and the proclamation of the right of the Finnish people to decide, through their own representatives, the future relations between Finland and Russia, was on one hand the fulfillment of an old pledge from Russian liberals to the Finns. Especially Milukoff, Rodicheff, now Secretary of State for Finland, and Stakhovitch, now Governor General, had engaged themselves strongly on this line. It was, moreover, a sort of morning gift to Western democracy which has always taken a special interest in progressive Finland. And it was-last, but not least -a stroke of generous and far-sighted policy against the German machinations in Finland, which surely in certain contingencies might have been extremely dangerous: Finland is the glacis of Petrograd.

The Case of Finland

It is no secret that during the war numerous young Finns have crossed the frontier to go to Germany, where hundreds of them have been trained as offi

cers to lead an eventual Finnish insurrection. It is said that thousands of young men in Finland itself have been equipped in secret for military service: two pairs of boots, a Winter coat, a gun, &c. But it was understood that no movement was to be initiated if the Germans did not succeed in throwing artillery across the Gulf of Finland. Hence the extreme importance of the Riga front.

This movement found chiefly its adherents among the Swedish party in Finland, a political faction decidedly on the wane, but still important because of its strong intellectual and economic position. However, only part of them favored this policy of despair, which really amounted to a driving out of the devil by Beelzebub. Some adherents were also said to have come from the "Old Fennomans," a conservative party which often has been very weak-kneed toward Russia. Their belief in authority as the supreme prop of social life may have brought some of them to admire the Prussian spirit. *

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[The Swedish Party late in May issued an address demanding a separate republic for Finland, but it received no approval at Petrograd.-Editor CURRENT HISTORY MAGAZINE.]

Finns very well see the realities of the problem-that Russia and Finland are indissoluble for plain geographical reasons. It would be sheer insanity for Finland to rely on the support of Germany, from which it is divided by the sea, while Russia dominates its entire land frontier to the east, while the Russian capital is situated at a distance of only a few miles. Moreover, Finnish industrial merchandise and dairy produce are dependent on the Russian market.

The Finns do not desire their country to be merged in the Russian Empire as one of its constituent parts. They demand a separate existence, a Finnish State at Russia's side, united with the empire through a sort of loose union, giving to Russia only the direction of foreign affairs. The problem is a delicate one, besides entirely new in the history of constitutional law, if Russia is to become a republic, and as the Finns are a difficult race to treat with, tenacious,

sometimes revengeful, it may tax the powers of statesmen on both sides.

Free Poland Possible

The proclamation from the Russian Government to the Poles is the highest bid made during the war for the sympathies of this people, which, after a tragedy of more than a hundred years, can at last look forward with certainty to a future of political independent life for part, if not for the whole, of the race. And this bid is not only a clever diplomatic device made to win the sympathy of the Poles, it is a sincere application of the principle of nationalities. The Russians, of course, wish to see a reunited Poland, including the Polishbut not the Ukrainian-part of Galicia, the whole of Posnania, and the Polish parts of Silesia and West Prussia. Only this enumeration suffices to show what problems will be raised in connection with this program. Germany is far from entertaining any idea of this sort. But if an independent Poland were formed, say, out of Russian Poland and Western Galicia, it would certainly exercise a most powerful attraction on the Poles in the Prussian irredenta. It is incomprehensible how Austria and Germany have been capable of creating their "Kingdom of Poland " after the experience of Austria with an Italian and a Serbian irredenta. The need for Polish soldiers must have been enormous, indeed.

Many will doubt the sincerity of Russia in giving full freedom of action to the Poles as to the future of their new State. I had an opportunity of discussing the question with Efremoff, now a member of the Executive Committee, consequently in close touch with the Government, and his opinion was that, after all, an entirely independent Poland would perhaps represent the best solution for Russia. A buffer State might be useful against Germany, though he saw the danger of the absence of military frontiers, if the principle of international anarchy were still to prevail. But he added that a complete severance from Poland would present certain inner advantages to Russia. Polish nobles had

bought land in Russia, and they were hard masters to the Russian peasants. Many Poles had obtained high situations in Russian administration, and after a very short time their offices had been filled with Poles. It is curious to observe this animosity against a seemingly subject race which has been able to obtain a superior social position. There are parallels in the relation between English and Scots, between English and Irish.

It goes without saying that full separation would raise most difficult problems; Polish industry is dependent on the Russian market; a tariff arrangement would at any rate be necessary. A connection between Poland and Germany would spell economic ruin to Polish industry, as it could not withstand German competition. For this reason alone no Pole in his senses can have seriously entertained the idea of looking westward.

In any case, whether the solution is to be one of complete separation or one of a connection with Russia, there will be the most difficult problems of delimitation.

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Able to Keep War Going

There is no doubt that Russia is still able-from an exclusively military point of view-to prosecute the war. Its offensive powers are impaired through lack of munitions and guns. But the new régime has, at any rate, done away with the artificial impediments created by the late Government and the dynasty, and Russia still disposes of great reserves in man power-it was said about forty divisions, at least one million of fully trained men, besides the young recruits now being trained, and one year gives another million—and in officers. Especially there is a large reserve of cavalry officers who might be used also as leaders of infantry. Besides, a potential reserve is to be found in young cultivated Jews who have been trained as soldiers but have not been admitted to serve as officers. They would be able-if need beto act as garrison officers and in other subsidiary military situations.

The financial position is far from good. The debt is enormous, the paper money