The movement had soon a force which the
retrograde party at Moscow dared not openly resist. So they sent answers
to St. Petersburg, apparently favorable; but wrapped in their phrases
were hints of difficulties, reservations, impossibilities. All this
studied suggestion of difficulties profited the reactionists nothing.
They were immediately informed that the imperial mind was made up, that
the business of the Muscovite nobility was now to arrange that the serf
be freed in twelve years, and put in possession of homestead and
enclosure.
The next movement of the retrograde party was to misunderstand
everything. The plainest things were found to need a world of debate;
the simplest things became entangled; the noble assemblies played
solemnly a ludicrous game of cross-purposes. Straightway came a notice
from the Emperor which, stripped of official verbiage, said that they
must understand. This set all in motion again. Imperial notices were
sent to province after province, explanatory documents were issued, good
men and strong were set to talk and work.
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