Fully to understand the reasons which prevented the Wither development of the Russian national councils, we must also bear in mind that the period in which Russia, by the genius of Peter, was thrown into active intercourse with European powers, was far from being the golden age of representative Government. When the Sobors began to take root in the Russian soil, Parliaments and States-General were rapidly advancing to a state of complete annihilation or temporary suppression. What importance can we attach to the deliberations of the English Parliaments under the Tudors, or even under the Stuarts, up to the year 1640? What National Assembly can we mention in France after the year 1613?
The fall of representative institutions, which we notice both in England and in France, was a common fact of European history. The German Reichstag and the Landstande of the different States which composed the Holy Roman Empire had fallen into the same state of political insignificance during the period following the treaty of Munster. The same fate had overtaken the Cortes of Castille and Aragon, and the provincial estates of Hungary and Bohemia.
All over Europe monarchical power was steadily increasing, and autocracy becoming the ruling principle of the day. Was it likely, therefore, that Peter, who declared that he would willingly have given to Richelieu a good moiety of his dominions on condition of being taught by him how to rule the remainder, was it likely, I ask, that that same Peter should bring home from his long voyages in the West any particular respect for representative institutions? It is, therefore, easily understood why, from the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Sobors, without being abolished, should have ceased to be convened.
It was not until there was a general revival of representative institutions throughout Europe that Russian statesmen were found once more occupied with the question of the Sobors.
Alexander I, to judge by the liberality with which he endowed the Poles with a representative assembly, was, at least in the first part of his reign, not directly opposed to the idea of re-calling to life those venerable institutions of the past.
Among the papers of his most intimate Councillor, Speransky, there has been found the project of a constitution, according to which the Council of State, this natural heir of the old Russian Douma, was to be strengthened by the introduction of representatives and notables, chosen from the different Estates of the Empire. In much more recent days a similar project was presented by Loris Melikoff to Alexander II, and an imperial ukase summoning this new Assembly of notables was already signed, when the premature death of the Emperor put an end to the expectations of the Liberal party. In the first weeks of his reign Alexander III himself was not opposed to the idea of reviving the old national institution of the Sobors, and his first two ministers for Home Affairs, Loris Melikoff and Ignatiev, were both in favour of such a reform. It was only from the day when Count Dimitri Tolstoi took upon his shoulders the burthen of the home politics of Russia, that all thoughts were given up of convoking a representative assembly. The Government then entered on the fatal task of the subversion of all recent reforms. Nobody can tell how long will be the duration of the period of reaction upon which we have entered; but on the other hand nobody can doubt that the convocation of a national council is the most natural way of satisfying the wishes of the constantly increasing party of malcontents -- a body of men which has been nick-named by its opponents "the Intelligent Party"(intelligentia) -- a nick-name, which certainly cannot offend those on whom it is conferred.
The convocation of a national representative assembly would no doubt close the era of misunderstanding between the Russian people and the imperial power of the Czars; it would unite the Russian past with the present and future; and would once more open a large field to the co-operation of society for the redress of old wrongs and the establishment of personal liberty and social justice.
NOTES:
1. Compare Kluchevsky's recent article, "On the Representative System of the Sobors," in Russian Thought, a monthly periodical, published at Moscow, January, 1890.
2. The were much the same as the Carlovingian benefices.
3. A desiatin is approximately three English acres.
4. Nordenflicht, "Die Schwedische Staatsverfassung in ihrer geschichlichen Entwickelung," p. 23.
5. Bavelier, "Essai Historique sur le Droit d'Election et sur les Anciennes Assemblees Representatives en France," p. 92.
6. "Historisch-Geographische Beschreibung der Nordl und Oestl. Theile von Europa und Asien," p. 202.
7. p. 284.
8. "Vor dem Cronungs Act hat Michael folgende Puncte und conditiones acceptirt und unterschrieben, nahmlich: (1) Die Religion zu erhalten und zu schutzen: (2) alles was semem Vater widerfahren zu vergessen und zu vergeben, und keine particulare Feindschaft, sie moge Nahmen haben wie sie wowlle zu gedenken;(3) keine neue Gesetze zu machen, oder alte zu undern, hohe und wichtige Sachen nach dem Gesetze und nicht allein vor sich selbst, sondern durch ordentlichen Procez urtheilen zu lassen;(4) weder Krieg noch Frieden allein und vor sich selbst mit dem Nachbar vorzunehmen und; (5) seine Guter zur Bezeugung der Gerechtigkeit und Vermeidung aller Procesz mit particularen Leuten, entweder an seine Familie abzutreten oder solche denen Kron-Guthern einzuverleiben." (p. 209).
