The defeat in the State Council of the Duma bill on the introduction of a zemstvo in Arkhangelsk Province has already been noted in our newspaper. But on the significance of this fact, which, despite all its apparent insignificance, is at the same time extraordinarily characteristic, we must dwell once more and again.

For almost half a century the noble zemstvo has existed, ensuring the absolute predominance of the feudal (in Russian: serf-owning) type of landowner. And only in certain provinces, for example Vyatka, where there is almost no noble land-ownership, does the zemstvo bear a more peasant character; but here it is even more enmeshed in a network of all manner of bureaucratic prohibitions, obstacles, restrictions and interpretations. Such an apparently neutralized and truncated zemstvo has been sought by Arkhangelsk Province for more than half a century now.

And so, the decision of the reactionary, landlord and bourgeois Third Duma on the introduction of an Arkhangelsk zemstvo has been rejected by the State Council. What a strikingly vivid light this "trifle" casts on the essence of our "reformed" system! What an excellent lesson concerning the class roots of politics!

The arguments of the zemstvo's opponents in the State Council are frank: there are no nobles there, you see. In the entire province there is only 2,660 desyatinas of "private" land-ownership—exclaimed Mr. Stishinsky, the rapporteur in the State Council.

Thus, if there are no noble landowners, then the "people" have not even matured enough for road maintenance and the establishment of hospitals. But if there are no landowners, they must be transplanted directly or indirectly.

Plant them from where? From central Russia, where there are plenty of them. The landowners of the black-earth center, where the most fresh traces of serfdom remain, where the most of "barshchina" (labor-service system of economy) has survived, where the bulls like those of Kursk absolutely dominate, reign and rule—there is whom one can rely upon in matters of state and public affairs. In this sense, the State Council's approach to the question of an Arkhangelsk zemstvo is a most instructive and vivid lesson in our system of government.

"Pravda" No. 13, January 17, 1913. Signature: V.

Printed according to the text of the newspaper "Pravda"