ament to
be called together, the military class, who were trying to keep the
common people under control and in ignorance as much as possible had
been able to prevent the duma from obtaining any power. It had much
less freedom than the German Reichstag. It was permitted to meet and
to talk, but not to pass laws. If any member spoke his mind freely, he
was sent to Siberia for life. There were murmurs and threats. There
were labor troubles and strikes. The people of Russia, especially
those living in cities, were learning how little freedom they had,
compared with citizens of other countries, and the time seemed ripe
for a revolution.

It has always been the policy of kings to take the minds of their
people off their own wrongs by giving them some foreign war to think
about. Although the Russian government did all that it could to
prevent the war without completely betraying Serbia, still the war
probably put off the Russian Revolution for two years.

It must be kept in mind that in Germany and especially in Prussia
there was a class of people who had no trade but war. These were the
so-called Junkers (Yoonkers), direct descendants of the old
feudal barons. They were owners of rich tracts of land which had been
handed down to them by their fore-fathers. The rent paid to them by
the people who lived on their farms supported them richly in idleness.
Just as their ancestors in the old days had lived only by fighting and
plundering, so these people still had the idea that anything that they
could take by force was theirs.

Bismarck was a Junker of Junkers. He had nothing but contempt for the
common people and their law-making bodies. In the early days when he
was Prime Minister of the Prussian kingdom, the Congress had refused
to vote to raise certain moneys through taxes that Bismarck advised,
because he wanted to spend all of it in preparations for war. In spite
of the vote of the representatives of the people, Bismarck went right
on collecting the money and spending it as he wished. Later on, after
the Prussian army had won its rapid victories, first over the Danes,
then over the Austrians, and lastly over the French, the Prussian
people, swollen with pride at what their armies had accomplished,
forgave Bismarck for riding rough-shod over their liberties. But
Bismarck was able to do what he did because he had the backing of the
king and the great land-owning Junker class.

In 1870 this was the only class in Prussia th