Manifesto and Program of the Union of the Russian People (1905)
Established in 1905, the Union of the Russian People was a reactionary political movement dedicated to the defense of the Russian monarchy, the Orthodox Church, and the Russian people. Sanctioned by Nicholas II, Plehve and other top government officials, it promoted a particularly militant form of nationalism while priding itself on NOT being a political party. Most of its members came from the middle class, were members of the clergy, or were minor state officials. However its counter-revolutionary core lay in the so-called "Black Hundreds," the volunteer militias that had sprung up in the fall of 1905 to "defend" Russia by attacking non-Russians, students, socialists, and/or Jews.
1. How does the Union view the situation in Russia in the wake of the October 30 Manifesto?
2. How--concretely--does the Union propose to support the Russian autocracy?
3. What are some of the Union's positions regarding Imperial 'outsiders' (non-Russian and/or non-Orthodox subjects)?
4. What is the Union's basic stance regarding the peasantry?
Russian People!
The great Manifesto of October 30 granted us civil freedom on the basis of the personal inviolability, along with the freedoms of expression, conscience, meetings and unions. In spite of this Tsarist grace, many of us in fact have joined the dark slavery of a mysterious, unknown, naked and all-destructive force that wraps itself in promises of additional "freedom." This force arbitrarily determines our fate. Without any legal authority, it issues its own "manifestos" and openly advocates any number of impractical demands: the complete dismantling of the Russian army and its replacement by militias subordinate to city administrations; the organization of a social-democratic republic; and so forth. By means of deception, threats, and violence, the enemies of the Tsar and of the country are causing strikes in factories and mills. They are stopping trains, disrupting trade, inflicting tremendous financial losses on the entire state, and depriving hundreds of thousands of poor people of work in order to force them into violence through hunger. Our children are being deprived of the possibility of education. The sick are dying, unable to obtain medicine.... The trouble has not stopped in spite of the fact that we have received freedom, the self same "freedom" everyone has been demanding so ardently. God alone knows how far this anarchy will lead. One thing, however, is certain. We are heading directly towards the downfall and destruction of the Russian state. This is why we call upon all honest Russian people who are loyal to the Tsar, the country, and traditional Russian principles, to join together irrespective of their profession or status, so as to conduct an active struggle by every legal means against arbitrary violence and other repulsive exhibitions of our recently granted freedom.
The goal that this Union of the Russian People ultimately must seek is the introduction of a firm, durable, legal order, on the basis of the following foundations:
1. The unity and indivisibility of the Russian Empire and the stability of the basic foundations of Russian statehood. Only firm Tsarist authority, based on a direct union between the Tsar and the people (or their elected representatives) can provide unconditional guarantees for a durable legal order in such a multi-national state as Russia.
2. The establishment of a State Duma with the right to report directly to the Sovereign, the right to address inquiries to ministers, the right to control the activity of these ministers, and the right to petition the Emperor that ministers be dismissed and tried in the courts.
3. Coordination of ministerial activity and firm establishment of the actual extent of their responsibility (a responsibility held by all other officials) for every irregularity connected with their service and for damages suffered by private individuals, including bringing them to the attention of the Procurator.
4. Allowing the election of Jews to the State Duma (not more than three persons), to be elected by the entire Jewish population of the Russian Empire in order to present the special needs of the Jewish population to the Duma . Such limitation is necessary because of the disruptive, anti-state activity of the united Jewish masses, their unceasing hatred of everything Russian, and the unscrupulousness which they so openly demonstrated during the recent revolutionary movement.
5. The realization of the freedom and inviolability granted by the Manifesto of October 30. That is, the protection of individuals from the arbitrariness and violence of officials; private individuals; and societies, unions, and committees, whether open or secret.
6. The establishment of the firm responsibility of the press to protect the basic foundation of the state system, which shall be based on special criminal legislation similar to that existing in the countries of Western Europe.
7. The firm, severe, and actual protection of the property rights of private individuals, of societies, and of the state.
The basis of our Union is brotherly love towards our neighbours. We therefore do not allow any of the arbitrariness, force, falsehoods, rumours, distortions and secret or similar means of struggle used by our enemies, by the Tsar's enemies or by enemies of the country.
The Charter of the Union of the Russian People
I. The Aim of the Union
1. The Union of the Russian People sets as its undeviating goal the lasting unity of the Russian people of all classes and professions in working for the general good of our fatherland -- a Russia united and indivisible.
II. Program
2. The well-being of the country should consist of the firm preservation of the Russian autocracy, orthodoxy, and nationality, and of the establishment of a State Duma, order, and legality.
3. Russian autocracy was created by national wisdom, sanctified by the Church, and justified by history. Our autocracy consists of unity between the Tsar and the people.
Note: Convinced that national well being consists of the unity between the Russian Tsar and the people, the Union acknowledges that the present ministerial bureaucratic system, which separates the pure soul of the Russian Tsar from the people, and which has appropriated a number of rights that truly belong to the Russian autocratic power, has brought our country to grave troubles and should therefore be changed fundamentally. At the same time the Union firmly believes that any change in existing order should be accomplished not through the introduction of certain restrictive institutions (such as constitutional or constituent assemblies), but rather through convocation of a State Duma as an institution that would represent a direct link between the autocratic will of the Tsar and the rights of the people.
4. The Russian people are Orthodox. Therefore the Orthodox faith steadfastly remains the official religion of the Russian Empire. All subjects of the Empire, however, have the freedom of religious worship.
5. The Russian people, as the gatherer of Russian lands and the creator of the great might of the state, enjoys a preferential position in national life and in national administration.
Note: All institutions of the Russian state should be united. They should constantly strive to maintain the greatness of Russia and those preferential rights legally belonging to the Russian people, so that the numerous minorities inhabiting our country will consider it their privilege to be a part of the Russian Empire and not consider themselves oppressed.
Note: The Russian language is and should be the official language of the Russian Empire, for all of its people.
6. The State Duma, the bulwark of autocracy, should not demand any limitations on the supreme authority of the Tsar. It should only inform him of the real needs of the people and of the state, and help the Legislator to realize the necessary reforms.
7. The immediate activity of authorities should be directed towards the introduction of firm order and legality guaranteeing the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and unions, and the inviolability of the individual. There should be a rule determining the limits of these freedoms in order to prevent the violation of established order (thus endangering the rights of other individuals), i.e. a rule protecting freedom itself.
III. The Activity of the Union
8. The Union sets as its constant participatory goal the election of members from its ranks to the State Duma, to realize the aims to which the Union subscribes.
Note: Problems which the Union believes should be dealt with as soon as possible by the State Duma have been listed in Appendix 1 of the present statute.
9. The Union intends to assume the responsibilities of providing people with sound education, of developing consciousness among the people of the spirit of autocracy, and of spreading Christian foundations among them, thereby strengthening their patriotism and their feelings of debt to the nation, to society, and to their families.
Note: The Union's proposed educational will be accomplished through the opening of a greater number of schools, through the preparation of readings, meetings, talks, distribution of appropriate books and pamphlets, and through the publication of newspapers and journals. The basis of the [proposed] educational activity of Union schools is included in Appendix 2 of the present charter.
10. Within the limits of its possibilities, the Union intends to build churches and to open hospitals, shelters, industries, and similar useful buildings, and to aid in the founding of mutual banks and other industrial-protective unions.
11. The Union considers as its immutable obligation the extension (within its capabilities) of brotherly help to all of its members; i.e., material and moral support.
12. The Union has the right to enter into relations with governmental and public institutions on matters that relate to the aims of the Union.
13. The Union has the right to appropriate immoveable property [i.e. real estate] in its own name, using legal means, and to operate it legally as its own.
IV. The Organization of the Union
14. Members of the Union can be only native Russians of both sexes, of all classes and professions, who are dedicated to the aims of the Union, who show an indication that they are firmly acquainted with the aims of the Union and who, when they join the Union, will promise not to enter into an association with a secret organization or an organization that pursues aims contrary to those of the Union.
15. All other persons can be accepted as members of the Union only by the decision of a General Meeting of the members of the Union.
Note: Jews cannot become members of the Union....
Appendix 1 (to Article 8 of the Charter) Of the problems that the State Duma should first consider, the Union lists among others: the peasant problem; the improvement of living conditions of all the toiling classes, irrespective of their profession; the responsibility of all officials for illegal acts in the performance of their duties.
1. The Union believes that one of the most important national problems is to resolve whether the peasant village commune should retained or abolished. The Union, believing that the peasants themselves are expressing themselves on this issue without any outside compulsion, publicly states that it will not assume any initiative in resolving this problem. The peasants themselves are resolving this problem. Thus the Union obligates itself to provide the peasants a peaceful atmosphere for the solution of their communal organization, one absolutely free of any outside interference (whether by institutions or individuals).
The Union limits its support for improving peasant conditions to advocating free expression on the commune problem until its solution by the peasants themselves. T he Union's immediate task is to advocate that poor peasants be given more land, or that such peasants be either resettled or permitted to transfer their land to other peasants by a freely reached bargain.
The Union also takes note of the extreme unproductiveness of Russian agriculture. It suggests a broad educational program to acquaint the Russian agricultural population with a more rational form of farming, and to provide it with the assistance it needs towards a rational increase in the productivity of the land.
2. The Union's special obligation is to do everything possible to improve the condition of all the toiling classes regardless of their occupation. The Union considers that it has a particular obligation toward workers: to declare that their difficult situation in many enterprises demands the immediate regulation of worker-employer relations, by means of legislation taking into account the location and nature of the enterprises .
3. The Union believes that the existing system of accountability for senior officials is one of the causes of Russia's current difficulties . Presently, those who have suffered from abuses and illegal acts by senior officials have no recourse against them in the courts. They cannot seek legal compensation for their losses from the guilty parties, and can only complain to administrators who (by virtue of the powers vested in them by the law) take note only of those cases endangering the interests of the Treasury. The impunity of present officials has given rise to infinite abuse. This can be stopped easily by repealing the appropriate articles of the law, and by allowing every individual who has been wronged the rights to appeal freely and directly to the Procurator's Office and/or to the Court with his complaint against illegal acts, and to demand compensation for losses suffered as a result of official negligence. To prevent abuses of this system, the law should severely punish those who accuse unjustly or report falsely.
Appendix 2 (to Article 8 of the Charter) The elementary school does not at all correspond either to the spirit or the needs of the Russian people. One of the main Union objectives is the education of the peasant, city, and working populations on firm foundations, along with the development of political consciousness and the principles of Christianity in them . Village schools should equip the peasant for the necessities of rural life, agriculture, crafts, and domestic industry.
Source: Unattributed translation from V. Ivanovich, ed. Rossiiskiia partii, soiuzy i ligi. St. Petersburg: 1906, pp. 117-122. Revised by Jon Bone.