longing for more land. The ideology of a perfect monarchy is so simple
and its shortcomings so easily attributable to dishonesty of officials,
that it answered the peasant's thoughts as long as he was not able to
see the folly of distinguishing between the system and its realization,
but separated in his mind the image of his loving monarch from the cruel
reality of everyday life as he still distinguishes between the faith and
the priest. The great mistake of all conservatives is that they seek to
bring about a state of perfect justice by improving only the quality
of the ruling body without changing the conditions of life of the ruled
mass. Yet even so the Conservatives had quite a following among the
peasants up to the time of the revolution of 1917 and in a way may still
have a future before them.

The Octoberists find no support in the masses and do not make any
serious attempt to gain it. They frankly acknowledged themselves as the
party of industry and trade, having no wider interests at heart than the
maintenance of order and law throughout the country. Their leaders were
forced into a revolutionary attitude only at the time when there was
danger of a universal collapse of Russia if the tsar's government
persisted, and they may be forced to join in a counter-revolution,
if their interests are again endangered. Their ideology is that of
a capitalistic class and their power depends entirely on the future
development of industry and trade in Russia. For the present they are
nowhere. Unable to find a new basis for their activity in place of
class interest, they lack unity of purpose and are deserted by their
own former supporters among their employees. Trade and industry are
disorganized and the party may never be resurrected.

The Constitutional Democrats are in this respect better off. They find
their support chiefly among more or less educated people of various
pursuits: lawyers, bankers, brokers, journalists, teachers, artists,
scientists, etc. Their program embraces the interests of all classes
and demands political, judicial, economic, industrial and agrarian
legislation of a very radical and extensive kind. Their horizon of
vision includes the sufferings and aspirations of the often incongruous
elements of the vast whole, but their ideology is still based on the
long outworn idealistic capitalism and for this reason alone does not
and cannot appeal to not-owning classes. Their agrarian program is in
this res