The Empire of the Tsars by Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu

Author:Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pronoun

BOOK V. THE SOCIAL HIERARCHY: THE TOWNS AND URBAN CLASSES.

..................

CHAPTER I.

Class Distinctions in Russia: In what Respects they are Superficial and External, in what Deep and Persistent – Blow Struck at the Old-Time Social Hierarchy by the Emancipation – All Subsequent Reforms Tending to the Lowering of Class Barriers – How, in this Respect, the Work Done by Alexander II. Resembles that Done by the French Revolution, and how it Differs Therefrom – Character and Origin of all these Social Distinctions – Privileged and Non-Privileged Classes – Lack of Solidarity between the Former; Lack of Homogeneousness in Each – Accessory Classes.

THE Most salient fact presented to the French observer by Russia’s social constitution is the division of the population into distinct groups, into classes neatly defined, – for a long time one might almost have said into castes. History and law have divided the Russian people into compartments, superposed like tiers which, from base to summit, would go tapering off abruptly. Russian society thus looks from a distance much like a pyramid in stages – that of Saqqarah on the Nile, or the pseudo-Tatar four-tiers tower in Kazàn, each tier further subdivided into secondary steps. To look on the outside of it only, this society, elaborately partitioned, appears made for people who, in the classification of the various social layers, see the first condition of a nation’s greatness. From afar, with all her denominations and official rubrics, Russia would seem to realize the dreams of the utopists of hierarchy; one seems to see a vast Salentum, where every man, at his birth. finds his place and pursuits marked out for him by the law.

On a nearer view it turns out something quite different. At the very time when all the demarcations were most precise, those official frameworks, in which the different classes are arranged according to a pre-determined order, might possibly have misled the theoreticians enamoured of social distinctions. How much more is it so now, when such manifold reforms have rehandled, overhauled, altered in a thousand ways the old hierarchical order! Were Russia’s strength there, as foreigners so generally fancy, Russia would have already lost the inner power long attributed to her by the prejudiced West.

Russia’s social constitution, such as it was, fashioned by the two or three last centuries, was based on the servitude of the peasantry; the emancipation could not fail to shake it. In this regularly stratified society, it was difficult for the lower tier suddenly to straighten itself up without disturbing the balance of the tiers it was supporting. The old-time classification into orders still subsists before the law – nominally, externally, of course; in reality it is considerably honeycombed. This progressive decrease of class distinctions and social privileges, indeed, proves on a closer inspection to be one of the main characteristics of contemporary Russia.

If we attempt to sum up into one all the alterations that have taken place in our own days in the immense Empire of the North, it will be found that

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.