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i9i6] SAZONOFF’S MINUTE ON POLAND 441
Poland the autonomy that Finland had had before the
reforms denounced by the Finns. There was also an
intentional gap in the scheme. The Poles asked that
in the provinces of White-Russia and the Ukraine their
kinsmen, whose rights had been subjected to considerable
restrictions,1 should be placed on an absolutely equal
footing with their Russian fellow-citizens ; now there
was no mention of this in the scheme.
Considering the tremendous stock of grievances
which for more than a century had been accumulating
in Poland against the Russians—and vice-versa;
considering also that the former P’innish statute had not
spared us either the hostility of certain Finnish parties
or the temptation to infringe this statute ourselves, I
was not at all satisfied with Sazonoff’s scheme. I heard
later that the latter had sketched out his minute on far
broader and more liberal lines, but that having given it
to M. Krzyzanowski—former Secretary to the Empire2—
to correct, the latter, under pretext of co-ordinating the
future Polish constitution with the general principles
and the necessities of the Empire and of specifying the
judicial terms of this constitution, altered the whole
spirit of the scheme. Now, if M. Sazonoff allowed
himself to be influenced by considerations which
demanded the restriction of the future liberties of
Poland, what opposition would a M. Sturmer not raise
1 These were mainly large landed proprietors belonging to the
Polish nobility. The restrictions concerned the right of purchase of
land and tended to diminish the number of Polish proprietors in favour
of Russian purchasers or indigenous peasants (Ukranians,
White-Russians or Lithuanians).
2 The Secretary of the Empire was the Director of the Chancellery
and the Editor of the Council of the Empire, who, before the institution
of the Duma, alone framed and elaborated the text of the laws. The
post of Secretary to the Empire was hence a most important one. M.
Krzyzanowski, a very clever and experienced lawyer, was of Polish origin,
and in his youth was looked on as very Liberal. A " turncoat" and having
passed over to the Conservative camp, he had, under Stolypin, an
influence which -our Liberals condemned as fatal. It was at his
brother-in-law Stolypin’s that Sazonoff became intimate with Krzyzanowski.
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