Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1889 — THE RUSSIAN POLICE. [ARTICLE]

THE RUSSIAN POLICE.

If You Want to Do Anything Over There Yon Must First Get Permission. From George Kennan’s article in the April Centnry we quote the following: “There is probably no country in the world where the public power occupies a wider field, plays a more important part, or touches the private personal life of the citizen at more points than it does in Russia. In a country like England or the United States, where the People are the governing power, the fnifttiona of the police are simple and clearly defined, and are limited, for the most part, to the prevention and detection of crime, and the maintenance of orderin public places. In Russia, however, where the people are not the governing (>ower t but hold to that power the relation of an infant ward to a guardian, the police occupy a yi ijy different. ittnLmxuxb- mere- important position. ‘.‘The theory upon which the government of Russia proceeds is, that the citizen not only is incapable of taking part in the management of the affairs of his country, his provine*, or his district but is incompetent to manage even the affairs of his own household; and that, from the time he leaves his cradle and begins the struggle of life down to the time when his weary gray head is finally guided, directed, instructed, restrained, repressed, regulated, fenced in, fenced out, braced up, kept down, and made to do generally what somebody else thinks is best for him. The natural outcome of this paternal theory of government is the concentration of all administrative authority in the hands of a few high officials and the enoimous extension of the police power. Matters that in other countries are left to the discretion of the individual citizen, or to the judgment of a small group of citizens, are regulated in Russia by the Minister jjf the Interior through the imperial police, "TFyott are a. Russian, and wjsh to establish a newspaper, you must ask the permission of the Minister of the Interior. If you wish to ornm Sunday sehool, or any othersqrLof school, whether in a neglecttfcfßlum of St. Petersburg or in a native village in Kamchatka, you must ask the permission of the Minister of Public Instruction. If you wish to give a concert or to get np tableaux for the benefit of an orphan asylum, you must ask permission of the nearest representative of the Minister of the Interior.then submit your programme of exercises to a censor fpr approval or revision, and finally hand over the proceeds of the entertainment to the police to be embezzled or given to the orphan asylum as it may happen. Ts you wish to sell newspapers on the street, you must get permission, be registered in the books of the police,and wear a numbered brass plate as big as a saucer around your neck. If you wish to open a drug store, a printing office, a photograph gallery, or a book store, you must get permission. If you are a photographer and desire to change the location of your place of business, you must get permission. Tfvou are a student and go to a public library to consult Lyell’s “Principle’s of Geology,” or Spencer’s “Social Statics,” you will find that you can not look at such dangerous and incendiary volumes without special permission. If you are a physician, you must get permission before you can practice, and then, if you do not wish to respond to calls in the night, you must have permission to refuse to go; furthermore, if you wish to prescribe what are known in Russia as “powerfully acting” medicines,you must have special permission, or the druggist will not dare to fillyout prescriptions. If you are a peasant and wish to build a bath house on yonr premises, you must get permission. If you are a foreign traveler you must get permission to come into the Empire, permission to go out of it, permission to stay in it longer than six months, and must notify the police every time you change your boarding place. Ia Bhort you can not live, move, or have your being in the Russian Empire without permission.