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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE CASE OF RUSSIA
 
 THE 
 
 CASE OF RUSSIA 
 
 A COMPOSITE VIEW 
 
 BY 
 
 Alfred Rambatidt Vladimir G* Simkovitch 
 
 J. Novicow, Peter Roberts, and 
 
 Isaac A* Hourwich 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 FOX, DUFFIELD & COMPANY 
 
 t905
 
 COPTRIQHT, 1900, BY 
 
 FREDERICK A. RICHARDSON 
 
 COPTKIGHT, 1905, BT 
 
 FOX. DUFFIELD & COMPANY 
 Published April, 1905
 
 7^K 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA. ... 1 
 The Expansion of Russia in Europe . 25 
 The Southward Expansion of Russia 
 
 IN Asia 57 ^ 
 
 Further Conquests 68 
 
 The Expansion of Russia in the Far 
 
 East 90 
 
 Corea 102 
 
 China 108 
 
 The Means and Methods of Russian 
 
 Expansion 116 ^^ 
 
 By Alfred Rambaud, Senator of France, Member of the 
 Institute, etc.; author of "The History of Russia," 
 which was crowned by the French Academy, and which 
 the great Russian writer, TurgeniefE, declared " supe- 
 rior to any other history accessible to Western Europe." 
 
 II. THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE. A Psycho- 
 logical Study 137 
 
 By J. Novicow, of Odessa, Russia, author of "The 
 Conflicts of Human Societies and their Successive 
 Phases," "International Politics," " Protectionism" (in 
 French), etc. 
 
 V
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 III. RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY. An Interprk- i*- 
 
 TATION 255 
 
 By Vladimir G. Simkovitch, lecturer on Ruseian His- 
 tory in Columbia University ; bom in Russia and edu- 
 cated in Russian and (lerman universities ; author of 
 "Die Feldgemcinschaft in Russland," etc. 
 
 IV. THE SLAVS 293 
 
 By Rev. Peter Robeuts, Ph.D., Yale University, author 
 of "The Anthracite Coal Industry," "The Anthra- 
 cite Coal Communities " ; an important witness for 
 the miners in the strike commisBion of 1902. 
 
 V. RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA . . . 339 
 
 By Isaac A. UouRwicn, Ph.D., Columbia University, 
 Instructor in Statistics and Lecturer on Comparative 
 Commercial Law at Columbia University; born in 
 Wilno. Lithuania, Russia; author of "Peasant Emi- 
 pratiou to Siberia" (in Russian), "The Economics of 
 the Russiau Village," etc. 
 
 VH
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA. 
 
 The Origin of the Russian State and Nation — - 
 The Tartar-Mongols — Principality of Moscow 
 — The Unity of Russia —Isolation — The Aim of 
 Russian Diplomacy. 
 
 We fail to discover, however far back we 
 go towards the beginnings of the Russian 
 State, any indication that this was ever des- 
 tined to become a maritime power. In the 
 ninth century, the Slavic tribes that were 
 to form the first pohtical organization desig- 
 nated by the name Russian, — the Slavo- 
 Russian tribes, — occupied a territory securely 
 shut in on the west, by the Poles and the 
 Lithuanians; on the north, by the Finnish 
 tribes, the Livonians, the Tchudis, and the 
 Ingrians; on the east, Finnish tribes again, 
 the Vesi, the Merians, the Muromians, and 
 two Turkish tribes, the Meshtcheraks and 
 the Khazars, that occupied all the northern 
 
 1
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 coast of the Black Sea; allowing but a single 
 one of the Slavo-Russian peoples to hold a 
 position upon its shores. Except at this 
 point, these Slavo-Russian tribes nowhere 
 had access to the coast. The shores of the 
 White Sea and the Arctic Ocean were Fin- 
 nish; those of the Baltic, Finnish or Scan- 
 dinavian; those of the Black Sea were held 
 by the Khazars, the Caucasian tribes, the 
 Byzantine Empire, and the Bulgarians, a 
 Finnish tribe that had imposed its name and 
 sovereignty upon a certain number of Slavic 
 tribes. 
 
 In the East and North, the Slavs were not 
 to be found even in those regions where 
 afterwards rose the Russian capitals, Mos- 
 cow and St. Petersburg. Beyond began those 
 immense spaces that stretch away into the 
 depths of Central Asia, and even to the Pacific 
 Ocean, spaces peopled with Finnish and 
 Turkish trib(!S, and other branches of the 
 Uralo-Altaic family. Then, still further east, 
 
 2
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 were to be found certain peoples of the 
 yellow race. 
 
 To speak now only of the Russia of Europe, 
 how did the Slavo-Russians, who in the ninth 
 century held scarcely a fifth part of their 
 present territory, succeed in securing pos- 
 session of it all? A two-fold change came 
 about during the centuries. On the one 
 hand, the Slavo-Russians, very venturesome in 
 disposition, following, at first, the course 
 of the rivers and their tributaries, spread 
 out over the vast plains that stretch away to 
 the Ural Mountains; founding everjrwhere 
 cities, villages, and markets right in the midst 
 of the territory of the aboriginal tribes. On 
 the other hand, they absorbed the greater 
 part of those tribes, and imposed upon them 
 their language, religion, and even their man- 
 ners and customs. A double colonization, 
 therefore, took place, a colonization of the soil 
 and a colonization of the native. The ancient 
 Uralo- Altaic tribes, subjugated or absorbed 
 
 3
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 by the Russians, has disappeared from the 
 map of the empire. There persist still only 
 some scattered remnants of them, surrounded 
 by men of Russian race and speech, and 
 destined soon to disappear. These aborigines 
 are to be found in fairly compact groups only 
 in those places where the severity of the climate, 
 the barren character of the soil, the thick- 
 ness of the forest, and the desert steppes 
 check Russian civilization, an ethnographical 
 medley, moreover, occupying only a very small 
 and indiffcnMitly valuable part of the Euro- 
 pean Russia of to-day.' 
 
 Thus the primitive tribes of the Slavo- 
 Russians formed an agglomeration which was 
 everywhere well-nigh entirely shut off from 
 any sea. This had a character essentially 
 continental, the poi)ulation was wholly agri- 
 
 (') Thus tho Sdomi, tho Knrolia nnd tl\n Laplanders 
 in Finland; tin- Zyrian.s and tli*! rorniiana, in tho 
 north(!a8t; the; Tchonnnisa, tlic Mordva, tlio Votiaki, 
 tho McshtclH-raks. und tin- liashkirs on ihv river Volga, 
 or between tiie Volga and the Ural Mountains aud river.
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 cultural in character, and, except as fleets 
 of light boats descended the Dnieper in the 
 tenth century to harass Constantinople and 
 to commit piracy on the Byzantine shores 
 of the Black Sea, there was nothing to indi- 
 cate that it would one day come forth as a 
 maritime power. 
 
 The Russia of the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries was scarcely European. She was 
 bound to Europe only by her form of relig- 
 ion, and even that, borrowed from Byzantine, 
 was an Oriental, an almost Asiatic form of 
 Christianity. When there came about in the 
 eleventh century the rupture between the 
 Latin and Catholic Church of the West, 
 and the Greek and Orthodox Church of 
 the East, a still higher barrier was raised 
 between the two parts of Europe. To the 
 Western Christians, the Greeks and the peo- 
 ples that they had evangelized, the Bulgar- 
 ians, the Servians, the Moldavo-Wallachians, 
 and the Russians, were only schismatics. 
 
 5
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 Now, while the Catholic peoples of the West, 
 thanks to more favorable historical circum- 
 stances, began to take shape as powerful 
 nations in which an already well-advanced 
 civilization went on developing, the schismatic 
 peoples of Eastern Europe, assailed by suc- 
 cessive invasions, from Asia, and after having 
 long served as a living bulwark against bar- 
 barism for ungrateful Europe, were checked 
 in their historic evolution, and fell one after 
 the other into servitude to pagan Mongols 
 or Mohammedan Turks. 
 
 The country where the Slavo-Russians first 
 established themselves was only a prolonga- 
 tion of the great plains which, scarcely broken 
 by the Ural Mountains, extend to Behring's 
 Sea, Okhotsk Sea, and the Sea of Japan. 
 Geographically, topographically, this prim- 
 itive Russia was already Asiatic. Just as the 
 winds from Asia swept unhinch^red all this 
 immense plain, so could tlic migration of 
 peoples anrl invading cxj^oditions, at times 
 
 6
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 originating near the Great Wall of China, 
 pour unchecked over the Russian plains as 
 far as the Carpathian Mountains and the 
 
 Vistula. 
 
 One of those revolutions, so frequent among 
 the nomadic tribes of Asia, brought together 
 from 1154 to 1227 under the blue banner of 
 Temuchin, called Jenghis Khan, numerous 
 tribes of shepherds and mounted nomads. 
 They adopted as their collective name that 
 of the Tartar-Mongols. At their head ''the 
 Inflexible Emperor," ''the Son of Heaven," 
 conquered Manchuria, the kingdom of Tan- 
 gut, North China, Turkestan, and Great 
 Bokhara, and founded an empire which 
 extended from the Pacific to the Ural Mountains. 
 Under the successors of Jenghis Khan, these 
 mounted hordes, maddened by the fury of 
 war and conquest, crossed into Europe, fell 
 upon Russia, then divided into numerous 
 principalities, carried the capital cities by 
 assault, annihilated, one after the other, the 
 
 7
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 armies of foot and horse sent against them, 
 and in 1240 converted all Russia into a mere 
 province of the Mongol Empire. The Russian 
 princes and the chieftains of the Finnish tribes 
 became vassals of the Great Khan,' who held 
 his court on the banks of the Onon, an affluent 
 of the Amur, or at Karakorum on the Orkhon, 
 a stream emptying into Lake Baikal. They 
 were also more directly the vassals of one of 
 his vassals, the Khan of the Golden Horde, 
 who was stationed at Sarai on the lower Volga. 
 At this period the Tartar-Mongols, among 
 whom Mohammedanism was disseminated 
 until about 1272, were still Buddhists, Sham- 
 anists, or fetich worshippers; at heart very 
 indifferent in matters of religion, and strangers 
 to any thought of propagandism or of intoler- 
 ance. They, therefore, left the Russians in 
 undisturbed possession of their religion, their 
 
 (') Consult Howorth, History of the Mongols, London 
 1876. Wolff, Geschichte der Mongolen, Breslau, 1872. 
 L6on Cahun, Introduction a I'histoire de I'Asie, Paris, 
 1896. 
 
 8
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 laws, and their own princely dynasties. They 
 merely exacted tribute, and, in certain contin- 
 gencies, military service ; and every new Russian 
 prince must go to receive his investiture either 
 at Sarai, or even by a journey that would 
 occupy years, at the court of the Great Khan. 
 There they were compelled to prostrate them- 
 selves at the foot of his throne, to defend them- 
 selves against the accusations of enemies, or 
 of their Russian rivals; and the Khan disposed 
 of their heads as of their crowns. Many Russian 
 princes were executed before his eyes. Some 
 among these, the Russian Church honors as 
 martyrs. 
 
 Among the Russian princes who went there 
 to prostrate themselves before the Horde were 
 those who had founded round about a little 
 market-town, the name of which is met with 
 for the first time in 1147, a new principality, 
 that of Moscow, one of the most insignificant 
 of the Russian states of that period. It was 
 established in the midst of a Finnish country, 
 
 9
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 among the Muromians. It formed, therefore, 
 a colony of primitive Russia. The princes 
 of Moscow knew how to turn to their own 
 advantage the Mongol yoke that weighed on 
 all Russia. They were more adroit than the 
 others in flattering the common master and 
 the agents that represented him in Russia. 
 One of them, George (1303-1325), even married 
 a Tartar princess. In their struggles against 
 other Russian princes, they alway carried the 
 controversy to the court of the Khan, who 
 almost always decided in their favor, and sent 
 them away with the heads of their rivals. They 
 secured from the Khan the privilege of collecting 
 the tribute, not only from their own subjects, 
 but from the other princes of Russia. This 
 function as tribute collector for the Khan 
 raised them above all their equals; and the 
 more humble vassals of the barbarians they 
 showed thoirisolvos to be, the better did they 
 establish thciir suzerainty over the other Chris- 
 tian states. They succeeded thus in building 
 
 10
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 up a powerful state, which was called the "Great 
 Principality" of Moscow. When they felt 
 themselves to be strong enough, and perceived 
 that the Mongol Empire had grown suflficiently 
 weak through internal dissension and divisions 
 to warrant the attempt, they turned against 
 the barbarians the power that they owed to 
 them. In 1380, the Grand Prince Dmitri, 
 having refused pa3mient of tribute, defeated 
 Mamai, the Khan of the Golden Horde, at 
 Kulikovo on the Don. But the Mongols were 
 not yet as weak as Dmitri Donskoi (hero of 
 the Don) had thought. Tamerlane, or Timur- 
 Leng, had just conquered Turkestan, Persia 
 Asia Minor, and North Hindustan. One of 
 his lieutenants, Tokhtamysh, having vainly 
 summoned the Grand Prince, Dmitri, to appear 
 before him, marclied against Moscow, captured 
 the city and its Kremlin, sacked the other 
 cities of the principality, and everywhere 
 reestablished Asiatic supremacy. Nevertheless, 
 the Mongol yoke was not to survive long the 
 
 11
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 heroic effort made at Kulikovo. The great 
 barbarian empires founded by Asiatic conquerors 
 quickly fall to pieces. This historical law 
 was verified in the Empire of Tamerlane, as 
 in that of Jenghis Khan. Towards the end 
 of the fifteenth century, the Mongol Empire 
 of Asia was divided in the Mongol Empire 
 of China, the Mongol Empire of India, the 
 Mongol Kingdom of Persia, and a large number 
 of khanates in Turkestan and Siberia; and all 
 those states were scarcely any longer Mongol 
 save in name. In Russia itself, the Golden 
 Horde was broken up. From its debris were 
 formed the czarate of Kazan on the middle 
 Volga, the khanate, or czarate, of Sarai, or 
 Astrakhan, on the lower Volga, the horde of 
 the Nogais, and the khanate of the Crimea. 
 In 1476, Akhmed, the Khan of Sarai, sent a 
 demand for tribute to the Grand Prince of 
 Moscow, Ivan the Great. Ivan i)ut the aml)ass- 
 adors to death. Four years later, the Khan 
 Akhmed marched upon Moscow with a large 
 
 12
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 army. Near the rivers Oka and Ugra he met 
 the army of Ivan the Great; but neither of 
 the adversaries dared force the passage of 
 the two rivers. They remained there several 
 days exchanging insults and darts from the 
 opposite shores. Then a panic simultaneously 
 arose in both armies; the one fleeing in the 
 direction of Moscow, the other in the direction 
 of Sarai. It was in this bloodless, inglorious way 
 that the Mongol power in Russia came to an end. 
 The Mongol yoke had continued two hundred 
 and fifty-six years (1224-1480). It left in 
 Russia traces that were for a long time inefface- 
 able. Before the Tartar conquest, the power 
 of a Russian prince was founded upon Euro- 
 pean origins. It recalled the patriarchal author- 
 ity of the old-time chieftains of the Slavo- 
 Russian tribes; the martial authority of the 
 heads of the Scandinavian or Variagian clans, 
 like Rorik and other Variagian chiefs, called 
 into Russia, it is said, by the Slavs; and the 
 authority, at once civil and religious, of the 
 
 13
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 Byzantine-Roman emperors, whom the succes- 
 sors of Rorik, Hke all the barbarian chieftains 
 of Eastern Europe, Uked to take as models. 
 After the Tartar conquest, on the contrary, 
 the Russian princes, and especially the Grand 
 Princes of Moscow, selected as prototypes of 
 their own authority the Khans and Great 
 Khans with their autocratic power, — coarse, 
 irresponsible, Asiatic. From that time forward, 
 they treated their vassals as they themselves 
 had been treated by the Khans. Between the 
 Grand Prince and his vassals, and between these 
 and the peasants, the relations were those of 
 brutal masters and trembling slaves. The sover- 
 ei<!;n of Moscow did not differ from a Mongol 
 Khan, from a Persian Shah, or from an Osmanli 
 Sultan, save as he professed the orthodox reli- 
 gion, lie was a sort of a Christian Grand Turk. 
 When the titles of Grand Prince seemed to him 
 unworthy of his increased power, the title that 
 his ambition chose was none of those that the 
 Christian rulers uf the West then bore; it was 
 
 14
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 the one which the Khans of Siberia, of Kazan, 
 or of Astrakhan had arrogated; it was the title 
 of Czar, which, of course, has not any etymo- 
 logical connection with that of Ciesar, a fiction 
 invented very much later. Such was the title 
 that the heir of the Grand Princes of Moscow, 
 Ivan the Terrible, solemnly took in 1547. 
 Many other facts attest the predominance of 
 Asiatic influences over the Russia of the six- 
 teenth century. The costumes of the Czar of 
 Moscow and of the other great lords, the princes 
 and boyars, were Asiatic; Asiatic was the servile 
 etiquette of the court; touching with the brow 
 the foot of the throne, and the humble formulas 
 in which the highest personages declared them- 
 selves to be slaves; Asiatic was the seclusion of 
 the women in the terem, which was a Russian 
 harem;' Asiatic was the equipment of the royal 
 
 (1) However, it is proper to call attention to the fact 
 that the servile character of the court etiquette may 
 also have been borrowed from Byzantium, and that 
 the Russian terem may have had its original in the 
 gynsecium of the Greeks. 
 
 15
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 cavalry with their high saddles and short stir- 
 rups; their boots with the toe in the form of an 
 upturned crescent; their armor reminding one 
 of the Chinese and Japanese; their curved 
 swords, their bows and quivers, and their head- 
 dress, which resembled a turban surmounted by 
 an aigrette. All this oriental apparel was to 
 continue in vogue until the time when Peter the 
 Great, with the violent measures of an Asiatic 
 despot, forcibly introduced into Russia the 
 short clothing of the West,— "German dress," 
 that is, European. With this change in cos- 
 tume, he also brought in the fashion of shaving 
 the face; the holding of social gatherings, which 
 the recluses of the terem were compelled to 
 attend; the etiquette of the Christian courts; 
 the formulary of the Gorman bureaucracy, and 
 the uniforms, (Hiuipmcnts, and tactics of the 
 armies of the West 
 
 While Russia was still groaning under the 
 Mongol yoke, the Grand Princes of Moscow, 
 utilizing their servitude as an instrument of 
 
 IG
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 power, caused the other princes to bow before 
 the terror of the Mongol, and brought about 
 "the consolidation of the Russian territory," 
 that is to say, they founded the unity of Russia. 
 When the family line of the Grand Princes and 
 Czars of Moscow died out in 1598, and when 
 there began for Russia "those troublous times 
 {smmitno'it Vremia)," which the accession of the 
 Romanofs brought to an end in 1613, the czar- 
 ate of Moscow was already a very powerful 
 state. 
 
 In the North especially, by the annexation of 
 the territories of the ancient republics of Nov- 
 gorod and Pskof, the Muscovite supremacy was 
 extended to the White Sea and the Arctic 
 Ocean. On the west, in a series of wars against 
 the Lithuanians and the Poles to "recover" 
 from them Russian territory which they had 
 formerly conquered, the Moscow czarate had 
 carried its power beyond Pskof and Lake Pei'pus, 
 and had reached the Dnieper at Kiev and 
 Smolensk. In the South, it had reached 
 
 17
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 neither the Black Sea nor the Sea of Azov, 
 from which it was separated by the Ukraine 
 that still belonged to the Poles, by a republic 
 of adventurers and pirates called the Zaporo- 
 vians, by the khanate of the Crimean Tartars, 
 by the camping-grounds of the Nogaian Tar- 
 tars, and, finally, by the maritime power of the 
 Ottomans on the Euxine. Eastward, Russian 
 conquest and colonization had made great 
 advances. The miiting of the old territories of 
 Novgorod, and the annexation of those of the 
 republic of Viatka, brought the Muscovite dom- 
 ination to the Ural Mountains. The conquest 
 of the czarate of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, 
 in 1552, gave him all the region of the middle 
 Volga, and the conquest of the czarate of 
 Astrakhan, two years later, placed in his power 
 nil the lower Volga country, with a part of the 
 coast of the Caspian Sea. Finally, the con- 
 quest of the khanate of Sibir, between the years 
 1579-1584, by the Cossack Irmak, carried 
 the Russian eagles beyond the Urals, and 
 
 18
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 opened before them the immensities of 
 Siberia. 
 
 But the more extensive the Muscovite 
 Empire became, the more it suffered from not 
 having access to any sea which was all the year 
 free from ice, or which would afford an outlet to 
 the ocean. The Harbors of the White Sea were 
 closed with ice eight months of the year; the 
 Caspian Sea is only a great lake without an outlet. 
 To reach the Baltic Sea, it would be necessary to 
 battle against the Germans, the Poles, and the 
 Swedes, the masters of all its shores. To gain 
 access to the Black Sea, there were, again, the 
 Poles to be fought, as well as the Tartars, the 
 Zaporovians, and the Grand Turk. Now, the 
 European neighbors of Russia were beginning to 
 fear this great barbarian empire. They were 
 convinced that it would become truly a terror to 
 them the day on which, by obtaining regular 
 communication with the West, it could thereby 
 learn something of their civilization, their indus- 
 tries, and, above all, their military art. They 
 
 19
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 understood that the backward condition of its 
 civiUzation was the only safeguard against its 
 ambitions. They, therefore, closed against it 
 their eastern frontiers, and barred it out of the 
 Baltic. At the time when Ivan the Terrible, 
 profiting by the decadence into which the Sword- 
 Bearers, the religious military order of the Livo- 
 nians, had fallen, took their lands away from 
 them, and raised his flag at their port of Narva, 
 Poles, Germans, and Swedes united against him; 
 they incited fresh invasions of the Crimean Tar- 
 tars, conspiracies and rebellion among his nobil- 
 ity; and, after a bitter struggle of twenty-four 
 years, compelled him to abandon his conquest in 
 1582. So long as Narva was in the hands of the 
 Czar, Sigismund, King of Poland, did not have a 
 moment's peace. When l<]nglish nuM'chants 
 began to resort there, he wrote threatening let- 
 ters to Queen Elizabeth, summoning her to for- 
 bid that traflic. "Our fleet will seize all those 
 who continue to sail thither; your merchants 
 will be in liangcr of losing their liberty, their 
 
 20
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 wives and children, and their Hves." And this 
 confession escaped him: "We see by this new 
 traffic the Muscovite, who is not only our 
 enemy to-day, but the hereditary enemy of all 
 free nations, furnishing himself thoroughly, 
 not only with our guns and munitions of war, 
 but, above all, with skilled workmen, who 
 continue to prepare equipments of war for 
 him, such as have been hitherto unknown to 
 his barbaric people. * * * It would seem 
 that we have thus far conquered him because 
 he is ignorant of the art of war and the finesse 
 of diplomacy. Now, if this commerce continues, 
 what will there soon be left for him to learn?" 
 Thus, it was not merely unpropitious nature 
 that kept Russia in a condition of blockade; 
 but the jealousy of her neighbors mounted a 
 most rigorous guard around these "barbarians" 
 of the North. The empire of Moscow remained 
 condemned, like the agglomeration of Slavic 
 tribes of the ninth and tenth centuries from 
 which it had sprung, to a purely continental 
 
 21
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 life. It was shut up to its vast northern 
 plains like the Swiss to his mountains, and 
 seemed to have as little chance of ever becoming 
 a maritime power. 
 
 Hitherto, the Muscovite Empire with its mili- 
 tary organization wholly Asiatic, with its 
 noble-born knights and free peasants, with its 
 infantry militia, the streltsy, with its old- 
 fashioned artillery, with its regular troops of 
 Cossacks, Tartars, and Calmucks, had been 
 able to withstand victoriously Asiatic forces; 
 but it could not maintain a struggle against the 
 regular troops and improved weapons of the 
 western nations. In order to make her mark 
 in Europe, it was necessary for Russia to 
 become European, but she could not become 
 European if Europe persisted in holding her 
 in a condition of blockade. It was a "vicious 
 circle"; and it was reserved for the genius of 
 Peter the Great to succeed in breaking that 
 circle. 
 
 Henceforth, we sec Russian diplomacy, with 
 
 22
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 tireless patience, with a shrewdness equal to 
 its persistency, endeavoring simultaneously in 
 all directions to pierce the blockade. She 
 strives to secure access to the Baltic Sea; 
 and we shall have the Northern War of Peter 
 the Great, the partition of Poland under 
 Catherine XL, the Finland question under the 
 Czarina Elizabeth, and under Alexander I. 
 She strives to secure access to the Black Sea; 
 and we shall have the Eastern Question in all 
 its forms, from the first efforts of Peter the 
 Great down to the war of 1877-78 of Alexander 
 II. She strives to make herself mistress of 
 the Caspian Sea, and the attempt made by 
 Peter the Great will reach an end only under 
 Alexander III. She strives to secure access 
 to the Indian Ocean, and we shall have the 
 wars and treaties with Persia, Afghanistan, 
 and England. She strives to secure access 
 to the Okhotsk Sea, the Sea of Japan, and the 
 Pacific Ocean, and we shall witness the work 
 of Siberian colonization and all the phases of 
 
 23
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 
 the Far Eastern Question. The matter of 
 securing new territory concerns her much 
 less. It has been the supreme end of her 
 efforts, at times continued for centuries, to 
 reach a sea, — a sea free from ice, a sea opening 
 into the ocean. 
 
 24
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA 
 IN EUROPE. 
 
 Peter the Great — Poland — The Eastern Question 
 — Latin and Greek Churches — Catherine the 
 Great — Turkish Wars — Greek Independence — 
 Crimean War — The Balkan States — Nihilism — 
 Results of European Wars — Nicholas II. 
 
 We know with what energy and alterna- 
 tion of success and failure Peter the Great 
 struggled against the Swedish masters of the 
 eastern and southern shores of the Baltic. 
 We are amazed when we reflect that a war, 
 lasting more than twenty-one years; a war 
 that convulsed all Europe; that brought the 
 Swedes into the heart of Russia and the Russians 
 into the centre of Germany; that brought 
 about the creation of a Russian army and 
 navy under the fire of the enemy, and that 
 numbered a score of battles on land and sea, — 
 should have ended in results apparently so 
 
 25
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 meagre as were those gained by Russia in 
 1721 at the Treaty of Nystad; namely, the 
 acquisition of four small provinces, Livonia, 
 Esthonia, Ingria,, and Karelia. But these 
 provinces gave him on the Baltic the ports 
 of Riga, Revel, and Narva; they gave him 
 also the mouths of two rivers, the broad Neva 
 and the Diina, or Dvina (not to be confounded 
 with the other Dvina that empties into the 
 White Sea). It was on the islets of the Neva 
 that Peter the Great had founded, in 1703, 
 on lands still disputed by the Swedes and 
 by the floods, the capital of European Russia, 
 St. Petersburg, protected on the west by the 
 maritime fortress of Kronstadt. Yes, "the 
 Giant Czar" considered himself amply repaid 
 for his efforts of twenty-one years by the fact 
 that for his vast continental empire, still 
 wrapped in Asiatic darkness, he had been able 
 "to open one window on Europe." 
 
 This window was still ;i very narrow one. 
 It was somewhat (enlarged l)y Elizabeth, when, 
 
 26
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 after a war foolishly undertaken by Sweden, 
 she made that country, in the Treaty of Abo, 
 1743, surrender some districts in Finland. 
 Later, Alexander I., during his short-lived 
 alliance with Napoleon, conquered from his 
 recent ally, Gustavus III., all of Finland 
 (Treaty of Fredericksham, 1809). Russia 
 had now no longer anything to seek in that 
 direction. 
 
 Westward, between Russia, already power- 
 ful and always war-like, and Prussia, now 
 grown great in glory and strength, lay an 
 extremely weak state made up of the king- 
 dom of Poland, the grand duchy of Lithuania 
 and some old-time Russian districts. The 
 first three partitions of this state (1772, 1793, 
 1795), carried the Russian frontier to the 
 Niemen, the Warthe, and the Dniester. 
 Catherine II. completed these conquests by 
 the annexation of Courland, which had been 
 a vassal dependency of the fallen kingdom. 
 It is to be noted, however, that in what is 
 
 27
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 called "the partition of Poland," Catherine 
 II. did not acquire any Polish, but merely 
 Lithuanian territory that formerly had been 
 Russian. If Napoleon I. had not attempted 
 to reestablish on the Russian frontier a Polish 
 kingdom under the name of "the grand duchy 
 of Warsaw," perhaps Russia would not have 
 been ambitious to secure possession of any 
 former Polish territory. After the fall of 
 Napoleon, the Czar Alexander I. was obliged 
 to appropriate a considerable part of this und(T 
 the name of "the kingdom of Poland," were 
 it for no other reason than to prevent an in- 
 crease of territory upon the part of the two 
 German powers. Hencefortli the western 
 frontier of Russia was fixed. It has not changed 
 since 1815, and, to admit the possibility of 
 a change in the future, it would be necessary 
 to admit the possibility of a total overturning 
 of the European balance of power. 
 
 Though Russian expansion towards the 
 north was stopped by the icy solitudes of Lap- 
 
 28
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 land, westward by the frontiers of states as 
 firmly established as the German and Austro- 
 Hungarian Empires, yet for a long time a 
 broad way remained open to Russia in the 
 direction of the south. The decadence of the 
 Ottoman Empire seemed to offer her the same 
 favorable opportunities as did the decline of 
 the Polish-Lithuanian Empire. In this di- 
 rection, acquisition of territory promised to 
 be infinitely more precious. The Russians 
 could dream of the Black Sea, the Propontis, 
 and the iEgean Sea becoming Russian lakes; 
 of Christian peoples of the same religion (Rou- 
 manians and Greeks), — and of some of the 
 same religion and race (Bulgarians, Servians, 
 Croatians, Bosnians, Herzegovinians, and 
 Montenegrians), — welcoming the armies of a 
 Liberator Czar, and joyfully accepting the 
 domination of Russia in exchange for that 
 of the Ottoman; and, finally, they could dream 
 of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern 
 Roman Empire, freed from the yoke of the 
 
 29
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 infidel, and of the cross taking the place of 
 the crescent on the dome of Saint Sophia. 
 Nevertheless, it was, perhaps, in the direction 
 of the south, that Russia, in her schemes for 
 expansion, after some brilliant successes, found 
 herself the most completely deceived. 
 
 For a long time the sovereigns that sat 
 upon Russia's throne at Moscow, and then at 
 St. Petersburg, were infatuated with this 
 Oriental iiiirago. The Russian Orthodox 
 Church urged them on in this course through 
 sympathy with the Orthodox Christians who 
 were in subjection to the infidel. Even the 
 Roman Catholic Church at a certain time 
 encouraged them in the hope that the sword 
 of the Czar might accomplish both the deliv- 
 erance of tlu! Christians and the union of the 
 two churches^, that is to say, the subordination 
 of the Greek Church to (he Roman. It was 
 Pope Piul III., who, at the advice of the Greek 
 cardinal, Bessarioii, olTcrcd (o (he Grand 
 Prince of Moscow, Ivan the Great, the hand 
 
 30
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 of his ward, Sophia Palaeologus, the niece of 
 the last Christian emperor of Constantinople. 
 It was at Rome that the marriage took place, 
 and it was the Pope who gave a dowry to the 
 heiress of the Caesars of the East.' It is from 
 the time of this marriage that the double- 
 headed eagle of the Palaeologus took its place 
 on the escutcheons and standards of the Rus- 
 sian sovereigns. Paul III. was deceived in 
 both his hopes; for the union of the two churches 
 was never accepted at Moscow, and many 
 years passed before a Russian army was able 
 to advance a step southward. The second of 
 the Romanofs, Alexis, father of Peter the Great, 
 set the first landmark southward in the Treaty 
 of Andrussovo with Poland, in 1667, by acquir- 
 ing a part of the Ukraine, extending as far as 
 the upper course of the Dnieper. Vast spaces 
 still separated the Russian and the Ottoman 
 Empires. Nevertheless, in the coolest and 
 
 (>) Le R. Prerling, La Russie et V orient — mariage d'un 
 tsar au Vatican, Paris, 1891; La Russie et le saint-siege, 
 2 vols., Paris, 1896-'97. 
 
 31
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 shrewdest minds brooded the idea of a holy 
 war against the infidel. Peter the Great, still 
 young and journeying in Western Europe, 
 learning its arts and himself wielding the car- 
 penter's axe at Saardam, wrote, in 1697, to 
 Adrian, the Patriarch of Moscow: "We are 
 laboring in order thoroughly to conquer the 
 art of the sea, so that having completely learned 
 it, on our return to Russia, we may be vic- 
 torious over the enemies of Christ, and by 
 His grace be the liberator of the down-trodden 
 Christians. This is what I shall never cease 
 to desire until my latest breath." 
 
 Upon his return to Russia, however, his 
 struggle with Sweden occupied all his attention. 
 It was only in 1711, when his enemy, Charles 
 XII., a refugee in the domains of the Grand 
 Turk, earnestly sought to have the latter 
 take up arms against Russia, that Peter the 
 Great allowed himself to be tempted by the 
 appeal which the hoapodars of Moldavia and 
 Wallachia, Montenegrian envoys, and Greek 
 
 32
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 agents addressed to him in the name of Chris- 
 tians who were oppressed and ready to rise in 
 revolt. He found immense spaces to be trav- 
 ersed; and crossed the Pruth with only thirty- 
 eight thousand starving and harassed soldiers. 
 He discovered that all the promises of the 
 Levantines were unwarranted; he met neither 
 allies nor help; and beset by two hundred 
 thousand Turks, or Tartars, he had to consider 
 himself fortunate to get back again across 
 the rivers, after having signed the Treaty of 
 Falksen, or of the Pruth, which restored to the 
 Ottomans his first conquest, the city of Azov. 
 
 The second southward step of the Russians 
 was the conquest of a bit of territory that was 
 peopled with Servian colonists, and that was 
 called New Servia. This acquisition was won 
 by the Treaty of Belgrade in 1739; but it had 
 cost the Empress Anna Ivanovna three years 
 of war and useless victories, and nearly one 
 hundred thousand men. 
 
 The third was a gigantic step. After the 
 
 33
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 first war against the Turks, Catherine II. 
 found herself checl^ed by the intervention of 
 Prussia and Austria, who compelled her to 
 renounce nearly all her eastern conquests, 
 and to accept a compensation in Poland. 
 Nevertheless, by the treaty of Kairnaji, in 
 1774, she had ceded to her Azov on the Don, 
 and Kinburn at the mouth of the Dnieper. 
 She forced the Sultan to recognize the inde- 
 pendence of the Tartars of the Bug, of the 
 Crimea, and of the Kuban. This was to pre- 
 pare for their annexation to Russia, which 
 was successfully accomplished and sanctioned 
 by the Constantinople Compact of 1784. All 
 the north shore of the Black Sea and of the 
 Dniester, as far as the Kuban River, now 
 became Russian. The last Mohammedan 
 states of Russia were converted into prov- 
 inces of the empire, and the last vestige of 
 "the Tartar yoke" was effaced from Russian 
 soil. 
 
 At once in the; Tauric, [XMiiiisula and at the 
 
 34
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 mouths of the rivers arose formidable for- 
 tresses, Kherson, Kinburn, and, on a bay 
 of the Crimea, Sevastopol was made ready- 
 to control the Black Sea. An entire Russian 
 fleet was built up, which could in two days 
 cast anchor before the walls of the Seraglio. 
 The conquest of the Turkish Empire, impos- 
 sible to Peter the Great, seemed to become 
 easy for Catherine the Great. In the trium- 
 phant journey that she next accomplished 
 through the conquered provinces, her route 
 was crowded with triumphal arches, bearing 
 this inscription: "The way to Byzantium." 
 She herself provoked the second Turkish 
 war (1787-1792). The Russian armies, every- 
 where victorious, advanced to the Danube. 
 The janissaries and spahis of the Sultan could 
 not stop them in their course. But again did 
 European diplomacy intervene. Catherine 
 II. had to give up the Roumanian hospodarates, 
 which had been entirely subdued, and be sat- 
 isfied with Otchakov, and a strip of territory 
 
 35
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 between the Bug and the Dniester, and with 
 guarantees more expHcit than those of 1774 
 in favor of the Roumanian principaHties. 
 This arrangement, accompUshed at the Treaty 
 of Yassy, 1792, estabUshed over these prin- 
 cipaHties a sort of distant Russian protectorate. 
 Thus, although four Russian interventions 
 had already occurred, not an inch of Christian 
 territory had been wrested from the Sultan, 
 and not a Christian tribe had been delivered 
 from his yoke. 
 
 The fifth intervention took place under 
 Alexander I. So long as his alliance, made 
 at Tilsit in 1807, with Napoleon continued, 
 his armies were victorious. The Roumanians 
 were again conquered as far as the Danube, 
 Bulgaria, conquered as far as the Balkans, 
 and under George the Black (Kara-Georges), 
 Servia won her independence with her own 
 forces alone. The rupture with Naj)oleon 
 compelled the Czar to sign the peace of lUich- 
 arest with the Sultan in 1812. Of all his con- 
 
 36
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 quests, he retained only a bit of Roumanian 
 territory, Bessarabia between the Dniester and 
 the Pruth,— as also Ismail and Kilia on the 
 lower Danube. The Roumanians and Bul- 
 garians fell again under the Ottoman yoke, 
 and Servia was abandoned to herself. Never- 
 theless, an amnesty was stipulated in favor 
 of the Servians, and guarantees were given in 
 favor of the Roumanians. In 1827, Nicholas 
 I., by the Akerman Agreement, which was an 
 explanation of the Treaty of Bucharest, caused 
 the guarantees accorded the Roumanians to 
 be clearly defined. As for the Servians, 
 crushed for a time by Ottoman retaliation, 
 they had taken up arms under Milosh Obre- 
 novitch, and, thanks to European intervention, 
 they obtained, with certain restrictions, their 
 autonomy. 
 
 The sixth intervention of Russia occurred 
 on the occasion of the Greek revolution. On 
 July 8, 1827, Russia, France, and England 
 entered into concerted action by the Treaty 
 
 37
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 of London. The united fleets of the three 
 powers annihilated the Turkish and Egyptian 
 fleets at Navarino (October 20). While a 
 French army was operating in the Morea to 
 insure Greek independence, Nicholas I. took 
 it upon himself to settle the rest of the Eastern 
 Question. His European army again con- 
 quered the Roumanians and Bulgarians, 
 invaded Thrace, and entered Adrianople. In 
 Asia, his forces occupied Turkish Caucasia. 
 Tli(> Treaty of Adrianople, concluded in 1S29, 
 guaranteed the autonomy of Moldavia, of 
 Wallachia, and of Servia, and consummated 
 the independence of Greece, which was formed 
 into a kingdom. Thus were the hojjcs that 
 Peter the Great had entertained respecting 
 the Christians of the Ejist partially n^alized; 
 hut Russia did not secure any territory in 
 Europe except the isles of the Danubian delta; 
 reserving for herself freedom of navigation in 
 the Black Sea, nnd rm o[)eii way through the 
 straits of the Jiospiioriis and the Dardanelles. 
 
 38
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 Only in Asia did she secure a territorial indem- 
 nity. 
 
 The second eastern war, undertaken by 
 Nicholas I., and which began like the others 
 by the conquest of the Roumanians, brought 
 about the intervention of France and England 
 in the Crimea, which caused the Czar Nicholas 
 to die of grief, and which ended in the Treaty 
 of Paris (March 30, 1856). By this treaty, 
 his successor, Alexander II., had to renounce 
 all the advantages gained in Europe by the 
 Treaty of Adrianople; to give back the delta 
 of the Danube; to consent to limiting of his 
 military power in the Black Sea; and to abdi- 
 cate his exclusive right of protection over the 
 Danubian principalities, which were hence- 
 forth placed under the collective protectorate 
 of the great powers. 
 
 When France found herself engaged in a 
 bloody duel with the German Empire, Russia 
 profited by the occasion to have a conference 
 called at London in March, 1871, by which she 
 
 39
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 secured the suppression of article two of the 
 Treaty of Paris, which Umited her miUtary 
 power in the Black Sea. 
 
 The last and the most decisive Russian inter- 
 vention was the one provoked in 1877 by the 
 Bulgarian massacres, the Bosnian and Herze- 
 govinian revolution, and the uprising in Servia 
 and in Montenegro. In addition to the help 
 of these different forces, Russia made sure of 
 the armed assistance of the principality of 
 Roumania, that had been formed in 1859, by 
 the union of the two old-time hospodarates of 
 Moldavia and Wallachia. She again made the 
 conquest of Bulgaria and of a part of Thrace. 
 This time, it was in plain sight of Constanti- 
 nople that the victorious armies of Alexander II. 
 halted. The Sultan had with which to oppose 
 them only twelve thousand men, encamped on 
 the heights of Tchadalcha. It seemed, there- 
 fore, to be in the power of the Czar to bring to 
 an end the Ottoman domination in Europe, 
 to proclaim the liberation of all the Christian 
 
 40
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 peoples, and at last to plant the cross on the 
 dome of Saint Sophia. But before the threat- 
 ening demonstration of England and the 
 disquieting attitude of Austria and Germany, 
 he did not dare to do so. He contented him- 
 self with imposing upon the Porte the Treaty 
 of San Stefano (March 3, 1878), which secured 
 for the proteges of Russia an actual dismem- 
 berment of European Turkey. Montenegro saw 
 its territory doubled in extent; Servia and 
 Roumania were declared entirely independent. 
 The first received the districts of Nisch, Lesko- 
 vatz, Mitrowitz, and Novibazar; the second 
 acquired Dobrudscha, but on the condition 
 that it return to Russia the delta of the Danube, 
 which Wallachia had acquired in the treaty of 
 1856. Bulgaria was to form a vassal principal- 
 ity of Turkey. Her territory extended from 
 the Danube to the Black and iEgean Seas, 
 leaving around Constantinople and Salonica 
 only some fragments of Ottoman territory. 
 In Asia, Russia acquired the fortresses 
 
 41
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 and districts of Batum, Kars, Ardahan, and 
 Bayazid. Moreover, Turkey was to pay a 
 war indemnity of three hundred and ten million 
 rubles. 
 
 Thus Russia took, so to speak, nothing for 
 herself in Europe. It was sufficient for her that 
 Roumania, Servia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria 
 were completely liberated and organized. Of 
 course, she hoped that these petty states that 
 owed their very existence to her would be more 
 docile to her influence than to that of the Sultan, 
 less accessible to the hostile influences of the 
 German and English powers, that their ports 
 would be open to her, and that their armies 
 would constitute auxiliary corps of the Russian 
 army. 
 
 An early disillusion came to the "Liberator 
 Czar." The relative^ disinterestedness of which 
 he had given proof at San Stefano did not fore- 
 see the jealousy of Austria, fostered as this was 
 by Germany and luigland. Under threat of 
 a general war, they demanded a revision of 
 
 42
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 that treaty. England would have even desired 
 that the treaty of 1856 should be taken as a 
 basis for discussion, as if she could proceed 
 with the victorious Russia of 1878 as she had 
 done with the Russia of 1856, conquered in the 
 Crimea. The Czar agreed to the calling of a 
 congress in Berlin. The treaty that was 
 signed there July 13, 1878, curtailed Monte- 
 negro of half the part assigned her, and for- 
 bade her having a navy, took back Novibazar 
 and Mitrowitz from Servia, and was particu- 
 larly harsh towards Bulgaria; reducing her 
 territory by one-third, and carving the remain- 
 der into two provinces. Northern Bulgaria, 
 with the title of "vassal principality," and 
 Southern Bulgaria, under the name of the 
 province of Eastern Roumelia, which continued 
 under Turkish domination, but which was to be 
 administered by a Christian government. 
 Increase of territory was granted to Greece 
 by the addition of a district of Epirus (Arta) 
 and ahnost all of Thessaly. There was even 
 
 43
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 quibbling over the territory that Russia had 
 retained in Asia. Bayazid was taken from 
 her, and Batum was to be dismantled and to 
 become an open port. What especially irri- 
 tated the Czar was the fact that the two powers 
 that were thus depriving him of the fruits of 
 his victories found means to slice off a share 
 for themselves. Under the pretext of adminis- 
 tering their affairs, Austria secured Bosnia and 
 Herzegovina, and, by a separate treaty, Eng- 
 land had given to her by the Sultan the island 
 of Cyprus (30th of May and 4th of June) and 
 a controlling situation in Anatolia.^ 
 
 Emperor Alexander II. had run the danger of 
 a European war in order to carry out his 
 programuK! of "liberation." The danger still 
 remained imminent, so long as he did not 
 accept the provisions of the Bc^rlin Treaty. 
 There threatened to spring uj) again, at each 
 of the manifold incidents that arose over the 
 
 (') A. d'AvHI, N eyociation.H relatives au traile de Berlin 
 et aux arrangemenla qui ont suivi. Paris, 1886. 
 
 44
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 task of settling the boundaries of the ceded 
 countries, armed protests, now by Greece, 
 and now by the Albanians, against certain 
 decisions of the powers that were not to their 
 fancy, and intrigues by Austria and England 
 for the purpose of alienating from Russia the 
 sympathies of the nations emancipated by her 
 victories. In addition to this, the Panslavic 
 agitation, which had been sufficiently strong in 
 Russia to lead the government to run those 
 risks in the East, did not subside. The most 
 impetuous minds found cause of grievance 
 against the Czar, that he had not carried out 
 his undertaking to the end, and had his vic- 
 torious regiments enter Stamboul, at the peril 
 of a conflict with the English in the very streets 
 of that capital. The Liberals made a pretext 
 of the constitutions granted the Roumanians, 
 the Servians, and the Bulgarians, to demand a 
 constitution for Russia. The Panslavist and 
 Liberal agitation had, perhaps, some connec- 
 tion with the rise of another agitation which 
 
 45
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 soon made its appearance, an agitation called 
 Nihilism, of a character entirely revolutionary 
 and subversive, and which fitly terminated on 
 that tragic day of March 13, 1881, when the 
 "Liberator Czar" became the "Martyr Czar." 
 For his successor, Alexander III., the results 
 of the eastern war were preparing another 
 series of disillusions. The only fruit that 
 Russia could still expect from her sacrifices 
 and her victories was the strengthening of her 
 influence over the Christian peoples emancipated 
 by her,— and their eternal gratitude. Now 
 immediately after this war the most short- 
 sighted Russian statesmen were constrained to 
 confess that the success of their arms had just 
 created on that "Way to Byzantium," which 
 Catherine II. had so thickly strewn with pre- 
 mature triumphal arche.s, obstacles more insur- 
 mountable than those which the armies of the 
 Sultan had ever \mm able to oppose to the 
 armies of Alexander I. or of Nicholas I.,— 
 more uisurmoun table than the Danube or the 
 
 46
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 Balkans, formerly bristling with the fortresses 
 of the Ottomans. These new obstacles con- 
 sisted in the existence itself of the emancipated 
 nations, and their attachment to their newly 
 found freedom. Thus it was that France, after 
 she had emancipated Belgium under Louis- 
 Philippe and Italy under Napoleon III., found 
 that she had raised upon her northern and 
 southeastern frontiers barriers far more impreg- 
 nable than the armies or fortresses of Austria; 
 that she had closed forever against herself 
 those Belgian and Lombard battlefields over 
 which her ensigns of victory had so often floated. 
 In the formation of an Italian kingdom, France 
 created the chief obstacle in the way of her own 
 expansion on the shores of the Mediterranean. 
 
 The French have naturally and repeatedly 
 denounced the ingratitude of Italy; nor can 
 the Russians be blamed for their grief over the 
 ingratitude of the Roumanians, the Servians, 
 the Bulgarians, and the Greeks. But such is 
 human nature! The feeling of independence 
 
 47
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 and of national pride among newly born peoples 
 will always outweigh the feeling of gratitude 
 towards their liberators. In this respect there 
 was no difference between the peoples joined 
 to the Russians merelj' by religion, like the 
 Roumanians and the Greeks, and those who 
 were related to them both by religion and 
 race, like the Bulgarians and the Servians. In 
 former times, when the Ottoman yoke rested 
 upon them with its frightful burden, assuredly 
 they would all have joyfully accepted the lord- 
 ship of the Czar in exchange for that* of the 
 Sultan; but now, when it was a question of 
 choosing between the domination of thc^ Czar 
 and their own independence, there could bo no 
 hesitation with any of thorn. 
 
 The Russias had done; much for the Rou- 
 manians. Kv(m when th(^y had been unsuc- 
 cessful in wresting th(ur t^'rritory from Tin key, 
 they had in tiic treaties of KaVniaji, Yiussy, 
 Bucharest, Akcrman, and Adriaiioplc, slij)U- 
 lated precious guarantcjes for their prutegds and 
 
 48
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 then, later, secured for them an almost com- 
 plete autonomy. In concert with France, in 
 1861, they had made the Sultan accept the 
 union of Moldavia and Wallachia into one 
 province. In 1878, they assured this prin- 
 cipality of Roumania its full independence, 
 and, in 1881, they consented to its being 
 organized into a kingdom. But the new King 
 of Roumania, Charles of Hohenzollern, and 
 his new subjects meant to remain independent 
 of every other power, to have their own army 
 and navy, their own national policy and diplo- 
 macy, and to exercise the right, whenever their 
 liberators showed themselves in the slightest 
 degree meddlesome, to seek help even from 
 Russia's rivals, Austria, Germany, and Eng- 
 land, or, even more than this, from their old- 
 time oppressor, the Sultan of Constantinople. 
 More than once, the Roumanians raised com- 
 plaint against Russia, because, in 1812, she 
 had annexed the little Roumanian district of 
 Bessarabia, and because, in 1878, she compelled 
 
 49
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 them to give back to her the islands of the 
 Danubian delta. 
 
 It was the same with the principality of 
 Servia, also made into a kingdom in 1882, and 
 which, according to the needs of its national 
 or dynastic policy, did not cease to oscillate 
 between Russian and Austro-German influences. 
 It was the same also with the kingdom of 
 Greece, which paid no heed to the remon- 
 strances of Russia, when her national ambition 
 was involved, and which had no scruples in 
 troubling the peace of the East every time that 
 it was possible for her to raise the question of 
 uniting to the Hellenic state either Epirus or 
 Northern Thessaly or Macedonia or Crete. 
 
 The country that was under the greatest 
 obligation to Russia was Bulgaria. If France 
 or England had at times assisted in the libera- 
 tion of the Roumanians, the Servians, and the 
 Greeks, it was to Russia alone that the Bul- 
 garians were indebted for this deliverance. 
 Immediately after the "Bulgarian atrocities" 
 
 50
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 of 1875, Russia had hastened to her help. 
 From the condition of simple rdias oppressed 
 by Turkey and cruelly treated by the Tcher- 
 kesses and the Bashi-Bazouks, she had caused 
 them to be instantly raised to the dignity of 
 a free people. At San Stefano, she had endeav- 
 ored to unite them into one state, the most 
 powerful of the Balkan peninsula; which would 
 have extended from the Danube to the Black 
 and -^gean Seas; and she accepted only with 
 deepest reluctance the mutilation and dismem- 
 berment that the Treaty of Berlin imposed upon 
 "Great Bulgaria." She gave the restricted 
 principality of Bulgaria at least a constitution 
 when she herself had none. It was the Rus- 
 sian commissioner in Bulgaria, Prince Dondu- 
 kof-Korsakof, who, on February 23, 1879, con- 
 voked at Tirnovo the first "constituency 
 assembly"; it was he who presided at the 
 meeting of the first "legislative assembly," or 
 Sobranie; it was he who espoused the cause of 
 their prince, Alexander of Battenberg; it was 
 
 51
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 he who organized a Bulgarian army of one 
 hundred thousand men suppUed with vaUant 
 Russian officers, well equipped, well drilled, and 
 provided with excellent artillery. Neverthe- 
 less, this people and this prince, who owed 
 everything to Russia, began at once to prae- 
 tice a policy in which the advice of the Czar 
 Alexander III. was no longer heeded. They 
 set out to remove the Russians who had port- 
 folios in their ministry and positions in their 
 army. In spite of the Czar, they brought about 
 the revolution of Philippopolis in September, 
 1885, which ended in the union of the Bul- 
 garian principality and the Bulgarian province 
 of East Roumolia, but which provoked a bloody 
 war with Servia, jealous at seeing her neigh- 
 bor's increase of territory. When Alexander of 
 Battenberg had to renounce his throne, in 1887, 
 it was a prince that posed as a client of Austria 
 and of Germany, Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, 
 whom the Bulgarians called to rule them. 
 With his Primr Minister, Stambulof, he gov- 
 
 62
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 erned, — resolutely set against the influence of 
 Russia; he discriminated against her partisans, 
 and surrounded himself with her adversaries. 
 And, thus, the liberation and the organization 
 of Bulgaria, which the Czar had hoped to be 
 able to direct, have gone on independently of 
 him, and, in certain respects, in opposition to 
 him. Sic vos, non vobis! Alexander III.'s 
 resentment against Bulgaria and her prince was 
 very bitter. The somewhat imperious and med- 
 dlesome affection of the early days soon turned 
 into hostility. When Alexander III. died, in 
 1894, the rupture was complete between the 
 intractable principality and the powerful empire. 
 Thus all the wars undertaken in Eastern 
 Europe by Russia, from Peter the Great, in 
 1711, down to Alexander II. in 1877, have 
 ended, except in Asia and on the north coast 
 of the Black Sea, so far as territorial expansion 
 is concerned, in most meagre results. Seven 
 great wars have brought her only a strip of 
 Roumanian territory between the Dneister and 
 
 53
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 the Pruth, and another Roumanian bit of land in 
 the delta of the Danube. Even this last morsel, 
 acquired in 1829 and restored in 1856, was won 
 back in 1877 only at the cost of vehement fault- 
 finding upon the part of the Roumanian people. 
 Russia, whose fleets have twice — at Tchesme in 
 1770, and at Navarino, in 1827, — annihilated the 
 naval power of Turkey, have never been able to 
 secure even an island in the iEgean Sea. 
 
 Thus much for material advantages. As to 
 satisfaction of a moral character, the Russian 
 soldiers have never been able to enter Stamboul, 
 nor to pray in Saint Sophia; and as to gratitude 
 upon the part of the liberated peoples, we have 
 seen what Alexander II. and Alexander III. 
 could never have dreamed of. 
 
 Their successor, the present Emperor, Nicho- 
 las II., seems to have taken it for granted that 
 in I ho direction of the Danube, of the Black 
 Sea, and of the iEgean Sea, the destiny of Rus- 
 sia is fixed for a long time to come. In these 
 directions, she has no longer any moral or 
 
 54
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 material advantages to gain, and the age of 
 sentimental undertakings is also at an end. 
 Unless there should come some European over- 
 turning, the famous "Eastern Question" will 
 have for Russia only an archaeological interest. 
 All that Nicholas II. is doing seems to indicate 
 that this is his conviction. He shows no inter- 
 est in the party struggles and ministerial crises 
 in the Roumanian and Servian kingdoms; 
 towards the Bulgarians, he shows neither jeal- 
 ous affection nor the irreconcilable rancor of 
 his father. Whenever the Prince and people 
 of Bulgaria have manifested a desire for recon- 
 ciliation with Russia, he has cordially welcomed 
 them; he sent a representative to the orthodox 
 baptism of the Crown Prince Boris, but appar- 
 ently without forming any illusions as to what 
 he might expect of his proteges. When the 
 Cretan insurrection occurred, and the war 
 foolishly undertaken by the Greeks against 
 Turkey was declared, he was careful not to 
 assume a leading role, something that his three 
 
 55
 
 RUSSIA IN EUROPE 
 
 predecessors would not have failed to do. On 
 the contrary, he seemed to sink Russia in the 
 "European Concert," to associate her in all the 
 decisions of the five other great powers, and 
 purely and simply to accept accomplished 
 facts. Also, when the Armenian troubles and 
 massacres took place, he did not attempt to 
 intervene, nor to arrogate to himself, either by 
 land or sea, the role of liberator of this other 
 oppressed people. He has rather favored a 
 temporizing policy, and has discouraged the 
 plans formed by the other powers to send Euro- 
 pean fleets to the very walls of the Seraglio, 
 and to impose by force reforms upon the Sultan 
 Abdul-Hamid. On the other hand, in certain 
 other directions, in that of the Indian Ocean, 
 in that of British India, and in that of the 
 China and Japan Seas, Russia has followed a 
 very formal, a very decided policy. At once 
 very energetic and skillful in this policy, she 
 has, at the same tim(>, acted in entire inde- 
 pendence of the "European Concert." 
 
 56
 
 THE SOUTHWARD EXPANSION 
 OF RUSSIA IN ASIA. 
 
 An Asiatic Power — Wars and Treaties with 
 Persia — A Way to the Indian Ocean — In the 
 Caucasus — Paramount in Persia. 
 
 If the policy of the present Emperor of the 
 Russias seems to be inspired by other princi- 
 ples than those of his predecessors; if this 
 policy has shown itself to be essentially peace- 
 able and disinterested in Europe; if it has 
 shifted its sphere of activity from the West in 
 order to devote all its efforts to Southern and 
 especially to Eastern Asia, — this is, perhaps, 
 due to the impressions made upon the Czar 
 during his extended travels in the years 1890 
 and 1891, while he was still only the Czaro- 
 vitch Nicholas. He visited Greece, Egypt, 
 British India, French Indo-China, Japan, and 
 China. Then, disembarking at Vladivostock, a 
 powerful Russian naval station on a bay of the 
 
 57
 
 RUSSIA IN ASIA 
 
 Sea of Japan, he returned overland to St. 
 Petersburg, crossing the whole extent of Siberia. 
 The Czarovitch, of course, did not give his 
 impressions a literary form; but one of his 
 travelling companions. Prince Oukhtomski, has 
 published his in two luxurious volumes, mag- 
 nificently illustrated by the Russian artist, 
 Karazine." 
 
 The opinions of Prince Oukhtomski seem to 
 reveal a new element in Russian policy. For- 
 merly the Russians were indignant over Prince 
 Bismarck's reported observation that "Russia 
 has nothing to flo in the West. Her mission is 
 in Asia; there she represents civilization." 
 Prince Oukhtomski is not far from holding the 
 same opinion as did this envious foe of his 
 country. For a few parcels of territory con- 
 quered with such difficult y in the West, what 
 bloody wars has she not endured? Her ofTorts 
 to obtain access to the sea have been but half 
 
 (>) TyC prince 0\ikhtomski, Voyage dr son Altesse 
 Imperiale le Czarevitch en orient, Paris, 1898. 
 
 58
 
 RUSSIA IN ASIA 
 
 successful. The White Sea, blocked with ice; 
 the Baltic, as much Scandinavian and German 
 as Russian, closed to her on the west by the 
 Sound and the Belts; the Black Sea, only yet 
 half Russian, and closed on the southwest by 
 the Bosphorous and the Dardanelles; and the 
 Mediterranean itself, with England holding 
 Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Egypt, and the Suez 
 Canal, — are these seas, so little available, suffi- 
 cient for the needs of the expansion of the 
 mighty continental empire that Russia is to-day? 
 In Asia, on the contrary, who knows whether 
 by the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, by 
 Afghanistan and the Indus, she is not going to 
 be able to open her way to the Indian Ocean? 
 Who knows whether, already mistress of the 
 Okhotsk Sea, she will not become mistress also 
 of the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, both 
 opening with broad outlets into the immensity 
 of the Pacific? Now, the importance that in 
 ancient times the Mediterranean had for man- 
 kind, and which the Atlantic possessed from 
 
 59
 
 RUSSIA IN ASIA 
 
 the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, seems 
 to-day to be shifting to the Pacific Ocean. Of 
 all the nations bordering on this truly universal 
 ocean, the Russian Empire is destined to be 
 one of the most powerful. As to territorial 
 conquests, how are those that Russia won in 
 little Europe, where every square mile cost her 
 a battle, to be compared with those which, 
 with infinitely less sacrifice and effort, she has 
 already won, or can yet win, in Asia? Bis- 
 marck spoke in disdain of the mission of Russia 
 in Asia. Prince Oukhtomski speaks of it with 
 pride: "The time has come for the Russians to 
 have some definite idea regarding the heritage 
 that the Jenghis Khans and the Tamerlanes 
 have left us. Asia! we have been part of it at 
 all times; we have lived its life and shared its 
 interests; our geographical position irrevocably 
 destines us to be the head of tlu^ rudimentary 
 powers of the East." 
 
 From the thirteen Ih to th(> fift(>enth century, 
 Russia was a province of the Mongol Empire. 
 
 GO
 
 RUSSIA IN ASIA 
 
 Everything that constituted that Mongol Em- 
 pire, however, is perhaps destined to become 
 only a province of Russia. The capital will 
 simply be transferred from Karakorum or from 
 the shores of the Amur to the banks of the Neva. 
 Asiatic in their mixture of races, Asiatic in 
 their history, conquered in the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, conquering since the sixteenth, the Rus- 
 sians possess to a higher degree than either the 
 French or the Anglo-Saxons an understanding 
 of things Asiatic. They have all the right that 
 is possible to supplant "those colonies of the 
 Germanic and the Latin races that are taking 
 unwilling Asia under their tutelage." More- 
 over, the true successor in Asia of the old-time 
 czars or khans of the Finnish race is not the 
 Bogdy-Khan who rules at Pekin, but " the White 
 Czar who reigns at St. Petersburg." In one 
 of the pagodas of Canton are to be seen, as 
 Prince Oukhtomski assures us, four colossal 
 figures, called "the kings of the four cardinal 
 points," and Prince Oukhtomski felt confident 
 
 61
 
 RUSSIA IN ASIA 
 
 that it was to "the King of the North" that 
 the people rendered the greatest homage. 
 
 Laying aside these dreams of the future, let 
 us see what, up to the present time, has been 
 actually accomplished to bring about their 
 realization. The efforts of the Russians 
 throughout their history as an Asiatic power 
 are connected with one or the other of two 
 great movements: her southward expansion 
 towards Persia and British India, and her 
 eastward expansion in the regions bordering 
 on China, Corea, and Japan. 
 
 In 1554, during the reign of Ivan the Ter- 
 rible, the Russians gained a foothold on the 
 Caspian Sea by the conquest of the czarate 
 of Astrakhan and of the lower Volga. Towards 
 the close of his life, Peter the Great waged war 
 on Persia, captured Derbend on the Caspian, 
 and occupied the provinces of Daghestan, 
 Shirvan, Ghilan, and Mazanduran, and the 
 cities of Rasht and Astrabad. The unhealthy 
 character of these regions made them "the 
 
 62
 
 RUSSIA IN ASIA 
 
 cemetery of Russian armies," and the suc- 
 cessors of the great Czar had to abandon them. 
 A war undertaken by Catherine II., also in 
 the last years of her reign, ended in the same 
 result, and her son, Paul I., recalled the troops. 
 In the region of the Caucasus, the Russians 
 had gained a foothold, between the years 
 1774-1784, by the acquisition of the Kuban 
 as far as the Terek, and, strangely enough, 
 it was not on the northern slope of the moun- 
 tains, but upon the southern that they were 
 to begin the conquest of this Caucasus. In 
 1783, the King, or Czar, of Georgia, Heraclius, 
 declared himself to be the vassal of Catherine 
 II. in order that he might have her assistance 
 against the Persians and the Ottomans. In 
 1799, his son, George XII. ,^ formally ceded 
 his state to Paul I., although his son, David, 
 continued to govern until 1803, when the 
 
 (0 Dubrovine, Georges XII., dernier tsar de Georgie, 
 et r annexation a la Russie (in Russian), St. Petersburg, 
 1897. 
 
 63
 
 RUSSIA IN ASIA 
 
 annexation was consummated. This acquis- 
 sition brought Russia into colUsion with the 
 Persians and the Ottomans on one hand, and, 
 on another, with the independent tribes of 
 the Caucasus. By the Treaty of Guhstan, 
 in 1813, Persia ceded to Russia Daghestan, 
 Shirvan, and Shusha, and renounced all claims 
 upon Georgia and other territories of the 
 Caucasus. Another war broke out in 1826, 
 which was terminated by the Treaty of Turk- 
 manshai, February 22, 1828, by which Persia 
 surrendered her two Armenian provinces,' 
 Nakhitchevan and Erivan. The same year, 
 in the Treaty of Adrianople, Turkey gave 
 over to Russia the fortresses and districts 
 of Anapa, Poti, and Akhalzikh, and all rights 
 (bitterly contested by the inhabitants) over 
 Imeritia, Mingrelia, and Abkhasia. Then 
 began, in the new possessions, the task of 
 pacifying the wild mountaineers of these 
 
 (') Lord Curzon, Persia and the Persian Question, 
 London, 18'J2. 
 
 04
 
 RUSSIA IN ASIA 
 
 regions, and also the Tcherkesses, or Cir- 
 cassians, of the northern slope. The Circas- 
 sians and the Abkhasui, roused to fanaticism 
 by the soldier priest, the Imam Shamyl, held 
 out against the Russians for nearly thirty 
 years. In 1844, Russia had in the Caucasus 
 two hundred thousand soldiers, commanded 
 by her best generals. The capture of Vedeni, 
 in 1858, and the surrender of Shamyl, a year 
 later, assured the pacification of the Caucasus. 
 The increase of territory that Russia made at 
 the expense of Turkey, in 1878, by the Treaties 
 of San Stefano and Berlin, included the dis- 
 tricts of Kars, Ardahan, and Olty, and the port 
 of Batum, and fixed the boundary line between 
 Turkey and Russia as it has since remained. 
 
 Since the Treaty of 1828, Persia under the 
 Shahs, Fet-Aly-Khan, Mohammed, Nasr-ed- 
 Din, and Muzafer-ed-Din, has fallen almost 
 entirely under Russian influence. In 1837-38, 
 the Shah Mohanmied, with an army com- 
 manded by Russian officers, besieged Herat, 
 
 65
 
 RUSSIA IN ASIA 
 
 defended by Afghans under the leadership of 
 Enghsh officers. In 1856, the Shah Nars- 
 ed-Din, at the suggestion of Russia, besieged 
 and captured Herat; but the EngHsh com- 
 pelled him to abandon his prize, by making 
 a descent on the Persian Gulf, where they 
 captured the port of Bushire and the island 
 of Karrack, which they have kept. In 1841, 
 Persia ceded to Russia the Caspian port of 
 Ashurada, near Astrabad; in 1881, Askabad 
 was given to the same power, and, in 1885, 
 Serakhs,— all three places very important 
 strategic points on the eastern frontier. Persia 
 has also agreed to the building of Russian 
 railroads that are to pass through her territory 
 and terminate on the Persian Gulf. The present 
 year, she has negotiated a loan of twenty-two 
 million five hundred thousand rubles through 
 the agency of the "bank of Persia," estab- 
 lished under Russian auspices. This loan is 
 payable in sevcnty-fivo years, and the interest 
 is secured by all the customs revenues of the 
 
 66
 
 RUSSIA IN ASIA 
 
 kingdom, save those of the Persian Gulf. The 
 Shah has bound himself not to seek further 
 loans of any other European power, and has 
 thereby placed himself financially in the hands 
 of Russia. It is thus that Russia, by her 
 diplomacy, by her banks, and by her railroads, 
 making Persia her political and commercial 
 vassal, has succeeded in furthering her scheme 
 of expansion towards the Persian Gulf and 
 the shores of the Indian Ocean. 
 
 67
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS. 
 
 Expansion Towards India — Napoleon — The Con- 
 quest OF the Khans — In Afghanistan — The 
 "Key of the Indies" — In Touch with India — 
 Abyssinia — British Over-Confidence. 
 
 Towards British India Russian expansion 
 was to seek still other channels. The con- 
 quests in the Caucasus, which we have been 
 reviewing, opened the way along the western 
 and southern sides of the Caspian Sea. But 
 for a long time the Russians had been endeavor- 
 ing to turn the sea from its northern side. 
 In the reign of the Empress Anna Ivanovna, 
 hordes of Kirghiz, whose camping grounds 
 lay to the east of the Ural River, submitted 
 to Russia (1734). Her sway was then extended 
 into Turkestan, that expanse of st('j)pes .iiid 
 oases watered by the Jnxartes (Sir-I)aria) 
 and the Oxus (Amu-I)aria), that emjity into 
 the Ami Sen, a region that is bounded on liie 
 we«t by th(! ('aspian Sea, on the south by 
 
 68
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 Persia and Afghanistan, on the east by the 
 Chinese Empire, and on the north by Siberia. 
 Here was located ancient Djagatai, the debris 
 of former Mongol Empires. > 
 
 When the Russians saw these vast plains 
 spread out before them, they at first thought 
 
 (') Subsequently it was broken up into numerous 
 states, the principal ones being the khanate of Kho- 
 kand, with its chief cities Turkistan, Tashkend, Tchim- 
 kend, and Khodjend on the upper Jaxartes, or Sir- 
 Daria; the khanate of Balkh (ancient Bactria), and 
 the khanate of Samarkand, fallen into dependency 
 upon the khanate of Bokhara, on the upper Oxus, or 
 Amu-Daria; the khanate of Khiva on the lower Oxus; 
 and on the Kashgar and Yarkand Rivers emptying 
 into Lake Lob-Nor, and the Hi flowing into Lake 
 Balkash, knanates (Kashgar, Yarkand, and Kuldja) 
 that belonged to China. Outside of the districts 
 inhabited by a settled people are the deserts of sand 
 over which wander nomadic tribes. To the north of 
 the Jaxartes, are the Kirghiz, divided into several 
 hordes, and the Turkomans, or Turkmens, on the east 
 of the Caspian Sea. — Consult Krahmer, Russland in 
 Asien, vol. i.; Transkaspian und seine Eisenbahn, vol. ii.; 
 Mittel-Asien, Leipzig, 1898-99. Makch^ef, Coup d'oeil 
 historique sur le Turkestan et la marche progressive des 
 Russes (in Russian), St. Petersburg, 1890. Albrecht, 
 Russisches Central- Asien, Hamburg, 1896. H. Mozer, 
 A tr avers V Asie centrale, Paris, 1885. 
 
 69
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 that they were near British India, and that 
 an entrance to that rich peninsula would be 
 as easy to them as it had been to so many 
 Asiatic conquerors that had gone forth from 
 the steppes of Turkestan or the valleys of 
 Afghanistan. From this conviction was born 
 the first schemes that the Russians entertained 
 for the conquest of Hindustan. Even Peter 
 the Great thought of it. In 1717, he sent 
 against Khiva an expedition under Peter 
 Bckovitch that perished on the way. A cer- 
 tain A. M. de Saint Genie proposed a plan 
 for the conquest of Hindustan to Catherine 
 II. in 1791; but the most celebrated of all 
 these projects was the one that Paul I. sub- 
 mitted to Napoleon Bonaparte, then first 
 Consul of the French Republic, whose ally 
 against England he had become. The plan 
 was to place two armies in the field. General 
 Knorring, with the Cossacks of the Don and 
 other Russian troops, was to march by Khiva 
 and Bokhara to the upper Indus, while thirty- 
 
 70
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 five thousand French and thirty-five thousand 
 Russians, that Paul I., inspired by chivalric 
 generosity, proposed placing under the com- 
 mand of Massena, the conqueror of the Russians 
 at the battle of Zurich, were to unite at Astra- 
 bad on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. 
 Thence they were to make their way by Herat 
 and Kandahar to the upper Indus to join 
 forces with the other army. Then, altogether, 
 French, Russians, Persians, Turcomans, and 
 Afghans, they would pour down into India, 
 proclaiming to the princes and the people of 
 the peninsula the fall of English tyranny and 
 their independence. " All the treasures of India 
 were to be their recompense." The execution 
 of this plan was even begun. The Cossacks of 
 the Don, under their ataman, Orlof-Denissof, 
 were already across the Volga, when the news 
 of the death of Paul I. recalled them to their 
 camps.' 
 
 (i) General Batorski, Projets d' expedition dans I'ln- 
 doustan sous Napoloen, Paul I., et Alexandre I. (in Rua- 
 
 71
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 The visionary character of this scheme has 
 been demonstrated, during the present century, 
 by the difficulties that the Russian armies 
 have had to encounter in winning their way 
 over a very small fraction of the immense 
 journey marked out in 1800. At the cost of 
 enormous effort, the oases of Turkestan, which 
 in the mind of Paul I. were to be simply halting 
 places in the long march, have had to be con- 
 quered one by one; one by one, deep valleys 
 and rocky bluffs, defended by war-like tribes, 
 have had to be captured and held. To-day, 
 even with these avenues of ajiproach secured, 
 the goal seems as far olT as it did to the optis- 
 mistic imagination of the Czar Paul I. In 
 
 siiin), St. Potorslmrf^, ISSO. H. S. 1<"(1 wards, Russian 
 Projects agaiiiat India. On the liusaiaii Expt'ilition in 
 Turkestan, sec Hugo Stumin, Rapports, Khiva (trans- 
 lated from the German), Paris, 1874; A. N. Kouropat- 
 kiiic (at i)r('S('nt>- Rvissiaii Minister of War), Tnrromania 
 and the Turcomans (translated into Mnglisii from the 
 Russian by Robert Mitchell); Skobelef, Rupports sur les 
 campagnes dc 1K7()-1H81 (lOnglish translation, London, 
 ISSl); Marvin, Russian (\impai<]ns nmomj the Tekke- 
 Turcomans (from Russian oMicial sources). 
 
 72
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 1839, Nicholas I,, wishing to punish the Khan 
 of Khiva, who was capturing Russian mer- 
 chants and pillaging Russian caravans, des- 
 patched a body of troops commanded by 
 General Perovski. The severe winters of the 
 steppes and the deep snow compelled him, 
 when half way to his destination, to return. 
 Nevertheless, the Khan, intimidated by this 
 demonstration, liberated the Russian prisoners 
 (1840), and in 1842 consented to acknowledge 
 the over-lordship of Russia. Two years later, 
 the eastern Kirghiz also submitted. In order 
 to protect these new subjects against the 
 Khan of Khokand it was necessary to wage 
 war with the latter. From 1860 to 1864, 
 the leaders of the Russian troops, Perovski, 
 Kolpakovski, Verevkine, Tchernaieff, captured 
 the fortresses of Ak-Mesjed, Turkestan, Aulie- 
 Ata, Tchimkend, and finally, Tashkend, a 
 city of one hundred thousand souls, and the 
 commercial emporium of that region. 
 The Emir of Bokhara attempted to intervene, 
 
 73
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 and had a ''holy war" preached by the fanat- 
 ical Mollahs; but he was conquered in the battle 
 of Irjar (1S66), and promised to pay a war 
 indemnity. 
 
 However far the Russians might still be 
 from the frontier of India, England was never- 
 theless disturbed at their success. The official 
 journals of St. Petersburg amused themselves 
 with pacific declarations, announcing that 
 there was no intention of conquering Bokhara; 
 but the Czar organized the territories, already 
 submissive, into "the general government 
 of Turkestan," and General Kaufmann was 
 placed in control. The Emir of Bokhara, 
 having refused to deliver the war indenmity 
 that he had promised, was defeated at Zera- 
 Bulak, and was compelled to sign the treaty 
 of 1S6,S, by which he ceded to the Russians 
 the khanates of Samarkand and Zerafshan; 
 recognized a Russian protectorate, and j)aid an 
 indemnity of two million rubles. Th(^ khanate 
 of Khokand became, likewise, a vassal state. 
 
 74
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 The Khan of Khiva continued to pillage 
 caravans, and to hold in slavery Russian 
 merchants. In 1873, three bodies of troops 
 were sent against him; one coming from the 
 shores of the Caspian Sea under General Mark- 
 oaof, the second from Orenburg under General 
 Verevkine, the third from Tashkend under 
 Governor-General Kaufman. The first, after 
 a difficult march through the burning sands 
 of the desert, was compelled to fall back. The 
 other two entered Khiva almost without striking 
 a blow. The Khan was obliged to acknowledge 
 himself the vassal of "the White Czar," to 
 cede all that part of his territory situated on 
 the right bank of the Oxus, to grant the Russians 
 the rights of navigation and commerce, and 
 to submit to a war indemnity that exhausted 
 his finances. The Khans that had yielded 
 to the Russians were now the objects of the 
 scorn and hatred of the more fanatical among 
 their Mohammedan subjects. These did not 
 cease to rise in revolt against them. The Khan 
 
 75
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 of Khokand preferred to surrender his terri- 
 tories to Russia; and they were formed into the 
 new province of Ferghana, in 1875. The 
 same year, the Khan of Khiva offered to surren- 
 der his in exchange for a pension. The 
 Russians did not wish to annex either this 
 khanate or that of Bokhara, less through fear 
 of Enghsh protests than because the existence 
 of two vassal Khans would allow them to 
 conceal the better their political plans. They 
 maintain them on their thrones by paying 
 them a pension. To-day, the Khan of Bokhara 
 is captain of a regiment of Terek CossacLs, 
 and the Klum of Khiva is lieutenant-general 
 of the Orenburg Cossacks. 
 
 In 1851, the Russians had obtained from 
 China some commercial advantages in (lu^ 
 Kuldja province. Twenty years afterwards a 
 Mohamnicdnn adventurer, Ynkuh-Khan, seized 
 the Chinese khanates of Kashgar and Yarkand, 
 and incited a Mohammedan rebellion in Kuldja. 
 The Russians (entered the province, giving 
 
 76
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 China to understand that they would remain 
 there until order was reestablished (1871). 
 They would gladly have annexed it; but Chinese 
 troops had been despatched; and, after years 
 of marching, they arrived in Kashgar (where 
 Yakub had been assassinated in 1877), and 
 upon the Kuldja frontier. The Russians first 
 thought of resisting the troops and holding 
 the province; but the territory in dispute did 
 not seem worth the risk of a war with China. 
 By the St. Petersburg Treaty of 1881, they 
 gave back Kuldja, except one district on the 
 river Ih, and renounced their military position 
 in Kashgar in exchange for certain commercial 
 advantages. 
 
 To complete the conquest of Turkestan, it 
 remained for them to subdue the nomadic 
 Turcomans (Tekke-Turcomans). This was the 
 the object of the brilliant campaigns directed 
 by Skobelef, who carried by assault the fortress 
 of Geok-Tepe on January 24, 1881, with a 
 loss to the enemy of eight thousand men. Then 
 
 77
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 he took Askhabad, which was afterwards 
 ceded by Persia.' 
 
 The agreement with Persia and the conquest 
 of Turkestan brought Russia's power to the 
 frontier of Afghanistan, which the Enghsh 
 regard as the protecting wall of their Indian 
 Empire. At every forward movement of the 
 Russians, they protested or endeavored to 
 secure guarantees against a new advance or 
 tried to gain for themselves some new strategic 
 point that would strengthen their position. 
 They were not always successful. After the 
 first siege of Herat by the Persians, in 1840, 
 the English made the conquest of Kabul. Their 
 army was driven out by an insurrection, and 
 totally annihilated while retreating (1841). 
 If, to save their honor, they afterwards recap- 
 
 (') Colonel Mallesson, The Russo- A fghan Qne/tiion, 
 1864. Sir Henry Kawlinson, Later Phases oj the Cen- 
 tral Asia Question, 1875. Kouropatkine, Les confines 
 anglo-russes (translated from the Russian by O. le 
 Marchand), Paris, 1X79. 1'. Lessar, La Ihissie et 
 I' Angleterre en Asie Centrale, Paria. Marvin, The lius- 
 sianv at Merv and Herat, etc. 
 
 78
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 tured Kabul, prudence led them to abandon 
 it as quickly as possible (1842), After the 
 annexation or subjection of the khanates by 
 the Russians, the English again made their 
 way into Kabul, and left there a resident repre- 
 sentative, Cavagnari; but a popular uprising,' 
 in 1879, brought about the murder of Cavagnari 
 and eighty-seven of his retinue. The expedi- 
 tion sent to avenge this insult was led by 
 General Roberts,- since then Field Marshal 
 Lord Roberts, Commander in Chief of the 
 English Army. This expedition, however, 
 brought about as little definite result as did 
 the former intervention in Afghanistan. 
 
 In 1881, the English had gained from the 
 Russians the assurance that they had no 
 intention of annexing the city of Merv, a very 
 important strategic point; but in 1884, the 
 notables of that city presented themselves to 
 the Russian Commander at Askhabad, and 
 
 (0 Lord Roberts has published a work, Forty-one 
 Years in India. 
 
 79
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 made declaration that they accepted the lord- 
 ship of ''the White Czar." The English 
 made complaint to the cabinet at St. Petersburg. 
 They were answered that the action of the 
 people of Merv had been a surprise to the 
 Russians themselves; but that they believed 
 that they would have committed a great mistake 
 by rejecting a submission that was so entirely 
 voluntary. The English had secured the 
 appointment of an Anglo-Russian commission 
 for settling the disputed boundaries, which 
 was to decide whether Penjdeh, another very 
 important point, belonged to their client, the 
 Emir of Afghanistan, or to the Turcoman 
 subjects of Russia. The English commissioners, 
 presided over by General Lumsden, were the 
 first to arrive at th(> j)lace of meeting. Tlioy 
 began by fortifying Herat and inciting the 
 Afghans to seize Penjdeh. Seeing this, the 
 chief Russian commissioner, General Komarof, 
 at the head of a strong Russian force, occupied 
 the ZuHikar Pass, and made ready to march 
 
 80
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 upon Penjdeh. While on the way thither, 
 he was attacked by the Afghans at Kushk. 
 He slew five hundred of their men, captured 
 two of their flags and all their artillery (March 
 30, 1885). Then the English commissioners 
 withdrew, charging Komarof with having been 
 the aggressor. Great Britain was much irritated. 
 Gladstone, who had the Egyptian Soudan and 
 the Upper Burmah wars on his hands, called 
 upon Parliament for subsidies. The belief 
 was general that a war was about to ensue 
 between ' ' the whale and the elephant. ' ' Then 
 England calmed down, and accepted the explan- 
 ation of the Russians, that the fight at Kushk 
 was the result of a "mistake." In 1885 and 
 1887, she agreed to the Russian occupation 
 of Merv, Penjdeh, Kushk, and the Zulfikar 
 Pass. The Russians were now within one 
 hundred and twenty kilometres of Herat, 
 known for so long a time as the "key of the 
 Indies. ' ' 
 The question of the settlement of the bound- 
 
 81
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 aries was scarcely disposed of, when another 
 question presented itself in the settlement of 
 the boundaries of the Pamirs. These form 
 a plateau of from four to five thousand metres 
 in latitude, known as ' ' the roof of the world, ' ' 
 with a rigorous climate and sparse population. 
 This plateau commands both Afghanistan and 
 Cashmere, those two ramparts of India and 
 Chinese Turkestan. It was broken up into 
 petty khanates, over which the Khan of Bokhara, 
 the vassal of the Russians, and the Emir of 
 Afghanistan, the client of the English, laid 
 claim to sovereignty. Neither of them had 
 recognized until then the value of the territory. 
 An "expedition for study," accompanied by 
 six hundred Russian soldiers, made its appear- 
 ance in Pamir in the summer of 1891, and 
 aroused, by its presence there, the protests of 
 the English. At the approach of winter, the 
 Uu.ssians withdrew; but they again aj)peared 
 the following summer, in larger numbers, under 
 the command of Colonc;! Yanof . They contended 
 
 82
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 that they were insulted by the Afghans, for 
 which they inflicted upon them the bloody 
 defeat of Somatash (July 12), after which 
 they fell back and took up their position at 
 Kalabery on the Oxus. This clash of arms 
 was succeeded by a diplomatic controversy. 
 It was not until 1895, after a keen discussion 
 between the two great powers, each contending 
 for its own client, that they reached an agreement. 
 The disputed region was divided between 
 Bokhara and Afghanistan, the former receiving 
 the little khanates of Shugnan and Roschan, 
 and the latter the khanate of Wakhan, a narrow 
 strip of territory, from twenty to thirty kilo- 
 metres wide, which now forms ' ' a buffer state ' ' 
 between the two great empires of Russia and 
 Great Britain. Even after this agreement, 
 Russia found a pretext in 1899 for occupying 
 the district of Sirikul, which belongs to Chinese 
 Pamir, and which commands the source of 
 the Kashgar and Yarkand Rivers (March, 1889). 
 Great Britain having occupied in Arabia 
 
 83
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 the island of Perim in the imamate of Muscat, 
 in order to control the outlet of the Red Sea, 
 and to establish a coaling station in her maritime 
 route, Russia, in 1899, also endeavored to 
 obtain from the Imam the grant of a coaling 
 station on his coast. From this arose new 
 complaints and strenuous opposition on the 
 part of England. Russia also established her- 
 self, under color of orthodox proselytism, at 
 a point quite as annoying to British interests, 
 on the coast, and at the very capital of Menelik, 
 Emperor of Abyssinia. A first attempt in this 
 direction was made in 1889 by a Russian 
 adventurer, calling himself Achinof, "the 
 free Cossack." He took possession of the 
 dismantled fort of Sugallo on the territory of 
 th(^ French colony of Obock. The former 
 " anounada of Sugallo" drove him away, and 
 the Russian government disavowed his action. 
 The mission of Lieutenant Machkof (1889- 
 1892), and tlic so-called "scientific mission" 
 of Caj)tain Leonticf in 1891, thanks to the 
 
 84
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 ready assistance of the French authorities, 
 succeeded much better. Thus was Russian 
 influence, in close harmony with French influ- 
 ence, estabhshed almost upon the British Nile. 
 In 1898, the Russian Colonel, Artamonof, with 
 some Abyssinain troops, endeavored to meet 
 Major MarchandjWho was moving upon Fashoda, 
 and to reinforce him on the great river. 
 
 The English alternate between doubting and 
 believing that these expansive movements of 
 Russia by way of the Caucasus, by way of 
 Turkestan, and by way of the Pamirs, are all 
 directed towards one goal, the very one that 
 the Czar Paul proposed to the first Consul 
 Bonaparte in 1800; Alexander I. to the Emperor 
 Napoleon (1807); and General Duhamel to 
 Nicholas I. (1855), and the ardent Skobelef to 
 his government. To many intelligent English- 
 men, the goal of so much effort can be no other 
 than the conquest of India. Now that the 
 frontier of the Russian Pamir is not more than 
 twenty or thirty kilometres from the kingdom 
 
 85
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 of Cashmere, and now that Kushk, the ter- 
 minus of the Turkestan railroad system, is only 
 one hundred and twenty kilometres from 
 Herat, the problem of invading India is infi- 
 nitely more easy than it was in the time of 
 Bonaparte and Paul I. Why have the Rus- 
 sians spent so much money and blood in the 
 conquest of the impoverished and barbarous 
 nations of those sandy deserts and almost inac- 
 cessible mountains, if they did not have before 
 them, as a recompense for their sacrifices, 
 what Paul I. called "all the riches of the 
 Indies." 
 
 A recent historian of Russian expansion,' 
 Alexis Krause, reviewing all the hardsliips 
 endured by Russia and the thankless task that 
 she has assumed, adds, "On its own account, 
 the con(iuest of Central Asia is worthless. It 
 is not done in ignorance, but by carefully 
 thought-out design, as part of a programme, 
 
 (') Alexis Krauflo, fiunftia in Ania, a Record and a 
 Study, London and New York, 1899. 
 
 86
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 the execution of which its possession will 
 assist. The capture of the khanates was 
 attempted, not as a pathway towards the 
 coveted Persian Gulf, but as a road which 
 would lead to the Pan jab and all that is beyond. 
 And now that preliminary steps have been com- 
 pleted, the serious undertaking is about to be 
 begun." 
 
 James MacGahan, one of the best informed 
 men on Eastern affairs, wrote from the shores 
 of the Oxus in 1876: "The Russians are steadily 
 advancing towards India, and they will, sooner 
 or later, acquire a position in Central Asia 
 which will enable them to threaten it. Should 
 England be engaged in a European war, then, 
 indeed, Russia will probably strike a blow at 
 England's Indian power." 
 
 Other Englishmen pretend to believe that 
 the hypothesis of a conquest of India ''is too 
 preposterous to be entertained. It would 
 involve the most terrible and lingering war the 
 world has ever seen. On the day that a Rus- 
 
 87
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 sian army leaves Balkh or Herat for Kandahar, 
 well may the British commander exclaim: 
 'Now hath the Lord delivered them into my 
 hand!' " 
 
 It is thus that Lord Curzon, the present Gov- 
 ernor-General of India, expresses himself. It 
 seems, however, that he is but assuming a tone 
 of assured certainty to conceal his deep anxiety. 
 This plan of conquest that he considers "too 
 preposterous to be entertained," has been dis- 
 cussed by other, and very competent persons, 
 who do not reach conclusions so optimistic as 
 regards Great Britain.' Perhaps, however, the 
 Russians are at prescMit pressing so closely 
 towards tlH> frontier of British India in order 
 to have at their disposal :\ tikniiis of in(inii(ia- 
 tion, or even of coercion, for us(> in (hose 
 very frequent occasions in which Great liritain 
 sets herself in stubborn opposition to l^ussia's 
 plans in other parts of the world. I'or, at. the 
 
 (') Maximilian (Jraf Yorck von Wartcnhiirn, l><is 
 Vordringcn dcr liuasischcn Marht in Asien, Berlin, 1900. 
 
 88
 
 FURTHER CONQUESTS 
 
 present moment, the Czar Nicholas II. seems 
 much more interested in expansion in the 
 Far East than in any movement towards the 
 south of Asia. 
 
 89
 
 THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA IN 
 THE FAR EAST.^ 
 
 The Opening of Siberia — Value op Siberia — 
 Chinese Wars — Settlements on the Pacific 
 — Chinese Cessions — Vladivostock — Russian In- 
 fluence AT Pekin. 
 
 The eastward expansion of Russia through 
 the soHtudcs of Siberia and among its barbar- 
 ous tribes began about the close of the six- 
 teenth century, ininie(hately after the conquest 
 of the Tartar czarates of Kazan and Astrakhan. 
 It was between the years 1579 and 1584 that 
 the Cossack, Trmak Timofevitch, fleeing from 
 the punishment of the law and the wrath of 
 the Czar, Ivan the Terrible, with a handful of 
 brigands like himself, Russians, Cossacks, Tar- 
 tars, German and Polish prisoners of war, to 
 
 (') Krahmer, Russland in Asien, vol. iii. Sibirien und 
 die groase sibiriachr Eisenbahn. vol. iv. Ituxsland in 
 0.<t/-/lsiVn. Leipzig, 18'J7, 1898. Lcgro.s, La Sib/'.rie. 
 Paris, 1899. 
 
 90
 
 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST 
 
 the number of six hundred and fifty men, 
 crossed the Ural, traversed the immense, 
 untrodden forests of the Tobol, defeated the 
 Tartar Khan, Kutchum, took Sibir, his capital, 
 and subjected to tribute the tribes of the 
 Irtysh and the Obi. When Irmak Timo- 
 fevitch was drowned in the Irtysh, dragged to 
 the bottom of the river by the weight of the 
 cuirass given him by the Czar, Russia made a 
 hero, and the Orthodox Church a saint, of the 
 old outlaw. Along the pathways that he had 
 marked out, there soon followed a stream of 
 "good fellows" of every description, gold- 
 seekers, fur-hunters, and peasants fleeing the 
 estates of their feudal lords in search of gov- 
 ernment lands that they might cultivate as 
 freemen. Hither also flocked religious dissent- 
 ers, persecuted by the Orthodox Church, who 
 found a shelter in the immensity of the Siberian 
 forest, retreats concealed from all mankind. 
 Into this same wilderness escaped the German, 
 Polish, and Swedish prisoners of war of Peter I. 
 
 91
 
 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST 
 
 and of Catherine II. Then, in long, wretched 
 troops came in chains or in fetters the unhappy 
 serfs deported by their masters, often bearing 
 the marks of cruel beating and mutilation; 
 their sides scarred by the knout, and nostrils 
 or tongue cut by the executioner; strewing the 
 highways with their corpses. This barbarous 
 feature of the old Russian penal code came to 
 an end at the close of the last century, and it is 
 known that the present Czar, Nicholas 11., has 
 suppressed deportation into Siberia for common 
 law crimes in order to purify that colony of a 
 reproach like to that against which the English 
 colonies of Australia long protested. The 
 rapidity with which colonization of every kind 
 was spread over the millions of kilometers 
 which the immensity of Siberia measures, Is 
 shown by the dates of the founding of the prin- 
 cipal towns: Tobolsk on the Tobol in 1587; 
 Tomsk on the Toms, a branch of the Obi, in 
 1604; Yeniseisk on the Yenisei in 1619; Ya- 
 koutsk in 1632; Atchinsk in 1642; Nertchinsk 
 
 92
 
 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST 
 
 on the Shilka, a branch of the Amur, in 1654; 
 Okhotsk on the sea of the same name in 1638. 
 Siberia, even to our own times, has been 
 valuable mainly on account of its immense 
 extent and the liberty that free immigrants 
 have found there. It may be divided into 
 three divisions: in the north, the toundra, 
 marshy in summer, a mass of ice in winter; in 
 the centre, the taiga, or forest, dear to the 
 hunter; in the south, the cultivated region, of 
 an area thrice that of all France. Even this 
 last division, except in the districts where the 
 "black earth" is found, is not characterized by 
 a fertility that redeems the severity of a climate, 
 extreme in its s'ommer heat as in its winter 
 cold. In the seventeenth century a belief was 
 current that the region about the Amur was, 
 on the contrary, of great fertility, a belief which 
 experience has shown to be ill-founded. It 
 was, therefore, in this direction that the most 
 venturesome Cossacks and the most energetic 
 settlers hastened. They were not disturbed by 
 
 93
 
 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST 
 
 the fact that the country belonged to the 
 Chinese Emperor. In 1649, a young officer 
 named' Khabarof, undertook to descend the 
 still unexplored river, building forts at the 
 junction of the tributaries, conquering rebel- 
 lious tribes of natives, and fighting troops of 
 Manchurian horsemen (1649-1652). In 1658, 
 Pachkof, governor of Yeniseik, founded Nert- 
 chinsk on the Shilka, a branch of the Amur. 
 Five years later Albasin was founded. This 
 was a fortress with ramparts of wood, and in 
 its vicinity there arose many Russian villages. 
 Finally, the Chinese, irritated at seeing these 
 adventurers assume rulership over them, several 
 times attacked Albasin with armies of from fif- 
 teen to twenty thousand men; but were invari- 
 ably repulsed. Upon receiving tidings of these 
 events, the court at Moscow sent envoys to 
 that of Pekin with a letter written in Latin 
 and in Russian. After long deliberation at 
 Nertchinsk a treaty was signed in that city, in 
 1689, in accordance with the terms of which 
 
 94
 
 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST 
 
 the heroic fort of Albasin was to be razed; 
 and the frontier between the two empires was 
 definitely fixed as it continued to be observed 
 by both countries down to the treaties of 1858. 
 On their side, the Russians renounced further 
 forcible encroachment and settlement on Chi- 
 nese territory; but they did not renounce their 
 efforts to gain a foothold by commerce, reli- 
 gious mission work, and diplomacy in the Middle 
 Kingdom, and even in Pekin itself. The Rus- 
 sians that had been made prisoners at Albasin, 
 or in battles at other places, had been taken to 
 the capital of the empire. Some of them had 
 established themselves there as artisans or 
 merchants; others formed the Russian guard 
 of the "Son of Heaven." At Moscow it was 
 known that these men were well treated at 
 Pekin, but that they had neither church nor 
 priest of their religion. Peter the Great resolved 
 to send an embassy to Pekin to secure satisfac- 
 tory concessions on this point. This, indeed, was 
 the object of a mission entrusted to Eberhard 
 
 95
 
 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST 
 
 Ysbrand, who reached Pekin in 1693, and there 
 obtained what the Czar wished. In 1721, 
 Tsmai'lof was despatched to the Chinese capital 
 to secure from the Emperor Kanghi the privi- 
 lege of establishing there a permanent Russian 
 legation. He gave the Bodgy-Klian a letter 
 from the Czar and left M. de Lange as charge 
 d'ajfaires; but the latter almost immediately 
 after Tsmailof's departure was dismissed by 
 the Chinese court. In 1727, a treaty that 
 secured greater commercial privileges for the 
 Russians was signed at Kiakhta. In 1S06, 
 Golovine, another envoy, was sent to Pekin 
 with a view to obtaining the free navigation of 
 the Amur River, This mission failed; never- 
 theless the position of Russia in \ho Asiatic 
 East was continually growing stronger. In 
 1S()7, they had annexed the peninsula of Kam- 
 tchatka. In 1847, Count Nicholas Muravief, 
 who was to will tlic surnainc of Ainourski, 
 became governor of lOastern Siberia, and set 
 himself to develop and strengthen the colony. 
 
 96
 
 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST 
 
 He perceived that it would have no future if 
 possession was not secured of the chief river 
 and the richest province of the region, that is, 
 of the Amur and of Manchuria. The river was 
 still so incompletely known that the Grand 
 Chancellor Nesselrode declared to the Emperor 
 Nicholas that its outlet was inaccessible. In 
 1848, a Cossack expedition, under Vaganof, 
 perished without the escape of a single person 
 to tell the tale. Two years afterwards Captain 
 Nevelskoi discovered that Saghalin is really an 
 island, separated from the mainland by the 
 channel or strait of Tartary, and, in the course 
 of his exploration, came upon the mouth of the 
 Amur, entered it in a small boat, and planted 
 the Russian flag on its banks; proclaiming to 
 the natives that the country belonged to the 
 "White Czar" at St. Petersburg. The Grand 
 Chancellor was terrified at NevelskoV's audacity; 
 he already saw himself at war with China; he 
 insisted that the daring captain's action be dis- 
 countenanced, but the Emperor replied: " When 
 
 97
 
 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST 
 
 Russia's flag has been raised anywhere it 
 should not be taken down." On his part, 
 Governor Muravief endeavored to persuade the 
 local mandarins that the best thing to do was 
 to leave the Russians alone. The Chinese 
 demanded that negotiations be entered upon 
 with their Emperor; Muravief thought that 
 Pekin was too far away for that and that 
 Chinese diplomacy was too slow. He continued 
 to act, therefore, as if the country was already 
 a Russian province, and strengthened his posi- 
 tion by building along the river the forts 
 Alexandrovsk, Mikhailovsk, and Nicolaievsk,— 
 all of these, baptismal names of the royal family. 
 P(5tropavlosk, on the southeast coast of Kani- 
 tchatka, had been established in 1740. Other 
 fortresses arose at the junction of the several 
 principal tributaries of the Amur River. "The 
 Anmr will be the death of you," saiil the 
 Emperor Nicholas jestingly to Muravief. 
 
 During the Crimean War the Anglo-French 
 fleet blockaded the Russian Pacific coast, and 
 
 98
 
 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST 
 
 destroyed a part of the military establishments 
 and of the infant marine. This blockade, by 
 threatening to starve out the colony, only 
 hastened a decision upon the part of Muravief, 
 who had need of Manchuria to furnish food for 
 his colonists. Its annexation was already an 
 accomplished fact, when, in 1857, Admiral 
 Putiatin dropped anchor in the Gulf of Pechili 
 and proposed to the Chinese Emperor, in con- 
 sideration of Russia's armed intervention in 
 the Taiping rebellion, the cession of Manchuria. 
 China's only reply was a vigorous protest 
 against Russian encroachment. War seemed 
 imminent between the two empires. Fortu- 
 nately for Russia, just at that time came the 
 Anglo-French expedition and the march of the 
 allies upon Pekin. The Russians profited by 
 this event to complete the annexation of the 
 coveted territory. The Czar sent a fleet into 
 the Chinese waters, and the Celestials did not 
 relish having a third European power to deal 
 with. By the Treaties of Aigun and Tientsin 
 
 99
 
 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST 
 
 in 1858, they granted to Russia the entire left 
 bank of the Amur, the entire territory between 
 that river and the ocean as well as its tributary 
 stream, the Ossuri, the bay on which there was, 
 in time, to rise the fortress of Vladivostock, 
 with its prophetic name (Dominator of the 
 East). These newly acquired lands formed 
 two provinces, the Amur Province and the 
 Maritime Province. By the Treaty of Pekin, in 
 1860, China ceded to Russia the region adjacent 
 to the lakes Balkash and Issik-kul; the boundary 
 line between Manchuria and Siberia was re- 
 adjusted, and the Russians were granted the 
 right to trade in all parts of the empire. Fifteen 
 years more, and Russia obtained from Japan 
 the abandonment of the latter 's rights over 
 Saghalin in exchange for the North Kurile Isles. 
 For nearly thirty years the boundary bc^tween 
 China and Russia remained as agreed ui)on in 
 the treaties of 1858 and 18G(). But already 
 the commercial iiiid i)()litical activity of the 
 Russians was overstejjping it. They had estab- 
 
 100
 
 RUSSIA IN THE FAR EAST 
 
 lished themselves in large numbers in the 
 cities of Chinese Manchuria, — in Kiakhta, 
 Mukden, Kirin, and Tsitsihar, the residence of 
 the mandarin-governor. The navigation of 
 the Ossuri and the Sungari Rivers fell wholly 
 into their hands. The steamships of the Amur 
 Company put Russia in rapid communication 
 with Japan and San Francisco. "Scientific 
 Missions" traversed China in all directions. 
 At Pekin the Russian colony acquired a con- 
 tinually greater importance and the ambas- 
 sador of the Czar wielded more influence at 
 court than the representatives of any other 
 European power. His open handed liberality 
 won him the favor of the courtiers, the man- 
 darins, and the generals. In all the sea and 
 river ports, the colonies of Russian merchants 
 multiplied, and these seemed to live on better 
 terms with the native population than the 
 traders of other foreign nations. On the 
 arrival of the Czarovitch, in 1891, he was 
 honored with a series of royal entertainments. 
 
 101
 
 COREA. 
 
 The China-Japan War — Interference op Russia — 
 Conflict With Japanese Interests — Russia's 
 Gain. 
 
 China and Japan, "The Middle Kingdom," 
 and "The Land of the Rising Sun," the Bogdy- 
 Khan and the Mikado, had disputed with each 
 other for a long time, the protectorate of the 
 kingdom of Corea. War broke out between 
 the two empires in the July of 1894. The 
 Japanese troops, drilled and equipped in the 
 European manner, were everywhere victorious. 
 Their warships, built in the best shipyards of 
 Europe, sank the Chinese vessels. The Japan- 
 ese occupied all Corea, stormed and captured 
 Port Arthur, concjuered a part of Chinese 
 Manchuria, captunul Wei-hai-Wei, threatened 
 Pckin, and (iiially imposed upon (vhina the 
 Treaty of Shimonosaki, April 17, 1895. China 
 
 102
 
 COREA 
 
 was compelled to renounce all her claims with 
 respect to Corea; to give to her conquerors the 
 Island of Formosa, the Pescadores, the pen- 
 insula of Liao-tung, with Port Arthur and 
 Talien-Wan, to open five new ports, including 
 Pekin, to their commerce; to grant them the 
 right to open manufacturing establishments 
 in the empire; and to pay a war indemnity 
 of seven hundred and fifty millions. » 
 
 The success of the Japanese had been so 
 rapid that all the European powers were sur- 
 prised at this sudden revelation of such a 
 military and naval strength in the hands of 
 the Mikado. England, at first hostile and 
 malevolent, hastened to show more friendly 
 feelings for the conqueror; the United States 
 concluded a commercial treaty with the Jap- 
 anese government; and all the plans that 
 Russia had formed for supremacy in the Far 
 
 (') Vladimir, The China-Japan War, compiled from 
 Japanese, Chinese, and Foreign Sources, London, Samp- 
 son Low, 1896. 
 
 103
 
 COREA 
 
 East were threatened with failure. She could 
 not allow either Wei-hai-Wei or the peninsula 
 of Liao-tung, with the harbors that she had 
 so long coveted, to remain in the hands of the 
 Japanese. Should she do so, she would see 
 herself relegated to the ports of Siberia and 
 Northern Manchuria, closed by ice for a part 
 of the year, and her hope of unfolding her colors 
 in the seas of the Far East taken from her. 
 She could not permit that the influence of 
 triumphant Japan should be substituted at 
 Pekin for her own influence, already dating 
 back a century or more. It was necessary, 
 at any cost, even should it mean war, to pre- 
 vent the provisions of the Shimonosaki Treaty 
 being carried out. She was successful in 
 enlisting the cooperation of two states which, 
 although antagonistic to each other, had 
 reasons for keeping tlu^ good-wiU of Russia. 
 These three powers: — Russia, France and Ger- 
 many, — formed what might be called "A 
 l^riple AHianc(! of the Far East." They for- 
 
 104
 
 COREA 
 
 warded to the court at Tokyo some "friendly 
 advice" regarding the giving up of claims that 
 might bring about a general conflagration. 
 It was hard for Japan to renounce the Liao- 
 tung peninsula, with its harbors of Port Arthur, 
 Talien-Wan, and Wei-hai-Wei, that had been 
 conquered at the price of its blood, and by 
 such brilliant victories; but the Japanese 
 armies were on the Chinese mainland; the 
 three powers were masters of the sea; and 
 thus the island empire was left almost without 
 defence. The three protesting powers had the 
 advantage. Russia, in the deliberations over 
 the revision of the treaty, showed such pas- 
 sionate insistence that twice. May 5, and 
 May 8, Admiral Tyrtof made all preparations 
 to meet the Japanese fleet, which probably 
 would have gone to the bottom.^ By the Treaty 
 of Tokyo, May 8, 1895, Japan agreed to give 
 up the Liao-tung and Wei-hai-Wei; to be 
 satisfied with Formosa and the Pescadores, 
 positions of the utmost importance in the 
 
 O This was written in 1900. 
 105
 
 COREA 
 
 Pacific; and to receive the war indemnity and 
 certain commercial privileges. 
 
 As a matter of fact, Russia had just inflicted 
 upon Japan the treatment that she herself 
 had received from the European powers, 
 after so many splendid victories over the 
 Turks. It was under the pressure of a "Euro- 
 pean Concert" that Japan lost the most precious 
 fruits of her success against the Chinese, just 
 as the Russian conquerors of the Ottomans 
 had lost theirs. Russia set up against Japan 
 the principle of the integrity of the Chinese 
 Empire in exactly the same way that the 
 powers had imposed upon her the principle 
 of the preservation of the Turkish Empire. 
 The Treaty of Tokyo in 1895, modified the 
 Treaty of Shimonosaki as completely as had 
 the Treaty of Berlin modified that of San 
 Stefano in 1S7S. And just as Russia, in 1878, 
 has had the mortification of seeing her polit- 
 ical foes, Austria and England, enrich them- 
 selves with the spoils of that very Turkish 
 
 106
 
 COREA 
 
 Empire that they pretended to protect against 
 her covetousness, laying their hands, the one 
 on Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other 
 upon the island of Cyprus; so Japan soon had 
 the mortification of seeing Russia violate, for 
 her own profit, that very principle of the con- 
 tinental integrity of the Chinese Empire that 
 she had set up against Japanese ambition. 
 
 107
 
 CHINA. 
 
 RtTssiAN Concessions — Port Arthur — Railways — 
 Loans — Corea — Germany — Great Britain — The 
 
 United States. 
 
 England and France, the former in par- 
 ticular, obtained from China numerous import- 
 ant concessions*; but of more value were those 
 that Russia secured. By the convention of 
 June, 1895, China contracted with her, through 
 the intermediary of the Russo-Chinese bank, 
 recently established at St. Petersburg, and 
 under the direction of Count Oukhtomski 
 whose Oriental policy we know, a loan of four 
 hundred million francs at four per cent., pay- 
 able in thirty-six years. On October 25, 1896, 
 this same bank made another agreement 
 
 (•) R. I. Pinon et J. de Marcillac, La Chine qui s'ouvre 
 Paris, 1900. Pierre Leroy-Heaulieu, La renovation de 
 VAnic: Siberic, Chine, J npon, Vans, 1900. Chas. Bcrcs- 
 ford, The Break- Up of China, London and New York, 
 1899 
 
 108
 
 CHINA 
 
 with the Pekin government. This agreement, 
 ratified by the Czar, became, on December 
 26, the Treaty of St. Petersburg. It gave 
 the Eastern Chinese Raihoad Company the 
 right to build a road through Chinese Man- 
 churia, making it a branch Une of the Rus- 
 sian Trans-Siberian Railroad; to develop 
 coal and other mines in the territory trav- 
 ersed by the road, and to devote itself to all 
 other industrial and commercial enterprises. 
 The stock of the company can be held by 
 Chinese and Russians only, which means that 
 it will fall almost exclusively into the hands 
 of the Russians. A special clause authorized 
 the Czar to station in Manchuria both infantry 
 and cavalry for the protection of the railroad. 
 This was the disguised annexation of all the 
 part of the vast province that had not already 
 been ceded to Russia in 1858 and 1860. Fur- 
 thermore, China leased to Russia for fifteen 
 years a harbor in the province of Shantung, 
 and finally, Russian warships were given the 
 
 109
 
 CHINA 
 
 privileges of the two harbors of Liao-tung 
 peninsula, Port Arthur and Talien-Wan. 
 
 March 27, 1898, there was formulated a 
 new agreement between the two countries. 
 Port Arthur and Talien-Wan and all thoir 
 dependencies were leased to Russia for a term 
 of twenty-five years. With this was granted 
 the privilege of building through the Liao- 
 tung peninsula a railroad from Vladivostock 
 to Port Arthur, which is merely another branch 
 of the Trans-Siberian road. 
 
 Nor is this all. According to a still more 
 recent agreement, a Russian railroad is to be 
 built from Mukden in Manchuria to Pekin. 
 Another Russian company is to construct a 
 system of Chinese railroads, the three princi{)al 
 lines of which, setting out from Pekin, ixrc to 
 traverse, the first two, the provinces of Shansi 
 and llonaii, lln' third, the province of Huik' 
 and to ttinninuLe at TIankow on the Yang- 
 tse-kiang. Against this third railroad, Eng- 
 land made a vigorous i)rotest. In her treaties 
 
 110
 
 CHINA 
 
 with China, she had secured for herself the 
 building of railroads and the commerce of the 
 valley of the Yang-tse, and here the Russians 
 were coming to cut ofT her railroads, and in 
 the very heart of China to draw off the mer- 
 chandise that she was counting upon to export 
 by sea, and which was now likely to be carried 
 by the Trans-Siberian line. After having 
 secured the defeat at Pekin of the propo- 
 sitions of a Franko-Russian syndicate, she 
 encouraged two Chinese of high rank to apply 
 for a contract to build the debated railroad. 
 They found themselves unable to raise the 
 necessary funds, and it was then that Russia, 
 thanks to the energy of Count Oukhtomski, 
 had the franchise transferred to a Franco- 
 Belgian company. 
 
 Nevertheless, in November, 1897, Russia 
 had neither the ability nor the wish to pre- 
 vent the Germans from landing in the bay 
 of Kiao-chow which she seemed to have re- 
 served for herself, or from securing a lease 
 
 111
 
 CHINA 
 
 of it for ninety-nine years. Neither could 
 she hinder the EngUsh, incensed at the action 
 of the Germans, from obtaining, in April, 
 1898, a lease of the harbor and bay of Wei- 
 hai-Wei, evacuated by the Japanese. It thus 
 happens that in the Pechili Gulf, from which 
 Pekin receives the greater part of its supplies, 
 three European powers occupy places very 
 near one another; the Russians at Port Arthur 
 and Talien-Wan, the Germans at Kiao-chow, 
 and the English at Wei-hai-Wei. The Pechili 
 Gulf has become another Mediterranean, on 
 whose shores rival Asiatic interests continue 
 the rivalries of Europe. The position of Russia 
 is much the strongest. She commands Pckin, 
 not merely by sea, but by all the overland 
 highways. She alone of the three rival powers 
 in the Pechili Gulf possesses a vast continental 
 base of operations. She fronts China along a 
 boundary line several thousand miles in length; 
 she embracas and penetrates China ; and she 
 alone by her railroads, the Trans-Siberian, 
 
 112
 
 CHINA 
 
 the Trans-Manchurian, and the Trans-Chinese, 
 will be able to pour into the very center of 
 China and into its capital a great European 
 army. Recently in the revolution of the pal- 
 ace, which took place in Pekin in September, 
 1898, it was manifest to what degree the influ- 
 ence of the Russian legation there was pre- 
 ponderant. The young Emperor, Kwang-Su, 
 supported by Japan, and perhaps also by 
 England, endeavored to shake off the tutelage 
 of the Empress-Dowager, Tsu-Hsi, and of 
 the viceroy, Li-Hung-Chang, the friend of 
 the Russians, in order that he might inaugurate 
 an era of reforms. The plot was discovered, 
 the accomplices of the Emperor were exe- 
 cuted or banished, and the Empress-Dowager 
 reassumed full power. 
 
 In Corea, Russia took the place of China 
 in the long-standing rivalry that the latter had 
 carried on with Japan. At Seoul, in the palace 
 of King Li-hui, it was the Russian faction 
 which, as a conservative party, took the place 
 
 113
 
 CHINA 
 
 of the old Chinese faction in opposition to the 
 Japanese faction, which constitutes the progress- 
 ive party of Corea. Japan and Russia disputed 
 with each other not only political influences, 
 but commercial exploitation. Russia might 
 have employed force, but she feared lest Japan, 
 the Great Britain of the Far East, might throw 
 herself into an alliance with the Great Britain 
 of Europe. Therefore, Russia now openly 
 opposed Japan, and now again craftily manipu- 
 lated her. In spite of the keenness of the con- 
 tention, she had the shrewdness never to push 
 matters to a rupture. In a series of agreements, 
 dated May 14, 1896, February 24, 1897, April 25, 
 1898, respectively, the two rivals attempted 
 to define the conditions of this sort of condo- 
 minium and to establish an equitable division 
 of commercial advantages, of mail and tele- 
 graph monopoly, and of police force. In this 
 division, however, Russia seemed to secure the 
 lion's share. She gained possession in Corea of 
 a system of telegraph lines which she amiexed 
 
 114
 
 CHINA 
 
 to her Siberian lines; she managed to have 
 the financial administration of the kingdom 
 entrusted to Russians, and succeeded in 
 having King Li-hui issue an edict that the 
 future railways of Corea should be of the same 
 gauge as those of Siberia. 
 
 With France in Tonquin and the region round 
 about; Germany in Kiao-chow; England at 
 Wei-hai-Wei, on the Blue River, and in the pen- 
 insula of Kelung before Hong-Kong; with 
 Russia throughout all north China; the Japanese 
 in Corea, in Formosa, and the Pescadores, and 
 the United States in the Philippines, — it can 
 be seen that the political problems of the Far 
 East have become as complicated as the like 
 problems have ever been in Europe or America. 
 
 115
 
 THE MEANS AND METHODS OF 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION. 
 
 Fruits op Diplomacy — Absolutism of Russian 
 Government — An Enlightened Despotism — Rus- 
 sian Colonists — Race Characteristics — Religion 
 — Population — Franco-Russian Alliance — From 
 THE Baltic to the Pacific. 
 
 We have followctl Russia in all the directions 
 that her policy of expansion has carried her. 
 It now remains for us to study the means 
 that she has employed, especially in what con- 
 cerns her expansion in the East. 
 
 The essential characteristic that distinguishes 
 her Oriental from her Western policy, is that, 
 while nearly all the progress she has made in 
 Europe has been either the cause or the result 
 of bloody wars like those of the Czars of Mos- 
 cow against Poland, of Peter the Great against 
 Charles XU., of Catherine II. and Alexander II. 
 against the Ottomans, of Paul T. against the 
 
 116
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 French Republic, of Alexander I. against Napo- 
 leon, and of Nicholas I. against the Allies in 
 the Crimea, her Oriental expansions have never 
 brought her into war with a power of the first 
 magnitude, not even with China.^ However 
 bellicose Russia may have shown herself in 
 Europe, in Asia she has exhibited a prudence 
 wholly Oriental. A score of times it has seemed 
 that she was on the brink of a mighty war with 
 Great Britain over the frontiers of India; 
 with China over Albasin, Kuldja, or Man- 
 churia; and with Japan over Liao-tung and 
 Corea, Some sort of an agreement has always 
 come in time to ward off an open rupture, as 
 in 1872, 1885, 1887, and 1895, with Great 
 Britain; and as at Nertchinsk, at Aigun, at 
 Tientsin, and at Pekin with China. In 1871, 
 war with the latter seemed imminent with 
 respect to the Kuldja question, but, rather 
 than proceed to extreme measures, Russia 
 preferred to abandon a part of her conquest. 
 
 In these agreements, Russia it is found, has 
 O Written in 1900. 
 
 117
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 generally the better part of the bargain. She 
 understands how to utilize the amour propre 
 of her adversaries. Thus, she helped the Chi- 
 nese "to save their face," for example, by 
 inducing them to lease for twenty-five or ninety- 
 nine years what they would obstinately have 
 refused to cede definitely. Thanks to this 
 expedient, it appeared to the Chinese that the 
 dignity and integrity of their empire would 
 remain inviolate. England also has grown 
 accustomed to allowing herself "to save her 
 face," and to be put to sleep by the mesmeric 
 passes, energetic, and at the same time, caress- 
 ing of Russian diplomacy. She allows herself 
 to see in the "explanations" brought to Lon- 
 don, the proof that some bold Cossack raid, 
 some thorough lesson administered to her 
 Afghan clients, is the result of an "error", a 
 "misunderstanding." A company of six hun- 
 dred soldiers is almost always a "scientific 
 expedition." The l']nglish minister, in order 
 not to stir up strife, allows himself to yield, 
 
 118
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 and hands over to his successor the task of 
 disentangling the knot. This successor is care- 
 ful not to meddle with what he himself was not 
 mixed up in, and what the jingoes and London 
 cockneys have already forgotten; and so what 
 the Russians have skillfully acquired remains 
 permanently in their possession. If the occa- 
 sion demands it, they will declare that they did 
 not intend to conquer Bokhara; but have they 
 proved that they have not made a vassal state 
 of it, something that will be more useful to 
 them than an annexed province? They never 
 intended to advance to Merv; but if the people 
 of Merv of their own accord came to them, 
 would it be a wise policy to reject a " voluntary" 
 submission? And thus, slowly, silently, with- 
 out excessive cracking of her whip, Russian 
 supremacy, in her well-oiled car of progress, 
 has been moving on through all Central Asia. 
 
 Russia is the only European power which has 
 an absolute government. Its autocratic fea- 
 ture, so fiercely assailed upon the accession of 
 
 119
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 Nicholas I. by the "Constitutionals," or 
 "Republicans," of 1825, and under Alexander 
 II. by the Nihilist conspiracies, seems to have 
 taken on a new life in the estimation of the 
 Russian people, because, according to the expres- 
 sion of Prince Oukhtomski, it is the necessary 
 condition of the greatness of their nation and 
 of her "supernatural" and providential mis- 
 sion in Asia. If the foundation of the govern- 
 ment remains autocratic, this autocracy, is at 
 least more sincerely an "enlightened despotism" 
 than was the absolutism of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, a despotism thoughtful of the economic 
 interests and the well-being of the people, 
 blending its ambitions with the legitimate 
 aspirations of the nation. It has borrowed 
 from the West municipal or provincial self- 
 government, but not the parliamentary, not 
 even the representative regimen. In Russia 
 there is no minister responsible to legislative 
 l)()dies, where changeable majorities successively 
 displace one another; but ministers having the 
 
 120
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 confidence of the sovereign continue in office 
 for a long time, in such manner that from 1815 
 to 1882 Russia had only two ministers of foreign 
 affairs, Nesselrode and Gortchakof, and since 
 the latter date there have been only three, De 
 Giers, Lobanof, and Muravief. How many 
 have been those that have followed one another 
 during these past eighty-five years in France, 
 England, and even the United States! This 
 permanency in office allows continuity of the 
 same political views and constancy in realizing 
 them. No parliament, therefore, no question- 
 ings, no blue or yellow books. A restricted 
 liberty of the press closes with respect the 
 indiscreet lips of reporters and interviewers. 
 Hence secrecy in both planning and executing 
 is possible. There is no need of throwing dust 
 in the eyes of parliaments, of the newspapers, 
 and of the people ; nor is there any need of brag, 
 optimistic proclamations, and of oratorical 
 heroics. Great conquests can be accomplished 
 silently. 
 
 121
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 This form of government, though it may 
 appear as archaic as the despotism of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar or of the Grand Turk, does not exclude 
 the use of the most modern appUances and 
 scientific methods over which free peoples pride 
 themselves; railroads, telegraphs, telephones, 
 improved cannon and rifles, battleships and 
 cruisers of the latest pattern, a thorough knowl- 
 edge of history, of ethnography, and of all 
 forms of human speech, from those of Finland 
 to those of Kamtchatka. It does not exclude 
 the system of military organization in vigorous 
 operation by the powerful and enlightened 
 nations of France and Germany, nor yet the 
 art of securing from th(> people the maximum 
 of military power. 
 
 Russia has a regular army like France and 
 Germany, national militia like Switzerland, and 
 irregular troops like those of the Shah of Persia 
 and the Emperor of China. These irregulars 
 date back to the beginning of Russian expan- 
 sion. The Czars of Moscow had tlu-ir Cossacks 
 
 122
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 of the Dnieper, of the Don, of the Volga, and of 
 the Ural. In proportion as conquest succeeded 
 conquest, the soldier class of the subdued 
 peoples were amalgamated with the Russians 
 in the "Cossack armies" of the Terek, of the 
 Kuban, of the Caucasus, and of Turkestan. 
 There are to-day Cossacks of the Trans-Baikal, 
 of the Pamirs, and of the Amur. For hundreds 
 and thousands of kilometres, they constitute 
 the grand guard of the regular army, the 
 mobile curtain of light cavalry that will screen 
 its movements, "free lanoes," for whose too 
 audacious encroachment and too bold raids, it 
 will be possible to disavow all responsibility. 
 
 'Behind these, like another advance guard, 
 come the merchants, adventurers also, merchant 
 adventurers, as the English of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury said. Behind these, again, sally forth the 
 colonists in search of cheap land, and who, 
 following the course of the rivers and streams, 
 at times venturing into the jungles, found vil- 
 lages over which will soon rise the humble bell- 
 
 123
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 tower of a church. All these people, Cossacks, 
 officers, and soldiers of the regular army, mer- 
 chants, colonists, and even the tchinovniks, or 
 officials, possess to a degree not met with in 
 any other European nation, the gift of adapta- 
 tion to a new climate and environment, and the 
 gift of assimilating native races or of becoming 
 assimilated with them. The peasant of Euro- 
 pean Russia, very much mixed, especially in 
 the East, with Finnish or Turkish blood and 
 characteristics, does not differ essentially from 
 the Ostiak and the Vogul of Western Siberia. 
 These, in turn, show no marked difference from 
 the Turkish population of Eastern Siberia, 
 such as the Yakuts. From these to the Mongo- 
 lian races, such as the Tunguses, the Buriats, 
 and the Manchus, and from these to the Chinese 
 population, there is scarcely ;my noticeable 
 transition. There was a time, when from the 
 Dnieper to the Pacific, all obeyed the same 
 master, the Grand Khan, "the Son of Heaven," 
 whose heir to-day is the "White Czar." From 
 
 124
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 the Dnieper to the Pacific extends the same 
 plain, are found the same cUmate and the same 
 soil, barren steppes alternating with fertile 
 mould; the same manner of life, of dwelling, 
 and of dress; the same endurance of extreme 
 cold, excessive heat, privations, fatigue, long 
 journeys, and a half-nomadic existence; and 
 the same tendency to Oriental fatalism, which 
 the orthodox term Christian resignation. And 
 thus, as Elisee Reclus remarks, the Yakuts 
 easily become Russians and the Russians as 
 easily become Yakuts, and both Russians and 
 natives possess the same readiness in acquiring 
 the language of the foreigner. 
 
 'Does not the difference in religion constitute 
 a barrier between them? The Russian peasant 
 with his rudimentary faith, to which, neverthe- 
 less, he holds with all his heart, and even the 
 pope, or parish priest, with his vaguely uncer- 
 tain theology and his ignorance, are free from 
 all intolerance. Any form of the Christian 
 religion, whatever value it may have, although 
 
 125
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 it clashes with the still less highly developed 
 beliefs of the Mohaimnedan peoples, makes its 
 way among tribes that are pagan, Shamanist, 
 Fetichist, or vaguely Buddhist. Between the 
 Russians and the pagans there is established a 
 oneness of faith or superstition. There is no 
 question of complicated dogmas devised by the 
 subtle brains of Alexandria or of Byzantium. 
 The untutored Siberians do not fall into con- 
 troversies over the mystery of the Trinity, the 
 twofold natun; of the Redeemer, or transub- 
 stantiation. The idea of God is too lofty for 
 these coarse minds, but they all agree in placing 
 on the summit of their Pantheon Saint Nicho- 
 las, the Thaumaturgist, and above him, beneath 
 him, or equal with him, Christ and the Virgin. 
 Beneath these come saints, Christian or with a 
 physiognomy that may be pagan, Buddhistic, 
 and at times Mohammedan. And all Ihis multi- 
 form worshij) is in full harmony with the ])iiini- 
 tive cult of springs and of certain venerable 
 trees, with tjic belief in demons of the for(\sts 
 
 126
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 and river sprites, and with the custom of wear- 
 ing certain amulets that the orthodox priest, 
 the Shamanist sorcerer, or the Hadji returned 
 from Mecca, may furnish. What more is neces- 
 sary in order to be, in this Ufe, successful on 
 the farm, or in fishing, or in hunting, or in war, 
 and, in the next, to be certain of salvation? 
 The Tunguse, the Buriat, the Vogul, and the 
 Ostiak, who firmly believe in Saint Nicholas, 
 have already become, or are in the process of 
 becoming, Russian. Are not the Tchuvashi, 
 the Mordva, and the Meshtcheraks all children 
 of the same father, that is, subjects of the 
 same Czar? Though they may be Mohamme- 
 dans, do they not still believe in the virtue of 
 certain magical words uttered by the orthodox 
 priest, the efficacy of the holy waters in driving 
 away Cheitan (Satan) and evil Djinns, in the 
 protection that Saint Blaise, the old-time god, 
 Valoss, of the Russians, extends over their 
 flocks, and in the cures wrought in the name 
 of Saint Cosme or in that of Saint Damian, 
 
 127
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 those heavenly physicians, who cure their 
 adherents without requiring remuneration? 
 
 Those two scourges, journaHsm and theology, 
 being almost unknown in the Asiatic Empire 
 of the Czar, one can live there in a happy con- 
 fusion of things. Politics does not create any 
 differences among men, and religion scarcely 
 any. There is no time to reflect and subtilize 
 upon the more or less brown or yellow color of 
 the face, the more or less turncd-up shape of 
 the nose, the more or less slant of the eyes, or 
 the more or less prominence of the cheeks. In 
 no degree of the social scale is there known the 
 prejudice "of the skin," so pronounced among 
 the English and Americans, and noticeable, 
 but to much less extent, among the French, 
 Portuguese, and Spanish colonists. Russian 
 colonization is not destructive of aboriginal 
 races; it dues not exterminate tlicin, it al)sorbs 
 them. Marriages, legal or otherwise, are fre- 
 quent between the conquorers and the con- 
 quered. Already, in the days of Ivan the 
 
 128
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 Terrible, Tartar Khans became Russian princes. 
 To her subjects of brown or of saffron com- 
 plexion, of Buddhist or of Mohammedan reli- 
 gion, Russia has always shown more liberality 
 than France has to her Algerian subjects. In 
 Algeria it has become difficult for an Arab or 
 a Berber to rise above the grade of captain, but 
 majors, colonels, and even generals of Turkish 
 or Circassian race, and even of the Mohamme- 
 dan religion, are numerous in the Asiatic armies 
 of the "White Czar." 
 
 The Russians of Europe are fully able of 
 themselves to people their Asiatic colonies 
 without having to assimilate the natives, and 
 without the assistance of foreign immigration. 
 Russia is fortunate in that her colonies are only 
 a prolongation of her own territories. To 
 become a colonist, there is no ocean to cross, 
 no steamboat fare to pay. The poorest peas- 
 ant, a staff in his hand, an axe at his belt, his 
 boots slung from a cord over his shoulder, can 
 pass from one halting-place to another, until 
 
 129
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 he reaches the ends of the empire. Moreover, 
 the population of Russia, by its own birth rate, 
 increases, in spite of insufficient medical care at 
 childbirth, with a rapidity unknown to any 
 other nation of European blood, excepting, 
 perhaps, the Canadian French. In 1878-79, 
 the subjects of the Czar numbered ninety-six 
 millions, in 1899 they reached one hundred and 
 twenty-nine millions, an increase in twenty years 
 of thirty-three millions, a number almost equal 
 to the population of the kingdom of Italy, or 
 an annual increase of about one million six 
 hundred thousand souls, a number that about 
 equals the present population of North Carolina 
 or Alabama. With such a treasury of men to 
 draw from, neither military power nor colonial 
 strength will be lacking. In Siberia, before 
 1895, the increase of population by immigra- 
 tion alone was only about ninety-two thousand 
 per year. Since the suppression of penal trans- 
 portation, especially since the construction of 
 tlic Trans-Siberian railroad, immigralioii lias 
 
 i;U)
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 brought in two hundred thousand annually. 
 The population of Siberia must by this time 
 have reached the figure of seven millions. Of 
 this number at least six millions are Rus- 
 sians. This, however, is one person for each 
 square kilometre of territory, so that neither is 
 there any lack of land. 
 
 For a long time the Russian sovereign needed 
 two things to enable him to plunge boldly into 
 the depths of Asia. First, he lacked the assur- 
 ance that England or the German powers would 
 not be able to foment on his European frontiers 
 one of those coalitions like those that resulted 
 in the Crimean War or in the revision of the 
 Treaty of San Stefano; secondly, he lacked 
 "the sinews of war," or, as the English phrase- 
 ology is, "the Cavalry of Saint George." The 
 alliance with France, outlined at Kronstadt in 
 1891, proclaimed at Paris in 1896, and at St. 
 Petersburg in 1897, has given the Czar two 
 things that were wanting. It assures the safety 
 of the European frontiers against any effort of 
 
 131
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 the Triple Alliance. In the Far East, in 1895, 
 we have seen how, at the same time, France 
 and Germany took in hand the interests of 
 Russia against Japanese ambition and British 
 hostility. The Germany of Bismarck attempted 
 to ruin Russia's credit in the Berlin exchange 
 and in the European market. France threw 
 open her market and her credit to Russia, and 
 either in France, or thanks to her, the Czar, 
 within a few years, has been able to borrow 
 several milliards. This has enabled him to 
 strengthen his army, put a powerful navy 
 afloat, consent to large loans to China and 
 Persia, complete his European railroad system, 
 and push forward the work upon the Trans- 
 Caucasus, the Trans-Siberian, the Trans-Man- 
 churian, and the Trans-Chinese railroads. 
 
 The results of the darings raids through 
 Turkestan, in the direction of the Persian Gulf 
 and of Afghanistan, and towards the Amur and 
 the Japan Sea, are now consolidated by a 
 wholly modern outfit of war and travel. In 
 
 132
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 Turkestan, the ancient capitals of Tamerlane, 
 the fortresses conquered by the heroism of the 
 Perovskis, the TchernaVefs and of the Skobe- 
 lefs, all of which called for so much skill and 
 careful manipulation on the part of Russian 
 diplomacy, are to-day railroad stations. There 
 are dining-room stations at Merv, Bokhara, 
 Samarkand, Kokhand, Andijan, Tashkend, etc., 
 and the Russian station of Kushk is only one 
 hundred and twenty kilometres from Herat. 
 The Trans-Siberian railroad, with its numerous 
 stations, its branch lines to Khabarovsk, Port 
 Arthur, and Pekin, and the annexed systems 
 that penetrate the Chinese Empire, has consoli- 
 dated all that was accomplished by the venture- 
 some explorers of former times, from Irmak or 
 Khabarof to Lieutenant Nevelskoi of our day. 
 The principal line, six thousand two hundred 
 kilometres long, with its bridges of eight hun- 
 dred metres over the Obi and the Irtysh, of one 
 thousand metres over the Yenisei and the 
 Selenga, with its ferryboat, one hundred metres 
 
 133
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 long, that ferries the trains across the southern 
 bay of Lake Baikal, permits the transportation 
 of colonists, merchants, regiments, and brings 
 to bear upon the further side of Asia all the 
 power of the Czar who reigns at St. Petersburg. 
 In 1889, the merchants of Nizhni Novgorod, in 
 an address to the Emperor Alexander III., pre- 
 dicted in these terms the brilliant future of the 
 Trans-Siberian: "It will unite to Europe, 
 through the Russian Empire, four hundred 
 millions of Chinese, and forty-two millions of 
 Japanese. One will be able to go from Europe 
 to Shang-hai by Vladivostock in twenty days 
 instead of the thirty-five which the Canadian 
 route recjuires, or the forty-five of the Suez 
 route." The distance between Europe and tlie 
 Far East has been still furtlicr shortened by 
 the extension of tlie Russian railroad to l\irt 
 Arthur. In I lie commerce of the world, the 
 Trans-Siberian will work as important a revo- 
 lution as (lid tlic discovery of the C;i])(' of (lood 
 Hnpc in ihc (iflccnili century, or (he construc- 
 
 134
 
 RUSSIAN EXPANSION 
 
 tion of the Suez Canal in the nineteenth. The 
 pohcy of Russia is to secure the full attain- 
 ment of what she has been striving after 
 for centuries in her onward march through 
 the Siberian wilds, that is, access to seas free 
 from ice, where her fleets of war and commerce 
 may have unhindered course. Russia is striving 
 for this freedom of the sea four hundred 
 years later than Spain, Portugal, France, Eng- 
 land, and Holland. She has lost nothing in 
 having waited so long. Thus far, she has 
 passed through the Baltic, and the Mediter- 
 ranean periods, with a power for expansion 
 unknown to her predecessors. She is about to 
 inaugurate a new era in her history; the 
 oceanic, the world-wide era, is merely beginning 
 for the Slav. 
 
 135
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 A PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE: 
 
 A Psychological study. \ 
 
 J. Novicow, Odessa. 
 
 The psychology of a great nation is difficult 
 to determine. When we have before us an 
 organism composed of tens of millions of men, 
 we may assume in advance that it contains 
 the most varied and diverse elements. You 
 may say of it whatever you please; the most 
 opposite and contrary assertions may be equally 
 true in regard to it. One is, therefore, neces- 
 sarily reduced to certain broad generalizations, 
 which remain in a very large measure superficial. 
 Even approximate precision is impossible in 
 matters of this kind. Errors and subjective 
 irregularities are more likely to arise here than 
 anywhere else. Almost involuntarily, every 
 sociologist, in determining the psychology of 
 his nation, gives more or less the psychology 
 
 139
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 of his own individuality. In vain we may 
 employ every effort to arrive at the impartial 
 truth; we can never completely attain such a 
 result. On the other hand, when one under- 
 takes to define the psychology of a foreign 
 nation, he fajls into even greater inaccuracies. 
 When we do not belong to a nation, when 
 we have not breathed in its inherent atmos- 
 phere with our very first breath, we cannot 
 fed as does this nation; and this makes it 
 impossible to talk of it with any intelligence. 
 
 From still another point of view, it is difficult 
 to define the psychology of a nation, because 
 psychology is, in its very essence, vague and 
 indefinite. When we think of the American, 
 English, or Russian people, a certain picture, 
 it is true, rises before the mind; but the outlines 
 are so wavering and intangible that it is almost 
 impossibles to express this picture in words. 
 The fundamental difference between i)e()])le 
 is marked far mon; by their manner of feeling 
 than by their manner of thinking. Hut how 
 
 140
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 are we to define in words this manner of feeling 
 on the part of an individual, and, still more, 
 that of a nation composed of millions of indiv- 
 iduals? 
 
 But if the psychology of any people in general 
 is difficult to determine, that of the Russian 
 people in particular is very much more so. 
 In the first place, we may ask ourselves, ' ' What 
 is the Russian nation?" It is a union of Slav 
 populations inhabiting the northeastern part 
 of Europe, a part of the Caucasus, and Siberia. 
 But this branch of the Slav race is further 
 divided into three great branches; the Great 
 Russians, Little Russians, and White Russians. 
 Some ethnographers and linguists maintain 
 that the Little Russians should not be consid- 
 ered part of the Russian nation, but as an 
 independent Slav nation, just like the Czechs 
 and Poles. And here a new obstacle confronts 
 us. We shall overcome it, however, by limiting 
 ourselves in this essay to speaking of the Great 
 Russians. This will be the more legitimate^ 
 
 141
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 since they form much the most numerous 
 and important branch. The Great Russians 
 compose more than two thirds of the Russian 
 nation in general. There are about fifty 
 miUions of them, and they have also the advan- 
 tage in intellectual development. The Great 
 Russian dialect, the Muscovite dialect, is now 
 the literary language of all Russia, the language 
 of Pushkin, of Lermontof, and of Tolstoi. 
 
 Imagine an instrument for measuring the 
 intellect and morality of men. Imagine that, 
 with the aid of such an instrument, we had 
 measured the intellect and morality of all the 
 Americans, of all the English, and of all the 
 Russians. I am convinced that wc should 
 obtain very similar averages. No one can 
 dispute the fact, however, that at the different 
 epochs of history, some nations may be more 
 advanced than others. But the nations which 
 are most in advance at a certain period may 
 not be so at another. The Italians were much 
 ill advance of the English in the fifteenth 
 
 142
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 century, which would seem to show that the 
 psychology of a people is not immutable, and can 
 hardly be definitely determined once and for 
 all. Like a living existence, a people is contin- 
 ually changing; so that what we say of it 
 to-day may be no longer true of it to-morrow. 
 Hence a new difficulty arises in determining' 
 the psychology of a nation. 
 
 But the reader will doubtless inquire, ' ' Since 
 you recognize that so many obstacles lie before 
 you, why undertake this task?" I do so at 
 the solicitation of the Editor of this volume, 
 and the precise object of these preliminary 
 remarks is to secure the reader's indulgence 
 for the imperfection of my work. 
 
 If the opinions stated in the following pages 
 are not clear and well defined, if inaccuracies 
 and contradictions appear there, it is for the 
 reason that, in the nature of things, it is impos- 
 sible to trace with geometric precision the 
 outlines of a popular psychology. Life is a 
 continually changing metamorphosis. He who 
 
 143
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 speaks of living things must perforce limit him- 
 self to approximations more or less vague, and 
 with little resemblance to algebraic theorems. 
 
 I. Race and Temperament. 
 The Russian Empire contains more than 
 sixty-five independent racial groups. It is 
 a veritable Tower of Babel. Even with the 
 omission of Siberia and Central Asia, there 
 remain in Russia in Europe, and the Cau- 
 casus alone, forty-six different peoples. In the 
 northwest, the Fins; in the west, the Lithuan- 
 ians and Poles; in the southwest the Rouman- 
 ians; and in the east, on the banks of the Volga, 
 numerous groups of T"^ralo-A]tnic populations: 
 the Tcheremisa, Mordia, Votiaki, and PcMinians. 
 Ill the southeast, there are the Tartars in 
 Crimea, and Creeks on the Sea of Azof. Add 
 to this the sjjoradic grouj)S of (Icriiiaiis and 
 Jews. All these numerous elements hav(> in 
 a great measure commingled. Th(> history 
 of Russia is the- reverse, properly speaking 
 
 144
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 of that of the United States. While in America 
 there is an Aryan invasion proceeding from 
 east to west, in Russia there is an Aryan inva- 
 sion going from west to east. The centre from 
 which the Slav emigrations set forth seems 
 to have been the region of the Dnieper and 
 Galicia. The upper tributaries of the Dnieper 
 were settled first. The Slavs then reached 
 the Baltic and founded Novgorod the Great. 
 Later (from the eleventh to the thirteenth 
 centuries) they invaded the basin of the Volga, 
 and founded successively Moscow, Nijni-Nov- 
 gorod, vSaratof, and many other cities. This 
 movement is still going on. The American 
 "Far West" has a counterpart in the "Far 
 East" of Siberia. Nearly two hundred and 
 twenty thousand Russian colonists settle there 
 every year. But while the Aryans of America 
 have almost exterminated the autochthonous 
 population of the Redskins, the Russians emi- 
 grants have commingled with the ancient 
 autochthonous populations of eastern Russia. 
 
 145
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 The Russian people is thus, in its sum total, 
 a mixture of Slavs and Fins, 
 
 Given such conditions, it is very difficult to 
 determine the physical and physiological type 
 not only of the Russian people in general,' 
 but also of the Great Russians in particular. 
 Are the latter dark or light? To tell the truth, 
 they are both. According to the researches 
 of ethnographers, we see that the number of 
 Great Russians with dark hair varies, with 
 the different regions, from fifth-one to fifth- 
 seven in a hundred. These dark shades, 
 furthermore, cover the entire scale from raven 
 black to light brown. The same is true of the 
 eyes as of the hair. Every shade is to be met 
 with among the Russians, with a predominance, 
 however, of grey eyes. If we consider blue and 
 grey~eyes as belonging in the category of light, 
 and brown eyes as Ix'longing in the category 
 
 (') We have already seen that they are divided into 
 three great branches: the Great Russians (about fifty 
 millioriH), the Litth; liuHsians (about twenty millions), 
 and tiic White Ruasians (about five niilliona). 
 
 146
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 of dark colored ones, we must confess that, 
 although in a shght degree, hght shades rather 
 predominate among the Russians. 
 
 As to the conformation of the skull (to which 
 is now attributed an importance which is as 
 exaggerated as it is arbitrary), all types thereof 
 are to be found in Russia. We find there the 
 brachycephalic type, the mesaticephalic, and 
 the dolichocephalic. But the archaeological 
 researches of recent years, which have been very 
 accurate, are responsible for a singular discovery, 
 to the effect that in ancient times in Russia 
 the dolichocephalic type predominated, and 
 that in recent times it has been continually 
 decreasing. This remark completely subverts 
 certain modern theories, in accordance with 
 which the number of the dolichocephalic type 
 increases with the greater development of 
 intellect. It may be maintained, however, that 
 the Great Russians are more dolichocephalic 
 than the Slavs of the south,— the Bulgarians 
 and Servians. 
 
 147
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 Of what race, then are the Russians? It is 
 very difficult to say. In the first place, there 
 is no longer a single pure race in Europe; but 
 of them all, the Russian nation is certainly 
 composed of the greatest number of races. Into 
 the vast plain which serves as its country have 
 rushed a thousand different peoples. The 
 modern Russians are a most complex mixture, 
 whose constituent elements it is impossible 
 henceforth to distinguish. There is an analogy 
 in this respect, also, between the Russians and 
 the Americans, who are a product of the crossing 
 of all the races of Europe, Asia, Africa, and 
 the new continent. 
 
 Granted that the race of the Russians is so 
 difhcult to determine, it is even more difficult 
 to describ(> Ih'ii' (>xterior aspect and their tem- 
 perament. Every type imaginable is to l)e 
 met with in Russia. The choleric, the lymphatic 
 and the bilious. Apparently, however (this 
 is a personal opinion of the author's, for there 
 arc no statistics on this subject), the lymphatic 
 
 148
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 type predominates. In general, the Muscovites 
 are very tall, have full forms, soft thick beards, 
 and abundant hair. This would probably 
 represent the average type of masculine beauty 
 in the Russian race. The type of feminine 
 beauty consists, also, in a rather lofty stature, 
 and forms which are well rounded but neither 
 slender nor graceful. While I am writing 
 these lines, a type of the Russian woman arises 
 before me. It differs from the American, 
 English, and French woman, but a pencil is 
 needed to draw it and not a pen. 
 
 II. General Psychology. 
 
 Moreover, I am in haste to pass on to the 
 psychical factors. The race and its exterior 
 traits are of very slight importance in sociology, 
 and for this reason I do not think it worth while 
 to dwell long upon them. 
 
 But it will be easily understood that there 
 are quite as many, if not more, difficulties to 
 be met with on the psychological plane than on 
 
 149
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 the physiological. If it is not easy to determine 
 what colored eyes predominate in a people 
 (for which direct observation only is required), 
 still less so is it to determine the sort of char- 
 acter. On this subject we shall have to content 
 ourselves with general approximations. 
 
 Keeping within these limits, we may venture 
 to assert that one of the most prominent traits 
 of the Great Russian character is an inequality 
 of effort. It would seem as if the Russians 
 had modeled themselves on the climate of 
 their country, which offers the greatest extremes 
 of heat and cold.' It has been known for a 
 long time, that among the Russians, periods 
 of eager activity are succeeded by periods of 
 an almost insurmountable apathy. 
 
 Very often, in Russia, certain individuals 
 are the victims of an intermittent alcoholism. 
 They remain for months, sometimes, without 
 
 (') At Yakootsk, in Siberia, thirty-six dcgroos of boat 
 in summer follow sixty depropa of cold in winter, which 
 makea a range of ninety-six dcjjteca. 
 
 150
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 drinking a drop of liquor. Then comes the 
 period of alcohohsm, and for a long time they 
 are uninterruptedly tipsy from morning till 
 night. For many Russians, too, this is their 
 method of labor. They pass weeks doing 
 nothing; and, then, all at once, they are capable 
 of working thirty-six consecutive hours, and 
 they then get through an enormous amount 
 of work. Naturally, this remark applies rather 
 to the wealthy and cultured, for the laboring 
 classes of both city and country work regularly 
 a fixed number of hours throughout the year. 
 This inequality of effort is the trait among 
 the Russians which will strike the stranger 
 most forcibly. It seems to constitute a char- 
 acteristic, as it were, of the Russian mind. 
 It is in no sense a fatality inherent in the race, 
 as the exponents of certain pseudo-scientific 
 theories maintain. This inequality of effort 
 is the result of historical circumstances, and 
 when these circumstances shall have been 
 modified it will disappear. What I have said 
 
 151
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 as to the degree of morality may be repeated 
 of the amount of energy. This amount is evi- 
 dently present in equal force in every nation, 
 but according to the bent given by historical cir- 
 cumstances, one nation may possess more of it 
 at a given moment than another. Until the 
 sixteenth century, the English were known 
 for their indolence and apathy. The Flor- 
 entines who went to England in the fifteenth 
 century found the English positively inert. 
 The great activity of the American people in 
 our own time comes, in great measure, from 
 their realization of the magnitude of the task 
 which lies before them (an entire continent, 
 immense and amazingly fertile, to people and 
 cultivate) and the political facilities which 
 they enjoy. The Russians have ;i territory 
 more vast and fertile even than that of (he 
 Americans and quite as uncultivated. There 
 is, then, no lack of work for them. Un- 
 happily they have not yet had a chance to 
 have free play, from a pf)litical point of 
 
 152
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 view; hence their state of apathy and dis- 
 couragement. 
 
 But should there come a more fortunate 
 period in their history, it is quite probable 
 that there would be found no less persistency 
 of effort among the Russians than among 
 the Anglo-Saxons. Even now certain indi- 
 vidual proofs of this may be seen, for ine- 
 quality of effort is very far from being a universal 
 fact among cultivated Russians. 
 
 If the Russians often experience these periods 
 of apathy, we may at least exhibit in contrast 
 with them some examples of a force of energy, 
 calm and tenacious, which serves to over- 
 come all obstacles. Cases of this may be fre- 
 quently observed among the men, though 
 that is but natural. Per contra, they are much 
 more remarkable when found among the 
 women. For the Russian woman has given 
 some admirable examples of heroism. Strug- 
 gling at times against much greater obstacles 
 than her American sisters, she has succeeded 
 
 153
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 in obtaining an important place, notwith- 
 standing, in science, art, and literature. Gen- 
 erally speaking, the intellectual emancipation 
 of the Russian woman, at the present time, 
 seems to us in advance of that of the German, 
 French, Italian, or English woman. The 
 American woman alone, with her high mental 
 culture, seems to us able to bear comparison 
 with the Russian. 
 
 What is, in our day, the dominant trait of 
 the Russian woman? It is very difficult to 
 say. All traits meet in her. Unquestionably 
 that of a formal sentimentality no longer 
 predominates, as it did at the l)eginning of 
 the nineteenth century; but it is almost impos- 
 sible to determine just what type of woman 
 is acknowledged to prevail at the present 
 moment in Russia. 
 
 III. Sentiment. 
 
 From the point of view of senliiiu>iit, wc 
 may say that a large amount of good nature 
 
 154
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 is very characteristic of the Russian. Of all 
 the peoples of Europe, this is, perhaps, one 
 of the least cruel. 
 
 I know that such an opinion has ahnost 
 the air of a paradox. The Russian people 
 have an execrable reputation. The knout, 
 Siberia, the extreme severity of the govern- 
 ment, intolerance, Poland, the sufferings of 
 the Nihilists, the persecution of the unhappy 
 Jews, — all this has given the Russian nation 
 a reputation for universal cruelty. 
 
 In order, therefore, to have my opinion 
 respected, it will be necessary to support it 
 by facts. I shall allege, in the first place, 
 that you never observe among the Russians 
 any popular sport of a brutal character, — 
 such as cock fights, bull fights, or even box- 
 ing, or pugilism. Neither are customs like 
 "lynch law" to be met with, which, though 
 justified by the social exigencies of certain 
 times, is nevertheless a very cruel practice. 
 In this sunmiary course of procedure, the 
 
 155
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 penalty of death is very often inflicted 
 for offences which, in truth, hardly merit so 
 terrible a punishment. Another proof of the 
 gentle nature of the Russian pc^oplc is the 
 security which reigns, both on the high roads 
 and in the country districts. Within the 
 memory of man, there has not been a region 
 of Great Russia which has been permanently 
 infested with brigands. Night and day, one 
 may traverse the most lonely roads with a 
 sense of perfect security. Crimes are occa- 
 sionally perpetrated, but only in sporadic 
 and individual cases. For centuries, now, 
 there has not been seen in Russia a social 
 condition such as was presented recently by 
 Spain, the Kingdom of Naples, Sicily, Greece, 
 and such as Turkey still presents. The only 
 portion of the Russian Empire where high- 
 way robbery still (>xists, is in the southern part 
 of the Caucjusus, but there it is practiced 
 by tlic iii(iifi;<'ii()us p()j)ulations, and more often 
 by the Mussulmans. 
 
 156
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 Every one knows the feelings aroused in 
 the lower classes of the Russian population 
 by those who have been judicially convicted. 
 It is pity, with which hardly an atom of hate 
 or resentment is mingled. Finally, we must 
 observe that Russia was the first to suppress 
 the death penalty for offences against the 
 common law. 
 
 It may be stated, further, that, in many 
 cases, the Russian administration is rather 
 badly run, precisely because of the natural 
 good nature of the nation. The chiefs are 
 sometimes so complacent that they not only 
 cannot make up their minds to dismiss their 
 subordinates, but often do not even have 
 resolution enough to censure them. The 
 public service naturally suffers. It is the same 
 with pensions. The municipal and provincial 
 council boards are extremely lavish with them. 
 Very few people have within them the courage 
 to refuse, categorically, such help when de- 
 manded, even though this may not be abso- 
 
 157
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 lutely needed. Numerous abuses proceed from 
 this kindness of character. 
 
 Whence comes it, then, that the Russians 
 have so great a reputation for cruelty? 
 
 From several causes. In the first place, we 
 may observe in them the same trait in point 
 of sentiment as in point of mental activity. 
 The Russian is very unequal. If carried away, 
 under certain circumstances, until he is quite 
 beside himself, he may commit the greatest 
 excesses. The Russian is less master of him- 
 self than the Anglo-Saxon. But these very 
 acts of cruelty, which are very uncommon, 
 make the greater impression the rarer they 
 are. The public likes to generalize, and is 
 apt to consider as an habitual trait of char- 
 acter what is for the most part exceptional. 
 I do not mean tliat there are no cases of cruelty 
 among the Russian people, and that they are 
 better than any others. No; I only wish to 
 say that, as is very commonly believed, they 
 are no worse. 
 
 158
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 Aside from the inequality in his character, 
 there are several other causes which lead to 
 a belief in the cruelty of the Russian. In 
 the first place, facts of a political nature. 
 When it is a question of reasons of state, the 
 sentiment of pity seems to vanish. Severe 
 legislation is believed to be necessary, in order 
 to save the state, and thus all pity seems a 
 culpable weakness. If our ancestors, in the 
 Middle Ages and up to within comparatively 
 recent times, had such harsh penal legislation 
 it is not that individually they were any worse 
 than we are; it was only because they believed 
 such legislation indispensable. Russia, having 
 developed more slowly than other nations 
 of the West, preserved longer certain archaic 
 and cruel institutions, like slavery and cor- 
 poral punishment. All the European nations 
 have had, at some time, penal laws as barbar- 
 ous as those of Russia; but they have sooner 
 given them up. The sight of the Russian 
 inflicting very severe punishments, already 
 
 159
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 forgotten in the West, is the source of the 
 inference that they were more cruel than the 
 Occidentals. This was not the case; they 
 were only less advanced in point of ideas. 
 They still believed these barbarous punish- 
 ments to be necessary, after the other nations 
 no longer shared in their error. 
 
 And, then, the Russian government has an 
 execrable reputation; since nearly all the 
 civilized countries have become constitutional, 
 and Russia has not, the line has been drawn, 
 as it were, between the Russian government 
 and the others. The former is in nowise the 
 most cruel, but it is believed to bo so. And, 
 then, the Russian government commits one 
 great fault: it judges j)()Htical offences with 
 closed doors. Thvrc may thus naturally be 
 put to their account a whole series of cruelties 
 which th(>y have never committed. I niii 
 convinced tiiat the number of individuals 
 sent to Siberia for j)olitical criines, during llu> 
 whole course of (he ninotrrnth century, does 
 
 ICO
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 not exceed, perhaps, three or four thousand 
 persons.^ But the figures current in pubUc 
 opinion in the West are infinitely larger. Of 
 course these figures are hypothetical. People 
 speak with the greatest fluency of fifty or 
 sixty thousand persons a year. Human imag- 
 ination has no limits! 
 
 The political prisons of Russia have every- 
 where an execrable reputation. It is true 
 that here and there revolting cruelties may 
 be found. Political convicts are deprived, 
 unhappily, of all legal protection. Their fate 
 depends upon the personal character of the 
 individual who is in charge of their prison. 
 And among these individuals are to be found 
 some who are monsters. But, generally speak- 
 ing, I believe that political prisoners experience 
 no worse treatment in Russia than in other 
 countries. 
 
 (>) This is a purely personal opinion, for precisely 
 in consequence of the very mystery with which the 
 Russian government surrounds itself, there is no accu- 
 rate information to be had on this subject. 
 
 161
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 If we examine closely certain special cases, 
 we may convince ourselves that the Russian 
 government is no more cruel than any of the 
 others. 
 
 The reputation for severity of the Emperor 
 Nicholas I. is well known. It was so terrible 
 that a certain English author was amazed 
 to learn that he was an excellent father of a 
 family and was very fond of his children. 
 It seemed to this author as if Nicholas I. were 
 a vampire, thirsting for blood. Let us see 
 the facts. The Emperor Alexander I. died, 
 in 1825, without issue. His younger brother, 
 Constantine, having renounced the throne, 
 it reverted to the third brother, Nicholas. 
 But Constantino's renunciation was not gen- 
 erally known. On the death of Alexander, 
 the oath of allegiance to Constantine was 
 taken by many oflicial bodies in St. Peters- 
 burg. A few superior officers of the guard 
 availed themselves of this circumstance to 
 incite the troops against Nicholas, and to 
 
 1 02
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 make the attempt to suppress autocratic 
 power in Russia. This is what is called the 
 Revolution of December. After Nicholas 
 had subdued them, he caused the officers 
 who had revolted against him to be tried. 
 Five only were condemned to death and exe- 
 cuted. Thus a revolt of the army against 
 their legitimate sovereign (for that was how 
 Nicholas I. regarded it) caused the blood of 
 but five persons to be shed, and this in bar- 
 barous Russia, and by one of her most cruel 
 monarchs. 
 
 Let us see what was passing in the countries 
 of the West at this same period. I shall not 
 speak of France and the Revolution. Such 
 a comparison would be impossible. There, 
 under a mere suspicion, people were sent to 
 the guillotine. The great poet Andre Chenier 
 was beheaded for sympathizing with the 
 Royalists, and also because he had written 
 some verses against the members of the Na- 
 tional Convention ! But, long after the "Terror," 
 
 163
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 the French government had become no more 
 beneficent. In 1824, four unhappy sergeants 
 were executed in France only because they 
 were members of a secret society. Is it neces- 
 sary to recall the summary military execution 
 by the Austrians in 1848? How many victims 
 then perished! And no vulgar conspirators 
 either, but noble warriors who had fought 
 openly and bared their breasts to the enemy. 
 But of all the European nations, Spain assuredly 
 holds the palm for cruelty. In 1824, seven 
 Free Masons were there executed, simply for 
 having held a meeting! In 1831, a young man 
 was hung for having cried " Hurrah for Liberty ! " 
 A woman was hung in Granada for having 
 embroidered a flag with the inscrii)tion, "Law, 
 Liberty, Equality." Such examples might be 
 multiplied. But these which I have just citetl 
 are sufficient, it seems to me, to show that th(^ 
 Russian government, is far, indeed, from being 
 as cruel ;us those of Western Europe. Simply 
 because it is autocratic, while the otlicrs are 
 
 164
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 constitutional, it enjoys a reputation which 
 it does not always merit. 
 
 What I have just said is to prove what I 
 have already advanced on the subject of the 
 good nature of the Russian people. But, in 
 consequence of the unevenness of character 
 which is one of their dominant traits, this 
 habitual good nature may be transformed 
 at times into very great brutality, as I shall 
 have occasion to point out when I come to 
 speak of politics. 
 
 Next to their good nature, one of the most 
 universal traits of the Russian people is a large 
 share of melancholy and sadness. The life of 
 the Russian is far from being a very happy 
 one. The country itself is not cheerful. Dur- 
 ing six months of the year, it is shrouded in 
 snow, and, in Summer also, the coloring is 
 rather dull. 
 
 The great pine forests which occupy all the 
 northern part have a melancholy aspect. But 
 even the caducous species which prevail in 
 
 165
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 Russia (the birch, for example,) have not very 
 brilliant tints. Elsewhere the surface of the 
 ground is gently undulating. The country is 
 completely lacking in relief and character. The 
 eye glides, as it were, over infinite spaces which 
 lose themselves on the horizon, and seeing no 
 landmark, one is overcome as with a vague 
 feeling of unrest. 
 
 History has been even more severe upon the 
 Russian people than nature, Russia has been, 
 during long centuries, exposed to the inroads 
 and predatory incursions of the nomadic tribes 
 of Asia. The last invasion of the Tartars of 
 Crimea into Russia in Europe took place in the 
 second half of the eighteenth century. Up to 
 comparatively recent times, the Russian people 
 have lived under an entire sense of insecurity 
 and constant M|)prehenRion. To the invasions 
 of the nomads is added another terrible enemy 
 of the Russian,— fire. Russia has almost no 
 stone, l)ui possesses on the onntrnry immense 
 forests. Naturally, most of the (hvellings there 
 
 1G6
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 have been built of wood. With wood, con- 
 flagrations are inevitable, and this plague 
 destroys fifty million dollars' worth of property 
 every year. Naturally, the country villages 
 suffer most, and as there personal property is 
 rarely insured, it will be seen that it is the poor- 
 est class of the population which is the most 
 cruelly affected. 
 
 The fact that the Russian people have this 
 constant sensation of international insecurity 
 has been the means of driving it to granting so 
 large a measure of authority to the central 
 government. As the officials have not been 
 slow to abuse this power, the Russian people 
 have been obliged to submit to innumerable 
 vexations. Add to this, serfdom, which was 
 introduced in 1596, and which has been the 
 cause of the most horrible injustice and abuse. 
 In consequence of these and many other cir- 
 cumstances, which it would be impossible for 
 me to set forth here, the Russian people has 
 in truth been one of the most unfortunate upon 
 
 167
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 the face of the earth. History has stamped it 
 with a large share of melancholy, combined 
 with a profound resignation, and with a fatalism 
 which is manifested in a thousand different 
 ways. The Russian, at tunes, allows his life 
 to glide along just at it happens, without even 
 making an effort to react against his sad 
 destiny. He seems to be constantly asking 
 himself, "What is the use?"— to be constantly 
 consoling himself with the reflection that 
 "such is the inevitable order of things." On 
 the other hand, when lie mak(>s up his mind 
 to act, his fatalism causes him to have great 
 failh in his lucky star. The "go ahead" of th(> 
 Americans has its counterpart in the Russian 
 
 "avos." 
 
 It is said that fatalism conduces to ac(iuies- 
 
 (') "Avos" is ail advcrl) wliicli exists in no oilier 
 InnKimpe. It corn-spoiuls to tho French expression "i\ 
 la gr/ire do Dien." More literally it means "jierliaps"! 
 The "(^uien siihe" of tlie Sj)anish is an analogous 
 expression. "Perhaps it will succeed; Ictus risk it!" 
 ia the complete meaning of the word "avos." 
 
 168
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 cence. This is not always true, for that it 
 sometimes provokes to action, we must admit. 
 Together with evidences of an extreme conser- 
 vatism, the Russian people give also at times 
 proofs of an endless spirit of adventure, so to 
 speak. The occupation of Siberia is one of the 
 best examples of this. Single individuals have, 
 during more than three centuries, been in the 
 habit of venturing into this region, and have 
 been stopped only on reaching the polar ice and 
 the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The occupa- 
 tion of the Russian Far East has been much 
 more difficult than that of the American Far 
 West, if only for the reason that the greater 
 part of it was undertaken in the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries, before the advent of 
 steam and telegraphy. 
 
 It is true, then, that melancholy and fatalism 
 are characteristic traits of the Russian people, 
 who certainly cannot be ranged among the 
 cheerful nations of the earth. The Russian 
 has also, however, times of mad exuberance, 
 
 169
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 when he abandons himself entirely to pleasure. 
 At such times the inequality of his character 
 is apparent in its greatest extent. 
 
 There may be observed among the Russian 
 people a large element of generosity. The 
 Russians are fond of saying that the national 
 mind is singularly free from all niggardly ele- 
 ments. Exceptions are doubtless in evidence 
 here and there; some are to be found who are 
 very economical, and there are even misers, 
 but that is not the dominant type of the 
 nation. Tn the immense majority of the cases, 
 the Russian is hospitable, and thinks nothing 
 of the expense when it is a question of his own 
 amusement, or that of others. A great many 
 Russians, too, live beyond their means, and 
 are in constant |)ecuniary embarrassments. 
 And generosity in money affairs is duplicated 
 by a universal generosity in {personal relations. 
 The Russian is generally very tolerant in social 
 intercourse. He is lenient in judging the con- 
 duct of others, and easily overlooks violations 
 
 170
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 of morality committed by his associates. Aus- 
 terity has but a small place iu his conception 
 of things. Many foreigners, the English above 
 all, are amazed at the tolerance which reigns in 
 Russia with regard to social affairs. Society 
 exercises but a feeble restraint upon the indi- 
 vidual, and permits him to live as seems best 
 to himself. Whether a person goes to church 
 every Sunday or not, is something about which 
 people trouble themselves very little in Russia. 
 One might say that to compensate for their 
 lack of political liberty the Russians allow 
 themselves a very large share of social liberty. 
 Thanks to the good nature and tolerance of 
 the nation, social intercourse is marked by a 
 spirit of great cordiality among the Russians. 
 Among their equals, they call each other by 
 their Christian names, accompanied by that of 
 the father, with a termination which shows the 
 affiliation, as, for example, Alexander Nicolae- 
 vitch (Alexander, son of Nicholas). This cus- 
 tom lends great simplicity to the intercourse 
 
 171
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 between individuals, for it is almost invariably 
 used even between people of different hierarch- 
 ical rank. Thus, in society, for instance, 
 between officers and generals, when off duty. 
 The appellations which are used in dealing with 
 the coiTunon people are also very caressing: 
 "batiouchka" (httle father), "goloubtchik" 
 (little pigeon), etc., etc. 
 
 In general, a certain democratic equality 
 pervades the intercourse between classes even 
 of a very different social status. There are, 
 however, unfortunate exceptions to this. Many 
 Russians belonging to the former generation 
 have not yet given up the custom of addressing 
 the common people with "thee" and "thou," 
 though this remnant of former lack of courtesy 
 shows, happily, an increasing tendency to dis- 
 appear. 
 
 Having discussed their good qualities, I must 
 now indicate some of the defects which are very 
 frequent among the Russians. They are usually 
 very careless, both in their dress, and more par- 
 
 172
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 ticularly in their business affairs. They have 
 little of the systematic temperament. They 
 are also very prolix, and have no more idea how 
 to introduce order into a statement of their 
 ideas than into the management of their house- 
 holds. The Russians also have rather an 
 indifferent idea of punctuality, and do not yet 
 appreciate the value of time, for themselves, 
 nor, unhappily, for others. Neither is their 
 good faith very extraordinary, and in economic 
 relations it is often necessary to take many 
 legal precautions when dealing with them. 
 "Time is money," and "Honesty is the best 
 policy" are proverbs which have not as yet 
 received a very general application in Russia. 
 It must not be supposed, however, that the 
 level of moralit)'' in business affairs is at all like 
 that to be found in Spain. Certainly not ! One 
 may even point out some sufficiently conspicu- 
 ous features of honesty. Thus, private indi- 
 viduals, in making payments, often give rolls 
 of gold wrapped in paper. These are usually 
 
 173
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 taken without being opened, and it is very 
 
 rare that there is any cheating. This is no 
 
 longer true, however, of cheques. These are 
 
 carefully verified by the banks, before being 
 
 paid. 
 
 IV. Intellect. 
 
 We pass now to the domain of thought, 
 which is the proper sphere of a national psy- 
 chology. I shall dwell somewhat longer upon 
 this; I shall speak of both philosophy and 
 religion, but only briefly, of course, as com- 
 ports with the limits of this article. 
 
 Beginning with philosophy, I shall observe, 
 in the first place, that Russia has produced no 
 great original i)hilosoi)hical system, like that of 
 Descartes, of Leibnitz, of Spinoza, or Hegel. 
 Doubtless the absence of the liberty of the 
 press has in a certain measure contributed to 
 this result. A Russian book, in which it was 
 said that Jesus was merely the son of Joseph, 
 a carpenter at Nazareth, would not be suffered 
 to pass by the censor. It will be understood 
 
 174
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 that under such conditions as these, it would 
 be somewhat difficult to produce a complete 
 system of philosophy, to state one's ideas with- 
 out reserve, and with the purpose of saying 
 only what one believed to be true. The fact, 
 however, should be taken into consideration 
 that Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, and Voltaire 
 wrote at a time when censorship was hardly 
 more tolerant than it is in Russia to-day. In 
 reality, researches which are purely abstract 
 into the domain of psychology or metaphysics, 
 receive a sufficiently wide toleration in the 
 empire of the Czars. Besides, if a Russian 
 author were unable to have his philosophical 
 works printed in his own country, there would 
 have been nothing to prevent his having it 
 done in a foreign one. 
 
 The absence of great philosophical systems 
 may be easily explained, moreover, in other 
 ways. Russian thought began to mature in 
 the second half of the nineteenth century. But 
 at that time the construction of great philo- 
 
 175
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 sophical systems had been, so to speak, given up. 
 The last great system of Europe, — that of evo- 
 lution,— formulated by Herbert Spencer, is 
 rather a systemization of the sciences, in accord- 
 ance with a general plan, than a philosophical 
 construction in the true acceptation of the 
 term. 
 
 In any case, whether owing to the influence 
 of obstacles of a political nature, or that the 
 historical era was not propitious, it is still true 
 that Russia has produced no national philo- 
 sophical synthesis. There is, as yet, no system 
 which may be called the purely Russian philoso- 
 phy. It is sufficiently difficult even to discover 
 which of the great systems of Western Europe 
 is really most highly esteemed in Russia, and 
 possesses the greatest number of atlhoronts. 
 Heine said that the real philosophy of Germany 
 was Pantheism. We should be quite at a loss 
 to fommlate any such proposition in regaid to 
 Russia. Without contrasting doctrines as op- 
 posed to each other, such as Deism and Panthe- 
 
 176
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 ism, one would find it very difficult to say 
 whether the Russian mind is more mystical 
 or positivist. A great number of observers, 
 especially foreigners, would incline without 
 hesitation to the theory of mysticism. The 
 Russian mind seems to them to have something 
 about it, the outlines of which are indefinite 
 and not to be distinguished from the mystical. 
 This is the case, above all, in politics, as I 
 shall have occasion to show later. To say, 
 however, that mysticism is the most pro- 
 nounced, or even the wholly predominant trait 
 of the Russian mind, would not be absolutely 
 true. There is in it, also, very strong current 
 not only of realism, but even of positivism. A 
 large number of Russians regard metaphysical 
 and mystical abstractions with a contempt as 
 profound as it is unfeigned. When statistics 
 are taken of the blonds and brunettes among 
 the Russians, it is seen that fifty-one in a hun- 
 dred have dark hair, and forty-nine in a him- 
 dred have light hair. If statistics of the Rus- 
 
 177
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 sian mind could be taken, it would perhaps be 
 found, also, that out of one hundred individu- 
 als forty-nine were mystics, and fifty-one posi- 
 tivists. But, of course, such a table of statis- 
 tics is out of the question. We must turn, 
 then, to the publications and teachings of phi- 
 losophy. 
 
 Of what has been written we must, of course, 
 notice the different periods. Toward 1840, 
 Russia was in great part Hegelian. Later, 
 toward 1860, there was a violent outbreak of 
 Materialism. Biichner and Moleschott enjoyed 
 there an enormous prestige. A constellation 
 of Russian publicists, with Pisemski at the 
 head, threw themselves with ardor into the 
 Materialistic movement, putting the greatest 
 amount of fervor into undermining the ancient 
 idols. It was, to a certain extent, from this 
 intellectual tendency that Nihilism sprang. 
 When, after the assassination of Alexander 11., 
 Nihilism again subsided, it seemed as if Russian 
 thought turn(;d away from great speculations. 
 
 178
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 For more than twenty years Russia has seemed 
 to live without a philosophy. Herbert Spen- 
 cer's theory of evolution has gained some adher- 
 ents in Russia, as well as some of the other 
 systems, but without penetrating as deeply into 
 their minds as the Materialism of Biichner and 
 Moleschott. 
 
 No remarkable original work, consecrated to 
 philosophy, has appeared in recent years, in 
 Russia. Tolstoi, after having written very 
 remarkable novels, has published different 
 articles on religion, in which he has been led 
 to consider certain philosophical questions; 
 but he has done so only in passing, without 
 devoting any great amount of attention to them. 
 
 What is there in store for the future? After 
 the lull and languor which have fallen upon 
 Russian thought, at the present time, what may 
 be expected to happen? Let me venture an 
 hypothesis which I admit in advance to be a 
 purely personal intuition. It seems to me that 
 Monism will be the future philosophy of Russia, 
 
 179
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 This doctrine appears to me to be the one 
 which will be most probably accepted by all 
 other countries, and, I think, it will end by 
 conquering Russia also. 
 
 If, after the philosophy, I am asked what is 
 the religion of the Russians, I shall be even 
 more at a loss for a reply. 
 
 It may be said, in the first place, that there 
 are almost as many religions in Russia as there 
 are ethnical groups. In the Baltic provinces 
 and in Finland, Protestantism prevails. Poland 
 is Catholic. In the ancient principality of 
 Lithuania, (the western Russia of the present) 
 the nobility and the upper middle class are 
 Catholics, the peasants in the country districts 
 orthodox.' In the south there are the Mussul- 
 mans in Crimea, in the east Mussulmans again, 
 on the banks of the Volga. Add to this four 
 
 (') You know that this is the name by which that 
 branch of the Christian Church, which in the fifth and 
 sixth centuries separated itself from Rome, is called; 
 the (Ireek Church of the East, denominated schismatic 
 by the Catholics. 
 
 180
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 or five million Israelites, scattered throughout 
 the western provinces of the empire, and Protes- 
 tants again on the banks of the Volga, recruits 
 from the German colonies. 
 
 Officially all great Russians are orthodox, 
 Russia is still unhappily a confessional state 
 in every sense of the word, and suffers the 
 unfortunate consequences thereof. The laws 
 are made to uphold orthodoxy. Above all, 
 the Sovereign and his family must be orthodox. 
 The state protects this form of religion by a set 
 of laws, which practically abolish liberty of 
 conscience in the Empire of the Czars. Reply- 
 ing to a petition which had been addressed to 
 him in favor of toleration by an English society, 
 Mr. Pobedonostzef, the procurator of the Holy 
 Synod,^ replied that religious toleration was the 
 
 (') The Russian Church is administered by a superior 
 council of three archbishops nominated by the Emperor. 
 The Emperor has, besides, a delegate in this council, 
 who is the procurator of the Synod. In reality all the 
 power in administrative affairs belongs to the procura- 
 tor. It is said that the Emperor is pope in, Russia. 
 If it is meant by that that the Emperor interferes in 
 
 181
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 fundamental rule of the Russian Empire. In 
 making this reply, he was evidently playing 
 upon words. It is true that Catholics, Mus- 
 sulmans, and Israeli t-es are authorized to prac- 
 tice their forms of worship in Russia. But 
 any person who tries to convert a member of 
 the Orthodox Church from his faith, even in the 
 interest of another Christian profession, is 
 liable to exile in Siberia. If the conversion 
 be in the interest of a non-Christian religion, 
 it is forced labor for eight or ten years. Tol- 
 eration must be interpreted in a very narrow 
 sense to be understood in the merely paasive 
 way in which M. Poh6donostzef understands it. 
 Religious liberty consists in recognizing the 
 
 dogmatic questiona, nothing is more untrue. Never 
 hii.s the Emperor of Hiissia shown any intontion of 
 modifying one iota of tli(! canons of the (Mnirch or of 
 tlie ritual. lUit, as regards the administration of the 
 Church, this is indisputahiy in Mic iiands of the Km- 
 peror. The nomination of the l)ishops cannot ])(' miich' 
 without liis consent. Owing to tliis power he is aide 
 to remove any ecclesiastical dignitary wlio sliowH the 
 slightest inclination toward independence. 
 
 182
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 sacred and inviolable right of the individual to 
 preach what seems to him to be the truth. 
 
 Russia is, at the present moment, then, an 
 orthodox confessional state, just as England was 
 formerly an Anglican confessional state. 
 
 Let us see, now, what position is held in Russia 
 by this orthodoxy, which the government takes 
 under such excessive protection. 
 
 I do not think it will be paradoxical to affirm 
 that orthodoxy is the religion of a very small 
 number of the Great Russians. This is what 
 I mean. Greek Christianity has been preached 
 in Russia since the tenth century. And not- 
 withstanding the long period which has since 
 elapsed, it may be boldly asserted that it has 
 not yet penetrated into the conscience of the 
 whole Russian people; that is, to no greater 
 degree than has Catholicism into the conscience 
 of some of the Western nations, like the Italians, 
 for example. Out of one thousand Russians, 
 eight or nine hundred (counting the women also) 
 would not know how to recite, even mechani- 
 
 183
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 cally, the Nicene creed. If the individuals 
 here referred to were asked in what they 
 beheved, their reply would be but little sugges- 
 tive of Christianity. Of the one hundred 
 Russians out of the one thousand who might 
 know the Nicene creed, there would be, perhaps, 
 barely ten who would understand its literal 
 meaning, and one, perhaps, who would under- 
 stand its doctrinal meaning. But, three quar- 
 ters of the time, those who thus understand it 
 entirely believe no longer therein. 
 
 In reality, Christianity is merely a veneer in 
 Russia. It has not as yet penetrated to the 
 consciences of the lower classes, and it is already 
 given up by the upper classes of the nation. 
 Conscientious Christianity is the portion of a 
 very small minority belonging to the middle 
 class and the inferior nobility. 
 
 But we know how little important is dogma 
 in religion. WTiat man ardently seeks in a 
 faith is, first, a protector and then that special 
 and exalted emotion called religioas sentiment. 
 
 184
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 The more unhappy a people is, the less they con 
 obtam justice here below, the more do they 
 appeal to Heaven for it. We have said before 
 that the Russian people was but poorly pro- 
 vided in the matter of happiness. They live 
 in a severe climate, which permits of little 
 indolence and little of the dolce far niente. 
 On the other hand, much of Russia is but 
 moderately fertile. The Russian people is no 
 better off with regard to politics. The nation 
 has pr.actically no resource from the arbitrari- 
 ness and exactions of officials, who take both 
 their time and their money. It is natural that 
 this people should feel more than any other the 
 need of having recourse to divine protection. 
 They address themselves to God, to Jesus 
 Christ, to the Virgin, and to the Saints. Hence 
 the great amount of devotion to be observed 
 in Russia, the pilgrimages, the worship of 
 miraculous images, the crowds of people who 
 flock to the churches. 
 On the other hand, adoration is the act 
 
 185
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 which satisfies the necessity for rchgious exal- 
 tation inherent in the human soul. The Rus- 
 sians give themselves up more ardently to 
 exterior forms of worship than do the French, 
 the English, or the Americans. This comes, 
 it seems to me, from the fact that its civiliza- 
 tion being less advanced, the only means of 
 satisfying its emotional needs which it possesses, 
 is religious worship. But these forms of wor- 
 ship have upon them a purely hypnotic effect. 
 The Russian people understand almost nothing 
 of what the priest is saying during Mass. They 
 probably do not know even that the orthodox 
 Mass is a commemoration, symbolical of the 
 sacrifice made by the Son of God to redeem 
 mankind. The Russian priests make every 
 effort to give the parts of the Mass which are 
 read in a totally incomprehensible manner. 
 They are perfectly righf in (his, for if the words 
 of the service were clearly understood they 
 would appeal directly to the intelligence, and 
 would not produce their intended effect, namely, 
 
 186
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 a purely sentimental suggestion. The ortho- 
 dox Mass is singularly ritualistic. It is no liv- 
 ing condition, but is congealed within forms 
 which have endured for centuries. The East- 
 ern Church sustains the principle that what is 
 true cannot change. Thus she modifies in no 
 particular, either her form of worship or her 
 dogmas. Preaching is disappearing more and 
 more in the Russian Church. Sermons are 
 given only on rare occasions. There are two 
 reasons for this. First, because preaching has 
 very little object, when it is asserted beforehand 
 that there is not an iota of anything to change 
 in the traditions of the past. Jesus, on the con- 
 trary, it is true, modified or obliterated that 
 which had been "said to them of old time," 
 by his own "I say unto you," and it was just 
 to maintain this new doctrine, which had not 
 been said to them of old time, that Jesus 
 preached his sermons. If it had not been for 
 that we would have had no reason for speaking. 
 The second circumstance which lias caused 
 
 187
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 preaching to be given up by the Russian church 
 is the distrust of the government. The priest 
 who wishes to dehver a sermon must first write 
 it, and then submit it to the approval of his 
 bishop. Then only may he read it in church. 
 But he is forbidden to say anything more than 
 what he has put down in his notes; he may 
 not improvise, or let himself go, under the 
 inspiration of the moment, and speak freely. 
 One may imagine that, under such circum- 
 stances, very few priests in Russia care to sub- 
 mit to the drudgery of delivering sermons, 
 and when they do decide to do so, the faithful 
 listen to them with the most profound weari- 
 ness. First, because they are generally deliv- 
 ered in a cold, monotonous tone, and because, 
 too, nine- tenths of the time they are utterly 
 meaningless. The absence of liberty has killed 
 the eloquence of the pulpit in Russia. 
 
 We may make still another observation which 
 will show how little Christianity has entered 
 into the Russian soul. For the nine centuries 
 
 188
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 during which they have been Christians, the 
 Russians have not introduced one atom of hfe 
 into orthodoxy. Look at France and Catholi- 
 cism. During the Middle Ages, and in modern 
 times, France has repeatedly been a leader of 
 Catholic thought. The University of Paris has, 
 at different times, possessed the most remark- 
 able theologians of Western Christianity. 
 There has been nothing like this in Russia. 
 There, they have accepted the Byzantine ritual 
 without change. The Russians have confined 
 their pride to interpreting the Greek texts 
 with the most complete and servile literalness. 
 The Russian Church has not, in its nine cen- 
 turies of existence, given to the world either a 
 great theologian, or a great doctor of the faith, 
 or a saint who is at all remarkable or out of the 
 ordinary, or a celebrated missionary, or even 
 a great preacher. The only new element which 
 the genius of the Russian people has introduced 
 into the mummified body of the Orthodox 
 Church is music. There, they have been crea- 
 
 189
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 tive, and wonderfully creative. The celebrated 
 musician, Berlioz after hearing Mass sung by 
 the choir of the cathedral in St. Petersburg, 
 cried out, "I do not know how they sing in 
 Paradise, but it seems to me that it cannot be 
 very much better than this." The music of 
 the Russian Church, which developed especially 
 at the close of the eighteenth and beginning 
 of the nineteenth century, forms an entirely 
 original school; it derives inspiration from no 
 other, and its grandeur is at times as wonderful 
 as its originality. The Russian Church allows 
 no instrument to be used in its service; not 
 even the most divine instrument of man's inven- 
 tion, — the organ. The entire Mass is thus sung 
 by choirs composed entirely of men, in which 
 little boys take the soprano and contralto 
 parts. 
 
 Is the Russian people, then, essentially reli- 
 gious or free lliinkiiig? Koreigners would all 
 reply with one voice, "It is religious; it is even 
 the most religious of the nations of Kuroix\" 
 
 190
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 Certainly, to judge by appearances (the only 
 thing by which a stranger can judge, since he 
 must look on the outside only), the Russian 
 people are very religious, for it is prodigal of 
 its proof of devotion. But there are many 
 signs, too, which indicate their complete indif- 
 ference in matters of religion. You must 
 know, first, that in Russia the Church alone 
 holds the records of the civil State, and that 
 she alone can dispense certain sacraments 
 which are of the greatest civil and political 
 importance. There is no marriage in Russia 
 other than the religious one. Consequently, 
 there is no other way of contracting a legal 
 marriage than by going to church. Baptism 
 is also of enormous importance. It alone can 
 establish the affiliation which transmits heredi- 
 tary rights, civil as well as political. In Russia 
 the citizens are divided into several different 
 social classes (peasants, artisans, merchants, 
 nobles, etc.), whose privileges are far from 
 being equal. There are, besides, the "non- 
 191
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 Christians"^ who are there deprived of a great 
 number of rights. 
 
 Since the certificate of baptism constitutes 
 the sole act of the civil state, its importance 
 may be readily understood. A Russian be- 
 longing to a family which is officially orthodox 
 may be in vain the most liberal thinker in 
 the world; it would be impossible for him to 
 neglect having his child christened, for without 
 that, it would not be considered legitimate. 
 
 The Russian clergy are not paid by the 
 State. The expense would be beyond its 
 means. There are nearly three hundred and 
 twenty-five thousand parishes in Russia. Now, if 
 each had a single priest, and he were given 
 but five hundred dollars a year, it would neces- 
 sitate under this head alone an annual expen- 
 diture of one hundred and sixty-two million 
 dollars, which would be about a third of the 
 
 (') This name denotes, above all, the tinfortnnate 
 Israelites, who, in these recent years of reaction luive 
 been reduced to mcdiaival being considered almost 
 Pariahs. 
 
 192
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 ordinary Russian budget. For their support 
 the priests in the country have had assigned 
 to them two sources of revenue : a plot of ground, 
 which they may cultivate on their own account, 
 and sometimes with their own hands, and 
 the traffic in sacraments. The priest seeks, 
 naturally, the greatest amount of profit pos- 
 sible. He sometimes exacts for christenings, 
 and particularly for marriages, fees which 
 the peasants are not always able to pay. 
 Bargaining begins. There are cases where 
 young people are not able to be married for 
 weeks and months, because they are unable 
 to pay the sum demanded by the priest for 
 the religious ceremony. It will be understood 
 that such circumstances result in sufficiently 
 unpleasant relations between the pastor and 
 his flock. And, notwithstanding these exac- 
 tions, the Russian priest remains generally 
 very poor, for the reason that the sheep which 
 he may shear have unfortunately but very 
 little wool. The Russian priest is ill-informed 
 
 193
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 and rarely of much elevation of character; 
 he is married, and has many family cares; 
 and by reason of all this, inspires but little 
 respect in the faithful. By some he is detested 
 as one who is continually taking advantage 
 of them, and by others he is little respected 
 on account of an obvious lack of moral supe- 
 riority. The relations between the clergy and 
 the faithful have thus no deep cordiality or 
 sympathy in Russia. 
 
 Then, too, the churches are usually poor 
 and plain. They are not open until the hour 
 for service, and then are filled with people. 
 The Russian (man or woman) in his hours 
 of moral distress and anguish may not enter a 
 church to collect hims(;lf and to pray. There 
 are found none of tliose corners, is(jlated and 
 at the same time inspiring, which arc to be 
 met with in so many of the edifices of Western 
 Europe. On tlu! other IkukI, it never occurs 
 to any one to take counsel with the priest, 
 in moments of diflicuHy, because th(; orthodox 
 
 194
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 clergy has so little prestige, and is so little 
 respected. The priests, on their side, never 
 go into the different families to speak words 
 of kindness and consolation. 
 
 In consequence of this series of circum- 
 stances, the Russian is but moderately in 
 sympathy with his national Church. There 
 are millions of peasants in the country who 
 might pass as utterly indifferent in matters 
 of religion. Nor is the Russian woman more 
 religious than the man. This is no more true 
 of the lower than of the upper classes. It is 
 never in Russia, for example, as it often is 
 in France or Italy, where the husbands may 
 be free thinkers, and the wives very devout, 
 and even bigoted. The priest (contrary to 
 what is seen in Catholic countries) obtains 
 no power through the influence of women; 
 in general his influence in society amounts to 
 almost nothing. 
 
 There may be observed in Russia, even 
 among the common people, the most complete 
 
 195
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 irreverence in regard to holy things. The 
 manner in which the peasants speak of the 
 service and the priests borders at times upon 
 the most biting sarcasm and the most absolute 
 indifference. 
 
 But, nevertheless, a thousand facts bear 
 witness that a deep religious need torments 
 the Russian soul, even to its inmost recesses. 
 This is proved, first, by the multiplying of 
 religious sects. Among the Catholics in France, 
 Austria, and Italy there are no longer heretics 
 or " non-conformists. "* The last Western sect, 
 Old Catholicism, has exhibited a very moderate 
 amount of vitality. It died out in a few years. 
 German Protestantism, too, seems to be irrev- 
 ocably fixed within the limits established at 
 
 (') There is another source of Russian non-confor- 
 mity, and tlmt is, tlio "Old Believers," or rntlier, the 
 "Old Kituali.stH." In the seventcscnth century the 
 patriarch Nicon caused the text of the liturgical booka 
 which had been altered by the copyists, to be revised 
 and corrected. Numerous persons would not adopt fhe 
 corr(!Ctions, antl scrparated tlieniseives from the oliicial 
 church under the name of the "Old Believers." 
 
 196
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 the time of the Reformation. No breath of 
 anything new has come to break through them. 
 The Orthodox Church in Russia, as a theo- 
 logical and dogmatic institution, is utterly 
 dead. It confines itself to its forms of worship 
 and the ritual. We might say that it was 
 supported in a certain measure by right of 
 succession, being preserved for economic and 
 political reasons. The portion of the Russian 
 population which has the deepest religious 
 needs finds nothing to satisfy them in the 
 established Church, which has been for cen- 
 turies congealed within cold and hieratic 
 forms. The aspirations of the Russian people, 
 then, in matters of religion, rise far beyond 
 the established Church, and are often in hos- 
 tility to it. When the priest of a village is 
 too eager for gain, when his conduct proves 
 a source of scandal, when revolt and indig- 
 nation are excited against him, peasants then 
 separate from their pastor and throw them- 
 selves into the sects of non-conformists, as 
 
 197
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 happened in England at the time of the Refor- 
 mation. Some one appears, and begins to 
 preach new doctrines based upon his own 
 private interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. 
 It is thus that innumerable sects have been 
 formed in Russia. It would take too long to 
 enumerate them here. They have all taken 
 as a foundation the Old and New Testaments; 
 but later, in the course of their development, 
 they have reached the greatest extremes. 
 Some have returned to the forms of the prim- 
 itive Church, and have no clergy. Others have 
 become reconciled to rrotrstantism. (Others 
 still, by the strangest aberrations, have ended in 
 practices which are monstrous and unnatural.^ 
 
 Whatever may be the aberrations of these 
 sects, the intensity (jf their religious life is 
 very great. One finds, too, among their ad- 
 herents all the admirable qualities of the 
 
 (') Tliosp, for ox.'implc, of tho "Rkoptzi," a sect which 
 is foiindod on ;i lilcr.il iiilcrprcfiition of tlic twelfth 
 vorso in tlic ninctccntii cliupter of Saint Matthew's 
 Gospel. 
 
 198
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 neophyte; an extraordinary sense of honesty, 
 unlimited devotion, and a spirit of sacrifice 
 amoimtmg to martyrdom. A number of 
 Russian sectarians has recently arrived in 
 America. They are the ''Doukhobory" (wrest- 
 lers with the spirit). They have preferred to 
 leave their country rather than submit to the 
 military service, which they believe contrary 
 to the teachings of the Bible. 
 
 The Russian non-conformists are the honor 
 and glory of their country. If anything could 
 show the depth of power, of seriousness, of 
 nobility, and of perse verence which exists in 
 the Russian people, it would be these wonder- 
 ful men.' Unhappily the present government, 
 misled by an irmnoderate love of external 
 and bureaucratic symmetry, far from under- 
 standing that the non-conformists are the salt 
 of the Russian earth, persecutes them in a 
 thousand ways, which are sometimes as cruel 
 as they are ineffectual. 
 
 Thus, after maintaining that the Russian 
 
 199
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 people is one of the most indifferent in matters 
 of religion, I proceed to make exactly the 
 opposite assertion. And this contradiction 
 does not spring from my own mind; it is in 
 the facts themselves. Among an immense 
 people like the Russians, all kinds are to be 
 met with; sceptics as well as apostles, full of 
 faith and enthusiasm. 
 
 V. Politics. 
 
 From religion to politics the transition is 
 not so abrupt in Russia as in the countries 
 which are non-confessional. As the ITnited 
 States of America is i)reeminently the repre- 
 sentative of the republican form of government, 
 Russia is the recognized n^presentative, so 
 to speak, of the autocratic. Thus, the political 
 writers of almost every country hav(> founded 
 ui)()ii this fact a series of far-fetched opinions, 
 and have built thereon veritable sociological 
 romances. They have advanced the phenom- 
 enon of heredity, of the innate inclination 
 
 200
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 of the race, and a thousand other factors, 
 equally imaginary, to prove that the Russian 
 people have been moved to absolute mon- 
 archy ad eternum. They have piled demon- 
 stration upon demonstration to show that 
 the only form of government conceivable by 
 the Russian mind is autocracy, and that any 
 other people in the world might pass from 
 absolute monarchy to more liberal institutions. 
 The Russian people, however, can never do 
 so, as they allege, because of a certain peculiar 
 mentality of their own. 
 
 This assertion will not survive for a moment 
 an examination of the facts, if one take the 
 trouble to look at these closely and will not? 
 content himself with indulging in mere in- 
 vective. 
 
 In the first place, autocracy is relatively 
 a recent fact in Russia. The ancient Russian 
 populations lived under the administrative 
 of the clan. They then passed under the 
 government of the city. The political authority 
 
 201
 
 THE RUSSIAN POEPLE 
 
 of a certain region was concentrated in a cen- 
 tral town (oppidum), which was usually fortified. 
 The organization of the Russian city was 
 republican. A popular assembly (the "veche"), 
 whose conferences were rather tumultuous, 
 gave a general approval to the measures which 
 were proposed to it by a kind of senate. The 
 Russian "veche" recalls, in many ways, the 
 primitive assemblies of the Roman people 
 in the Forum. 
 
 In the ninth century Norman adventurers 
 tempted their fortunes in Russia, as they had 
 preivously done in England, France, and Italy. 
 One of these Scandinavian bands, commanded 
 by a chief named Rurik, founded the first 
 monarchy in Russia. The monarchial prin- 
 ciple is, then, a foreign importation into tlu^ 
 country. All the supposed predispositions 
 of the Russian "race" for this form of gov- 
 ernment are thus purely imaginary. Hurik, 
 after having installed himself at Novgorod 
 (which was, in his time, a republic with quite 
 
 202
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 a flourishing trade), pursued his conquests. 
 He descended as far as the Lower Dnieper, 
 and made for himself a vast Empire. That 
 is to say, he levied tribute upon different 
 Russian cities. In accordance with the Ger- 
 manic conception of that time, government 
 was not looked upon as a public office, but as 
 a matter of private ownership. Thus, the 
 descendants of Rurik divided up their father's 
 possessions as the sons of Louis le Debonnaire 
 divided up the Empire of Charlemagne. The 
 princes of the house of Rurik received as their 
 share different cities, and each created for 
 himself a sort of kingdom. But the primitive 
 organization of the Russian city was not de- 
 stroyed by the Norman invasion. Some of 
 the towns succeeded in driving out the descend- 
 ants of Rurik, and restored the republican 
 form of government. Novgorod retained this 
 form until 1480, Pskof until 1509. 
 
 Others of the cities kept their princes, but 
 without conceding to them absolute power. 
 
 203
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 The relations established between the prince 
 and his people are not accurately known to 
 us. Thus, in spite of the presence of the princes 
 of the house of Rurik, the popular assemblies 
 (the "veche") continued to exist in many of 
 the cities. We hear of these assemblies where 
 the prince appeared and decisions were made 
 in common. In other places the "veche" 
 disappeared very early. It is probable, then, 
 that the relations between the prince and 
 his subjects were not very clearly or distinctly 
 determined. It appears, also, that the most 
 diverse conditions prevailed in the different 
 cities, and that very often everything tloponded 
 upon the personal qualities of the reigning 
 prince. 
 
 The princes of ihv, hous(> of Rurik disputed 
 tho horitnsf nf tli(> founder of their dynasty, 
 just as the Carl()vinji;i;ins disputiMl th(> heritage 
 of Charlemagne. Even as Charles the Bald 
 recstablish(!d, at a certain time, the unity of 
 the Western Empire, so did several of the 
 
 204
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 Russian princes reunite a number of prin- 
 cipalities, and attempt to restore the unity 
 of the Empire of Rurik. But this attempt was 
 neither a very determined nor a very perma- 
 nent one, and was, moreover, never crowned 
 with very lasting success. The only thing 
 established in a settled and permanent man- 
 ner was the supremacy of the city of Kjef. 
 The prince who reigned there was considered 
 the head of the family of Rurik, and, as such, 
 exercised a sort of hegemony, something after 
 the fashion of an honorary presidency. He 
 held the title of Grand Prince. The actual 
 authority of the Grand Prince over the other 
 principalities amounted to practically nothing, 
 but his moral authority, if we may so express 
 it, did not fail to be sought after by the Russian 
 princes, who, for a long time, disputed the sov- 
 ereignty of Kief and the title of Grand Prince, 
 which accompanied it. The dynasty which 
 reigned at Moskow ended later by appropriating 
 this title to itself in an exclusive manner. 
 
 205
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 Such was the situation in Russia in the 
 twelfth century. She offered the spectacle of 
 a series of almost independent principalities, 
 with institutions which were badly administercnl 
 but in no sense autocratic. The advent of the 
 Mongols occurred, and modified this state of 
 affairs. 
 
 The descendants of Rurik never completely 
 lost the idea of the unity of their Empire. 
 They considered themselves members of one 
 body, and felt themselves different from both 
 the Asiatic tribes of the l*]ast, who were usually 
 nomadic, and the settled populations of the 
 West (Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, and Swedes). 
 Thus, upon the arrival of the Mongols, the 
 princes of the house of Rurik joined together 
 to withstand tliciii. They made l)ut a feeble 
 resistance, however, in ('onse(iuence of llu; 
 comj)lete absence of any unaniinity in llieir 
 institutions. The Russian j)rincij)aiities knew 
 not how to defend th(>mselves, and all fell under 
 the domination of the Tartars. The Republics 
 
 20G
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 of Novgorod and Pskof alone succeeded in pre- 
 serving their independence. 
 
 The Mongols did not suppress the Russian 
 principalities, but contented themselves with 
 levying tribute upon them. But, none the less, 
 the Mongol yoke was a very heavy one, because 
 very despotic. Security disappeared forever 
 for the people of Russia. Delegates from the 
 Mongol Khan were continually coming to 
 demand the payment of new taxes. The least 
 resistance brought down upon them expedi- 
 tions which made a merciless use at every point 
 of fire and the sword. And, further, bands of 
 Mongol marauders constantly overran the coun- 
 try, and conducted forays on their own account. 
 
 A universal law of sociology receives its con- 
 firmation ill the history of Russia. And this 
 law is, that the power accorded to the central 
 government is the direct result of the political 
 insecurity of a country. 
 
 When the Russian populations were oppressed 
 by the Mongols, they sought, naturally, the 
 
 207
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 protection of their reigning princes. To them 
 they looked to put an end to the incursions of 
 the bands of marauders. The power of the 
 princes would naturally increase from this very 
 fact, for they must be furnished with the means 
 of protecting the people, that is, they must 
 have a stronger army. 
 
 Among all the Russian princes, those of 
 Moscow (in consequence of circumstances which 
 it would tak(i too long to explain here) were 
 found to best understand the protection of their 
 subjects. Their reputation as faithful protec- 
 tors spread throughout the whole of Russia, 
 and secured for thorn both prestige and author- 
 ity. 
 
 In the same way that the Germanic princes 
 contended with one another over the territories 
 in the heart of llu> G(>rmanic Empire, (he 
 Russian princes waged war over (hose in (he 
 heart of \hv lMn|)in' of (lie Mongols. Th(> 
 princes of Moscow W(>re nidfd by a series of 
 forlun.'itc circiiiiistances. They niade nunicr- 
 
 208
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 ous conquests, aggrandized their state by dis- 
 possessing other princes of the house of Rurik, 
 and became the most powerful in Russia. 
 Their ambition increased with their power. 
 They assumed the title of Grand Princes, and 
 claimed again that moral hegemony which 
 formerly belonged to the sovereignty of Kief. 
 The princes of Moscow had difficulties also 
 with their Mongol suzerains, and, as soon as 
 they felt themselves sufficiently powerful, 
 entered into conflict with them. They engaged 
 in a number of battles, and in some were vic- 
 torious. 
 
 The Russian people now began to foresee a 
 possibility of ridding themselves of the Mongols 
 by the hand of the princes of Moscow. They 
 saw clearly that without a concentration of all 
 the political power of the Russian people the 
 removal of the Mongol yoke was impossible. 
 They saw, too, that their safety lay in the 
 unlimited power of the Grand Prince who 
 reigned at Moscow. Thus, naturally, anything 
 
 209
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 which increased his authority was lool^ed upon 
 as beneficial, while all that tended to weaken 
 it was considered injurious, and therefore sub- 
 versive. 
 
 Thus was the idea of autocracy implanted in 
 Great Russia. It was not, as has been too 
 repeatedly asserted, the result of an idiosyn- 
 crasy of the Russian "race," It was, quite 
 simply, the result of certain historical circum- 
 stances. The law that political concentration 
 is the direct result of insecurity of frontier may 
 be demonstrated reversely by England, the 
 exact opposite of Russia as to political insti- 
 tutions. The one is the most constitutional 
 nation in Europe, the other the most auto- 
 cratic. But England is, too, the country which 
 is best protected by nature; Russia is the least 
 so. Complete security for Russian territory 
 was obtained only in 1881, after the defeat of 
 the Tekkc-Turcomans. Thus, only for nine- 
 teen years have the Russians enjoyed the invio- 
 lability of their political frontier, which is a 
 
 210
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 natural possession of the English, thanks to 
 their insular position. Liberty was early estab- 
 lished in Great Britain for the reason that there 
 has never been any necessity for conceding 
 great military power to the king. The same 
 may be said of the United States of America. 
 It is their isolated situation, beyond the reach 
 of European aggression, which has had a large 
 share in enabling them to assume that admir- 
 able political decentralization and that personal 
 liberty, which have contributed, in such large 
 measure, to their prosperity. France is another 
 proof of what I am saying. Her continental 
 situation offers less security than that of Eng- 
 land; thus, her organization has necessarily 
 remained for a longer time autocratic. 
 
 The present situation in Russia is, so to 
 speak, diametrically opposed to what it was 
 in the past. After living for centuries under 
 the shadow of continual Asiatic invasions, it is 
 Russia herself who now menaces her barbarous 
 neighbors on her eastern frontiers. Russia 
 
 211
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 enjoys to-day an external security greater than 
 that of almost any other European power. In 
 case of a general war, Austria, Germany, and 
 Italy might have to fight on two sides of their 
 borders, Russia on but one. Russia cannot be 
 surrounded. For this reason, and, thanks to 
 the vast extent of her territory, she is, so to 
 speak, unconquerable. 
 
 Since Russia now enjoys a security greater 
 than that of her neighbors, extreme concen- 
 tration of power is no longer necessary. It 
 would seem as if the principle of autocracy must 
 lose much of its prestige in the eyes of the 
 cultured classes. And it is so to a certain 
 extent. But in human affairs the snhlata causa, 
 tullitur effedus is not to be instantaneously 
 applied. After an institution has lost its 
 "raison d'etre," it may still, through force of 
 tradition and inertia, retain much of its power. 
 
 Such is the present situation in Russia. 
 There are already many persons in the country 
 who appreciate the great advantage of populai 
 
 212
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 representation, and look eagerly for its coming. 
 But it is well to recognize that a large number 
 of Russians still persist, eternally as it were, 
 in political conceptions of a totally different 
 kind. We are not speaking of the state officials, 
 who are afraid of losing their places, should 
 popular control be established. These individ- 
 uals are out of the discussion. They oppose 
 the establishment of a parliament, not as a 
 matter of principle (for in their inner con- 
 sciences they recognize its advantages), but 
 from the promptings of a purely selfish interest. 
 The high officials who are in this category are, 
 it is true, very influential, but I am of the 
 opinion that their desires would not prevail, 
 were it not that a large number of individuals 
 among the upper class cling to autocracy on 
 principle, and not from any personal advantages 
 to be derived therefrom. 
 
 Every society nourishes within its breast 
 some individuals with antisocial tendencies. It 
 is these persons who conscientiously put their 
 
 213
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 own interests above those of their country. 
 But these individuals cannot be continuously 
 the most powerful in the nation, for if this 
 were so, the forces impelling toward dissolution 
 would preponderate over the forces contrib- 
 uting to cohesion, and society would be 
 dissolved. 
 
 We must thus recognize that if the autocratic 
 principle still survives in Russia, it is because 
 a large number of Russians consider it bene- 
 ficial for their country as a whole. 
 
 The sources whence this idea proceeds are 
 many, but they are the result, one and all, 
 of historical circumstances. 
 
 The Russian mind has followed the same 
 course of evolution as that of other countries. 
 There may be observed here, to a certain 
 extent, two of the three states of Auguste 
 Comte, the theological phase and the meta- 
 physical phase. This is what has happened. 
 While the other nations of Western Europe had 
 already received the positive phase, toward the 
 
 214
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 end of the eighteenth century, Russia has not, 
 as yet, even in our day, attained to this. And, 
 again, this does not proceed in any way from 
 an innate quality of the Russian race, but from 
 circumstances purely material and social. Rus- 
 sia is very poor, and its population is widely 
 scattered. For this reason, as well as many 
 others, which I cannot now enumerate, educa- 
 tion has spread very slowly. The number of 
 those who are illiterate reaches the scandalous 
 figure of seventy-eight out of a hundred. The 
 higher education is nmch less widespread than 
 the primary. Briefly, the positive method of 
 reasoning is sufficiently rare in Russia, as yet, 
 and the theological and metaphysical methods 
 reign paramount. A large number of Russians 
 are still imbued with a great deal of mysticism, 
 and, above all, alas, with much intellectual 
 indefiniteness. Their faculty for analysis is 
 very feeble. They have, as yet, but a poor 
 idea of how to class social phenomena, and to 
 give them those clear outlines which are char- 
 
 215
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 acteristic of the science of positivism. The 
 Russians bring into the State the ideas of the 
 family, and make of them an ideal which is 
 pohtically hazy and incapable of realization. 
 This ideal may be formulated thus: a sovereign, 
 father of his subjects, governing well in conse- 
 quence of his affection for them, and, in conse- 
 quence of a consciousness of his duty as an 
 autocratic ruler, towering above all the rest. 
 The Russian mystics have a profound contempt 
 for a parliament. They call this a low and 
 vulgar institution, where takes place a series 
 of compromises and bargaining between the 
 different interests at stake. Now this sort of 
 transaction is degrading. A government lowers 
 itself when it condescends to such maneuvers. 
 The Russian mystics aflirm that a government. 
 really worthy of the name, should consider (lie 
 interest of the mass of the people. Only an 
 autocrat can accomplish this mission, hc'cnusc 
 he alon(> has no need to cnlcr into a compromise 
 with any one. Bargaining and the do vt des 
 
 216
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 offer no temptation to him. He can accom- 
 plish the good of all without sacrificing the 
 interest of one class to that of another. 
 
 Naturally, when the mind of the mystic rises 
 to such dizzy heights, he loses all sense of 
 reality. The ultimate result of such vagaries 
 can but be an entire weakening of the society 
 in which they are produced. It is enough, 
 indeed, to place, for one moment, our foot upon 
 the solid rock of positive facts, to witness the 
 immediate disappearance of all such mirages. 
 The sovereign cannot accomplish everything by 
 himself. He must delegate his powers to an 
 immense staff of officials. How is it possible for 
 him to control their actions, so as to be assured 
 that they conform to his benevolent and 
 paternal designs? It is evident that the con- 
 trol of some of the officials by others is abso- 
 lutely ineffectual. For control of any kind to 
 be effective it must be exercised by disinter- 
 ested persons, those outside, by individuals, 
 that is, who are not officials. On the other 
 
 217
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 hand, the mystics never take the pains to study- 
 accurately natural phenomena. They do not 
 see things as they really are. From the moment 
 when we apply ourselves to the study of nature 
 in a positive spirit, we understand that each 
 little atom in the universe is in a constant 
 dynamic state. It seems to be trying to attract 
 everything to itself. It is just the same with 
 society; each individual is in the dynamic state 
 in regard to his fellow-creatures. He endeavors 
 to compass his own best welfare. It is from 
 the union of such efforts, in opposition, some 
 to the others, that social institutions are born. 
 The Russian mystics make a very great mistake 
 when they imagine that parliamentary com- 
 promises are a proof of moral debasement. 
 They are, on the contrary, but checks and 
 counter checks, by means of which a social 
 equilibrium, that is to say, the greatest possible 
 respect for the rights of the individual is main- 
 tained. 
 
 M. Pol/;donostzef, Procurator of (he Holy 
 
 21S
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 Synod/ has recently published a series of 
 articles which have been translated into French 
 under the title of "Questions religieuses, sociales 
 et politiques. "^ In them he gives expression 
 to the opinion that if all the representatives 
 of the people were saints, the parliamentary 
 regime would be the very best kind of all. But 
 as the representatives of the people are usually 
 of a more than doubtful morality, the parlia- 
 mentary regime is the worst. Here is an excel- 
 lent example of the reasoning of the mystic. 
 How is it that M. Pobedonostzef does not see 
 that the argument may be turned directly 
 against absolute monarchy? If all the officials 
 appointed by the sovereign were perfection 
 itself, absolute monarchy would be the best 
 of all forms of government. Is it possible 
 
 (') The Procurator of the Holy Synod (a sort of 
 minister of church worship) is one of the highest digni- 
 taries in the Russian Empire. Furthermore, M. 
 Pobedonostzef possessed great personal influence during 
 the reign of Alexander II., which, in a certain measure, 
 he still retains. 
 
 (0 Published at Paris by Baudry in 1897. 
 
 219
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 that M. Podebonostzef would have us beheve 
 that it is sufficient for an official to be appointed 
 by an absolute sovereign to ensure his being 
 immediately clothed with all the virtues, and 
 that the Holy Spirit would descend upon him, 
 as it descended formerly upon the apostles? 
 Truly, with ideas like these it would be impos- 
 sible to create a positive and realistic political 
 system, for if miracles be admitted, the whole 
 scaffolding of the social science falls as does 
 a castle of cards. 
 
 Many Russians have minds which are clouded 
 and visionary, and for the reason that monarchy, 
 with its right divine, is more to their liking 
 than the concrete and realistic forms of a parlia- 
 mentary monarchy. 
 
 Another factor which has contributed toward 
 maintaining the prestige of autocracy in Russia 
 is Panslavisin. 
 
 From the seventeenth century, but partic- 
 ularly since tlio reign of Vcier I., th(> sciences, 
 letters, philosophy, and art of Western Europe 
 
 220
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 have made their way into Russia. These 
 same branches of mental activity existed also, 
 it is true, in the ancient Muscovite Empire, 
 but in a rudimentary form, in sad contrast, 
 indeed, to that which emanated from Europe. 
 Russia was as if hypnotized. She lived for 
 more than a century and a half under the com- 
 plete fascination of the West. It seemed to 
 the Russians that never would they be able, 
 not merely to surpass, but even to equal their 
 models. Naturally, no human being, and no 
 society, can live while constantly sacrificing 
 its personality. In reality, an abdication of 
 this kind must lead, in the long run, either to a 
 species of mental death (in ordinary terms to 
 idiocy) or else the vital forces must react, and 
 come to acknowledge this personality. Now, 
 the Russian people has far too large a share 
 of individuality for the reaction to fail to set 
 in. It occurred m the first half of the nine- 
 teenth century under the name of Panslavism. 
 The too great servility of Russian thought to 
 
 221
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 that of the West brought about, by a natural 
 propensity, an excessive reaction of the national 
 pride. The Panslavists maintained that Russia 
 was entirely different from, and superior to, 
 the other nations of Europe. But when it 
 became necessary to come forth from the 
 clouds and to indicate the positive points in 
 which this difference consisted, the Panslavists 
 fell back principally upon these two facts, 
 communal property and autocracy. In certain 
 regions of Russia, the parish lands are, at specified 
 times, divided among the members of the 
 rural community. The Panslavists proceeded 
 to affirm that individual ownership of land, 
 as was the rule in the other countries of Europe, 
 opens the door to pauperism. It divides society 
 into two great classes, clearly differentiated, 
 the non-owners, devoted to incurable poverty, 
 and the owners, who live by taking advantage 
 of the wretched people. The fundamental 
 principle of such an organization is, then, unjust 
 sovereignty. And, because it is unjust, this 
 
 222
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 organization is imperfect and odious. There 
 is nothing of this kind in Russia, say the Pan- 
 slavists. In consequence of the communal 
 divisions, every Russian is necessarily a land 
 owner. A proletariat becomes forever impos- 
 sible. Contrary to that of the West, the funda- 
 mental basis of Russian society is justice. As 
 the Panslavists, at first, could discover no 
 distribution of land among the Western nations, 
 they loudly proclaimed that Russia alone pos- 
 sessed this admirable organization, and that, 
 consequently, she was superior to all the others. 
 It is hardly necessary to state that these 
 arrogant delusions will not for a moment bear 
 the light of criticism. The communal owner- 
 ship of land is not the exclusive privilege of 
 Russia. It is an archaic and imperfect form 
 of landed proprietorship which has existed every- 
 where, at less advanced epochs of social evolu- 
 tion. Furthermore, all Russians do not form 
 part of a rural community. There are thus 
 proletarians in Russia. And finally the mere 
 
 223
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 fact of possessing the usufruct of a hectare of 
 poorly cultivated land (and communal land 
 will always be so) will hardly insure the com- 
 forts of life to an entire family. And, in 
 truth, in spite of this far-famed communal 
 ownership, the Russian peasant is the poorest 
 and most miserable of all Europe. 
 
 But the Panslavists did not perceive all 
 these objections, and proclaimed that communal 
 proprietorship placed the Russian people upon 
 a lofty pedestal of justice and brotherhood. 
 
 Beside communal ownership, the Panslavists 
 discovered another superiority belonging to 
 Russia. This was, that the States of Western 
 Europe were all founded upon brute force, 
 while Russia alone was not. The States of 
 the West were established by Germanic warrior 
 chiefs who had taken possession of the Roman 
 provinces. The Franks founded tho kingdom 
 of France, the Angles that of r'ligland, (he 
 Visigoths that (jf Spain, and so on. liut 
 Rus.sia was not a part of the Roman I'^inpire; 
 
 224
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 she never suffered these great invasions. In 
 the ninth century some Swedish adventurers, 
 it is true, had come into Russia. But Rurik 
 and his companions did not come as conquerors. 
 They were invited by the citizens of Novgorod. 
 
 Thus, while the States of Western Europe 
 are based upon military conquests, and therefore 
 upon violence and brute force, the Russian 
 State is founded upon the free will of its citizens, 
 therefore upon justice, upon a purely noble 
 and fraternal basis. 
 
 It may be understood that a military chief 
 who had forcibly annexed rebellious populations 
 could, not govern except through fear, and in 
 his own interest. This warrior chief never 
 troubled himself about the well-being of his 
 subjects. He looked upon them as a flock, to 
 be shorn to the utmost, as a simple means of 
 procuring for himself the greatest amount of 
 wealth. Such a political foundation for a 
 State being given, there was no possibility of 
 cordial relations being established between 
 
 225
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 the sovereign and his subjects. The greatest 
 antagonism must reign between the monarch 
 and his people. It is from this very antag- 
 onism, according to the Panslavists, that parha- 
 mentary governments have arisen. The 
 populations being too much oppressed revolted. 
 They exacted guarantees from their rulers, 
 and these guarantees were what were called 
 constitutional charters. 
 
 Quite different was the evolution of Russia, 
 according to the Panslavists. Since the foun- 
 dation of her common law is not brutal and 
 violent conquest, no antagonism can exist 
 between the sovereign and his subjects. The 
 monarchs of Western Europe desired solely 
 their own good and not that of their subjects. 
 But a Russian autocrat who would not care 
 for the good of his people is inconceivable, say 
 the Panslavists. A Russian sovereign who 
 should put his own interests above thos(^ of 
 his subjects, would be a contradiction which 
 ia in itself quite impossible. 
 
 22C
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 It is through this kind of argument that the 
 Panslavists have estabUshed, anew, a capital 
 distinction between Russia and the other nations. 
 These other reprobate nations have sovereigns 
 who desire the unhappiness of their subjects, 
 and who consequently cannot love them. 
 Russia, on the contrary, is the righteous nation 
 par excellence. Her sovereign wishes only 
 the welfare of his subjects; he loves them, he 
 is their father. To establish the rights of the 
 citizens against the sovereign is of some use 
 when the sovereign wishes evil to his subjects, 
 but to establish them when he desires their 
 good is useless, and is to little purpose. On 
 the other hand, to prevent the sovereign from 
 compassing the good of his subjects is to desire 
 ill to the nation; it is to create tendencies which 
 are antisocial. Consequently, any attempt 
 having for its object the limiting of the power 
 of the monarch, being antisocial, is criminal 
 and subversive. And, consequently, auto- 
 cracy is the "Holy Ark" of the Russian nation; 
 
 227
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 it is the institution which differentiates it entirely 
 from the other nations of the West, and which 
 places it anew upon an elevated pedestal of 
 greatness and justice. 
 
 Thus reason the Panslavists. It is with 
 this as with the division of communal land; 
 it is hardly necessary to demonstrate that 
 their arguments are not founded upon a 
 knowledge of history and social science. In 
 the first place, Rurik was as wholly a warrior 
 chief as Robert Guiscard. The foundation 
 of the Scandinavian domination in Russia is 
 the same as that of the Norman rule in Neustria 
 or at Naples. The princes of Moscow after- 
 wards acquired the other Russian principalities 
 by fire and sword, exactly as the kings of 
 France; acquired their possessions. The foun- 
 dation of the Russian State is as much, then, 
 violent and brutal conquest as that of the 
 Western States. And, further, the liussian 
 State is composed of a large number of hetero- 
 geneous ethnical elements, who have not all 
 
 228
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 even yet received the right of citizenship. If, 
 then, the sovereign of Russia is the father 
 of his subjects, it is well to recognize that 
 his affection is very unequally bestowed upon 
 his children. 
 
 Little as the theories of the Panslavists 
 may savor of positivism, they have, in large 
 measure, contributed toward increasing the 
 prestige of the autocratic idea in Russia. 
 
 Another fact which contributes to the same 
 result is the democratic tendency of the Russian 
 people. 
 
 Russia is a vast plain, nearly destitute of 
 any beautiful material for building purposes. 
 The castle, the seignioral dwelling, erected 
 upon a hill which is visible from a great distance, 
 built from material capable of resisting the 
 wear of centuries, and exhibiting architectural 
 beauties which are the pride of the district, — 
 this kind of dwelling, it has not been possible 
 to build in Russia. The castles on the banks 
 of the Rhine, even when in ruins, preserve 
 
 229
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 still a powerful and picturesque individuality, 
 which renders them celebrated for miles around. 
 The name of the Count of Rheinfels, pronounced 
 in former times in the presence of a peasant 
 of Nassau, would produce in his mind the 
 idea of a very powerful noble, because the 
 magnificent Castle of Rheinfels, of which this 
 count was the owner, was known and admired 
 throughout the entire region. In England, 
 the seignioral dwellings of some of the nobility 
 are among the most remarkable of the architec- 
 tural monuments of the country, and their 
 owners share in the celebrity of their 
 castles. 
 
 It has never been, and is not yet, so in Russia. 
 The homes of the boyars were formerly of wood 
 or brick, and almost always little remarkable 
 in point of architocture. Then, too, the life 
 of the nobility was not conspicuous, and made 
 but small impression upon the people. 
 
 On the other hand, the law of primogeniture 
 has never been implanted in Russia. 
 
 230
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 No matter how illustrious a family, from the 
 single fact that the title passed to all the male 
 descendants, it might be borne by some indiv- 
 iduals whose condition of fortune was of the 
 most moderate. The title, for the same reason, 
 lost its prestige. 
 
 It must be said, further, that the source of 
 the Russian nobility is not always of the purest. 
 It originates, for the most part, in administrative 
 or military offices. The lowest of the peasants 
 may enter the service of the State; if he attain 
 a certain grade in the administrative hierarchy, 
 he acquires hereditary nobility. But state 
 officials receive but a moderate amount of 
 esteemj admiration, and sympathy; and for 
 a very good reason. This administrative 
 nobility enjoys but a small amount of prestige. 
 Add, further, that the nobles in Russia had 
 for a long time been in the enjoyment of a 
 privilege as useless as it was odious. They 
 alone had the right to own serfs. They abused 
 this right in a revolting manner, and very 
 
 231
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 naturally, therefore, were not much loved or 
 respected by the masses of the people. 
 
 Thus the Russian nobility had no traits which 
 brought them out in a certain powerful relief 
 from the other classes of society; they had 
 neither prestige nor popularity, and for these 
 reasons the Russian people has become demo- 
 cratic, and upon this democratic sentiment the 
 few attempts in the annals of Russian history 
 to limit absolute power have foundered. They 
 proceeded from a small number of dignitaries 
 in high places and a select number of enlight- 
 ened people. But these chosen ones were not 
 upheld by their immediate associates. The 
 greater part of the governing class have ranged 
 themselves behind the Emperor, and have sus- 
 tained his unlimited power through fear of an 
 oligarchical government vested in a small grouj) 
 of nobles. 
 
 These are the cirrunistances, which 1 have 
 80 rapidly outlined, that have moulded the 
 autocratic t(;nd(>ncieK, and even now uphold 
 
 232
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 them. It may be seen, therefore, that such 
 tendencies are the consequence of historical 
 circumstances, and that they have nothing of 
 the qualities which it is pretended are innate 
 in the Russian "race." 
 
 Let us now consider the value of Russia as 
 ^wov ttoXltlkov. We are forced to recognize, 
 in truth, that in this respect her value is 
 but of a moderate kind. Apart from the 
 Emperor Peter L, Russia has produced almost 
 no remarkable political personality. The great- 
 er part of her statesmen have been conserva- 
 tives. Very few among them have been in the 
 least progressive, or have had broad minds, 
 together with that wonderful eagle-eyed pene- 
 tration which sees clearly the aspirations and 
 needs of the times, which dares even boldly 
 project itself into the future. The larger num- 
 ber of Russian statesmen have been of a timid 
 spirit, filled with narrow prejudices, forever 
 taken up with an archaic ideal which history 
 in its majestic onward march has already 
 
 233
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 thrown aside among the ruins and disregarded 
 possessions of the past. And, further, imitating 
 in this the dull and monotonous plains of their 
 country, Russian statesmen have been of little 
 distinction, and have shown no personality to 
 speak of. And if they have sometimes come 
 out from their framework of mediocrity, it has 
 been, for the most part, alas, through an exag- 
 geration of their tyranny and extravagance. 
 
 From another point of view, however, it is 
 not to be denied that the Russians possess 
 some very valuable political qualities. One of 
 these is a strong spirit of subordination, which 
 causes them, the greater part of the time, to 
 put the interests of the State above their own. 
 There is barely an example in Russian history 
 where the governor of a province has rebelled 
 against the central authority of the State, and 
 has endeavored to cut out, to form for himself 
 from the general mass a personal domain. 
 Russia has never offered th(^ sad example of the 
 egotistic and anarchical ()j)inions which so 
 
 234
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 frequently occur in the history of Poland. The 
 spirit of strict discipline with which the govern- 
 ing classes in Russia are imbued has undoubtedly 
 contributed, in great measure, to establish their 
 dominion over so vast an extent of territory. 
 
 But to be conquerors is not everything, those 
 that have been conquered must be governed. 
 Now, the Russians have been much less skilful 
 in the latter than in the former task, in conse- 
 (juence of some of their good qualities it may 
 be, but, above all, because of one of their great- 
 est defects. Russia has but a faint conception 
 of law and justice. In this she is the exact 
 opposite of the Roman people. It is this main 
 defect which renders Russian domination so 
 odious and insupportable to the people who 
 must submit to it. A thousand circumstances 
 concur to produce this unfortunate result. I 
 have already said that the Russian is usually 
 open-hearted and very generous. Rapacity, 
 sordid avarice, dull and vindictive cruelty, enter 
 but slightly into his character. He is hospit- 
 
 235
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 able, not supercilious, much given to sympathy, 
 and very courteous in his social relations. 
 Because of all this, he coalesces easily with 
 the foreign populations coming under his rule. 
 It is because of these qualities, for example, 
 that the Russians have better understood how 
 to keep their supremacy over their Mussulman 
 subjects in Turkestan than the English over 
 theirs of India. But the Russian character is 
 very uneven. And, further, his political concep- 
 tions are, as yet, indefinite, mystical, impreg- 
 nated with paternalism. If under certain cir- 
 cumstances a conflict of interests arises between 
 him and the people under his domination, he 
 breaks out in sudden passion, and indulges in 
 measures of extreme brutality. These measures 
 are, then, all the more surprising to the popula- 
 tion, because they are so accustomed to indul- 
 gence and good nature. Then, when the mo- 
 ment of anger has passed, the Russian unbends, 
 comes to himself again, and without always 
 repealing his unrighteous acts, he allows them 
 
 236
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 quietly to fall into desuetude. A regime of 
 this kind is of all orders the most precarious for 
 those governed, and consequently most intoler- 
 able. The populations mider Russian subjec- 
 tion, being never able to foresee from what quar- 
 ter, in the minds of their masters, the wind 
 may blow, live in continual anxiety and con- 
 stant apprehension. Beside the fact that this 
 is in the highest degree disagreeable for the 
 governed, it is, also, in the highest degree con- 
 trary to the true interests of the governors. In 
 fact, with no feeling of security for the morrow, 
 no one dare undertake those business enterprises 
 of a more extended character which are the basis 
 of the material prosperity of a country. 
 
 The Russian State has been established by 
 violence, by strokes of individual authority. 
 Thence proceeds the illusion that the renewal 
 of these brutal attempts is the Alpha and 
 Omega of political wisdom. Very many Rus- 
 sians, even among the most cultured classes, 
 have an idea that it would be impossible to 
 
 237
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 insure general prosperity unless governments 
 were to take, at certain times, measures 
 described in Russia as administrative, that is to 
 say, measures which are illegal. This idea, which 
 is securely anchored in the Russian mind, shows 
 how refractory it still is as to any perception 
 of true justice, and to what extent the Russian 
 is still, after all his efforts at civilization, a 
 "political animal," and of a very ordinary 
 quality. > 
 
 VI. Present State. 
 
 After having glanced rapidly over the more 
 or less permanent traits of the Russian nation, 
 I should like, before finishing this hasty sketch, 
 to add a few words upon the situation of the 
 moment. 
 
 First of all, with reference to economics, 
 Russia is in a fair way to accomplish an impor- 
 tant transformation. 8h(> is ] Kissing from the 
 purely ngricultiiral slagc into the industrial. 
 
 (') What is taking place in Finland perfectly 
 sustains n)y opinion. 
 
 238
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 England is the country in which this phase 
 has attained its highest development. Out of 
 one hundred Englishmen seventy-one live in 
 cities and twenty-nine in the country. In 
 Russia the proportion is more than the reverse 
 of this: fifteen persons live in cities and eighty- 
 five in the country districts. But in conse- 
 quence of the strides which manufacturing has 
 made, the population of the cities continues to 
 increase. A working class is beginning to be 
 formed. The " bourgeoisie " is growing. These 
 movements are already plainly visible, but they 
 are being brought about slowly. In conse- 
 quence' of a thousand impediments produced 
 by bureaucratic centralization, everything in 
 Russia advances at a snail's pace. Things have 
 been set going, however, and, as Russia pos- 
 sesses vast mineral wealth (still very largely 
 unexplored), manufactures cannot fail, sooner 
 or later, to rise to great importance. 
 
 Another important event in Russian history 
 is the establishment of a network of railways, 
 
 239
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 which from this time forward are destined to 
 extend over the entire country. Doubtless the 
 Russian network is still modest, indeed, com- 
 pared to that of America/ but such as it is, it 
 has already produced a fairly immeasurable 
 revolution. Russia was formerly an amorphous 
 country. Some of her regions were practically 
 inaccessible, because of their immense distance 
 from the sea. On the other hand, during a 
 certain number of weeks in the Spring and 
 Autumn, communication ceased almost entirely. 
 All this is a thing of the past, thanks to the 
 railroads. These transport men and goods at 
 one and the same time. Through this means a 
 constant and continually flowing current of 
 ideas is established between the different parts 
 of Russia, and has reunited them as with an 
 organic bond. 
 
 In spite of the frightful obstacles which over- 
 
 (') There were in Russia, July 1, 1900, fifty-four 
 thousand six hundred kilometres of railroads, and in 
 the United States, January 1, 1890, three hundred 
 thousand six huudred and thirty-six kilometres. 
 
 240
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 whelni them, the press and publishing trade are 
 making great progress in Russia. Russian 
 editions do not yield much in point of elegance 
 to those of Western Europe. Here is another 
 sign of the times; very expensive publications 
 have begun to have a financial value in Russia. 
 A Leipzig house, combined with another in 
 St. Petersburg, is now publishing an immense 
 encyclopaedia, after the model of the ''Ency- 
 clopaedia Britannica." More than a million 
 dollars have been invested in this enterprise, 
 which, however, is very profitable. Twenty or 
 thirty years ago, no such thing as this would 
 have been possible. I cannot enlarge upon 
 these matters which are not exactly in line with 
 my subject. I mention them only to show that 
 economic power (which is the foundation of the 
 development of the mind) is increasing in 
 Russia, even though slowly. 
 
 What is the present tendency of the Russian 
 mind? In order to answer this question we 
 must go back a few years. 
 
 241
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 The shameful defeats suffered in the Crimea, 
 in 1854 and 1855, had shown, with the most 
 absolute clearness, how fatal had been the 
 ultra-conservative policy of the Emperor Nich- 
 olas I. A powerful liberal reaction set in under 
 Alexander II. A series of beneficent reforms 
 was the result: the suppression of serfdom, in 
 1861; the reformation of the courts of justice 
 and the introduction of the jury system, in 
 1864; provincial self-government for the prov- 
 inces, in 1865, and the suppression of preliminary 
 censure at St. Petersburg and Moscow in the 
 same year. 
 
 These reforms created a new spirit. Toward 
 1872, the Russian youth were at the boiling 
 point. They desired to enter upon a sort of 
 crusade to free the j)easants from their ignorance. 
 Youthful apostles went abroad over the country, 
 f)reaching among the workmen in the towns 
 theories that were liberal and more or less 
 subversive. If the Russian government had 
 been endowed, at that time, with even a par- 
 
 242
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 tially clear sense of justice, it would have 
 understood that to preach what seems to him 
 the truth is the primordial right of every human 
 creature. On the other hand, if the Russian 
 government had possessed the most elementary 
 principles of sociology, it would have seen at 
 once that the Nihilist apostleship had no sort 
 of chance of amounting to anything serious. 
 Indeed, to modify the political ideas of seventy 
 millions of illiterate men would require an 
 enormous amount of money and immense 
 efforts, protracted for generations. What could 
 be accomplished by some thousands, or rather 
 by some hundreds, of young Nihilists, spread 
 about through the country districts of Russia? 
 Their propaganda would quickly disappear in 
 the vast ocean of ignorance around them, with- 
 out leaving further trace than would a small 
 brook in the Atlantic. The government had 
 only to shut its eyes. The youthful enthusiasts 
 would have been freed from their social illu- 
 sions; and in a very little while they would 
 
 243
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 have abandoned their premature attempts. 
 This is just what did happen in many cases. 
 Many young preachers became very quiclvly 
 disgusted, and gave up their apostleship among 
 the peasants, seeing that it could lead to nothing. 
 Unhappily, the Russian government had no 
 sufficient amount of liberalism, nor of foresight. 
 The reactionists who surrounded the noble and 
 generous Sovereign, the great-hearted Alex- 
 ander II., began to frighten him, and advised 
 measures of merciless severity against the 
 Nihilists. The young persons who were preach- 
 ing in the country districts were arrested, put 
 in prison, subjected to the most rigorous treat- 
 ment, and, in consequence of sentences rendered 
 behind closed doors by special tribunals that 
 offered no guarantee of impartiality and equity, 
 were trans|)orted to Siberia. In the face of 
 such persecutions as these the Nihilists resisted. 
 They transformed themselves into a secret 
 society and opposcnl to the severities of the 
 government, assassinations and outrages even 
 
 244
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 more daring. Holding the Emperor Alexander 
 II. responsible for the policy urged upon him 
 by his advisers, they became enraged against 
 him personally, and made repeated attempts to 
 kill him. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Turkish War broke out. 
 The Russian army suffered great privations. 
 Nevertheless, in time, they triumphed, and 
 arrived under the walls of Constantinople. In 
 February, 1878, Russia was breathlessly await- 
 ing the accomplishment of her destiny and the 
 crowning of her historical mission. For an 
 immense majority of the Russians the war of 
 1877 had all the effect of a new crusade. A 
 glorious hope had taken supreme possession of 
 their hearts. Every moment the capture of 
 Constantinople was looked for and the end of 
 the Mussulman power on our continent. It 
 would seem as if the inauspicious work, accom- 
 plished in 1453 by Mahomet the Conqueror, 
 were about to be imdone by the hand of Holy 
 Russia. It seemed as if Europe were about to 
 
 245
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 enter into possession of that eastern basin of 
 the Mediterranean which had formerly been her 
 most splendid domain. 
 
 Alas, how cruelly deceived were the Russian 
 people, in maintaining these glorious expecta- 
 tions! Constantinople was not occupied, the 
 Mussulmans were not driven out of Europe, and 
 even the independence of Bulgaria was effected 
 in but a limited and narrow way. 
 
 Discontent followed these misconcepti,ons. 
 The plots of the Nihilists were renewed, and 
 aroused further exasperation on every side. 
 The more nervous and severe the government 
 appeared, the more did the terrorist party 
 redouble its audacity. 
 
 Alexander II. was a monarch who was too 
 enlightened, whose heart was too ttmder, not to 
 feel that the mere civil administration is not 
 everything in the life of a great nation. Toward 
 the beginning of the year 1881, Russia was living 
 in a state of extraordinary tension. Each day 
 a change in the r(''gimo was expected. A con- 
 
 246
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 stitution was the universal theme; and it was 
 even said that one had been already drawn up, 
 and that it would be promulgated before long. 
 
 Unhappily the plots of the terrorists did not 
 blow over. The narrow-minded and stupid 
 fanatics who led the movement appeared to 
 be utterly blinded. They neither saw nor heard 
 anything of what was passing around them, and 
 pursued their vengeance against such a Sover- 
 eign as Alexander II. As ill-fortune would 
 have it, the odious crime of the 13th of March, 
 1881, was successful. 
 
 This great crime was naturally succeeded by 
 a furious political reaction, which lasted with- 
 out interruption throughout the reign of Alex- 
 ander III., and bore the acknowledged seal of 
 a narrow Muscovite nationalism and of an ortho- 
 dox clericalism even more narrow still. The 
 institutions of Alexander II. were nearly all 
 revised in the direction of reaction. Self- 
 government in the towns and provinces was 
 limited, the independence of the jury percepti- 
 
 247
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 bly restricted. The unfortunate Israelites were 
 deprived of most of their privileges; they were 
 excluded from the municipal councils of the 
 cities; their admittance into the middle and 
 primary schools, and to the committees, was 
 restricted. They were driven out en masse from 
 certain parts of the Empire, in which, thanks 
 to the toleration which reigned under Alexander 
 II., they had been able to establish themselves. 
 The severities of the censorship were redoubled. 
 Many of the most influential journals were sup- 
 pressed. Military law was established in the 
 large Russian towns which gave privileges to 
 the provincial governors and the prefects of 
 customs which were often abused. 
 
 While, about 1873, the apostle who went 
 about the country carrying good news to the 
 people was the most striking character in 
 Russian life, under Alexander III., it was the 
 "careerist" who became the characteristic type. 
 This type, which, in France, Alphonse Daudet 
 has named the "Struggle for Life," was repre- 
 
 248
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 sented by the young official, with no kind of 
 moral aspiration, with no sort of ideal, seeking 
 to obtain, by every imaginable means, the 
 greatest possible number of material advantages. 
 Men of this type multiplied as rapidly as weeds, 
 A leaden gloom fell upon Russian society. 
 People lived, from day to day, in a sad, monoto- 
 nous fashion, without having even a glimpse of 
 anything better. 
 
 Revolutionary plots grew less frequent, little 
 by little, and finally ceased entirely, at least as 
 far as the public knowledge extended. In any 
 case, there were no more astounding political 
 assassinations. This was one of the singularly 
 happy features of the reign of Alexander III. 
 Let us hope that the progressive party in 
 Russia has already perceived how odious and 
 foolish and disadvantageous it is to resort to 
 brute force. 
 
 Alexander III. being now dead, the hopes of 
 the liberals strongly revived. They thought 
 that the reactionary party would, on the acces- 
 
 249
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 sion of Nicholas II., be broken up, as had hap- 
 pened after the death of Nicholas I. Nothing 
 of the kind occurred. The men who had sur- 
 rounded Alexander III, remained in power dur- 
 ing the reign of his son, and the greater part 
 of them are in power now. The course of poli- 
 tical opinion did not change. Some reaction- 
 ary measures were still taken. Nationalism in 
 a narrow sense continued to flourish. None of 
 the exceptional measures which had been 
 enacted against the unhappy Israelites were 
 repealed. Thus, apparently, everything is going 
 on since the death of Alexander III., just as 
 it did during his life. But, however, it is not 
 quite that! We arc conscious, in spite of 
 everything, that the force of the reaction is 
 blunted. It is not as yet receding; but it is, 
 however, no longer advancing. 
 
 Russia is at the turning-point. Russian 
 thought h.'Ls become a stagnant pool. The 
 liberals have not to a marked degree the courage 
 of their convictions, nor do the reactionaries 
 
 250
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 dare engage in any too great violence. We live 
 from day to day, and no one knows whither one 
 is tending. It seems even as if people were 
 delighted not to go anywhere. Some legislative 
 measures of very slight importance have been 
 enacted. But no one seems to have the cour- 
 age to attack the great political problems, ripe 
 for so many years. Life formulates its imperi- 
 ous demands, but the government, in its inabil- 
 ity to act, seems to wish to stop up its ears and 
 close its eyes. Russia continues to linger along 
 in superannuated and nearly vanished institu- 
 tions, hardly worthy of the eighteenth century, 
 and continues to be an archaic state. The 
 breath of no powerful and generous idea seems 
 to animate this country. Not a single man, 
 no great character, no conspicuous personality, 
 appears to captivate the crowd and to vibrate 
 in the hearts. The novel is reduced to a super- 
 ficial impressionism, which paints daily life 
 exactly as it is, without in the least attempting 
 to interpret it. It would seem as if the novel- 
 
 251
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 ists are chiefly ambitious to reduce themselves 
 to the level of photographic machines, and to 
 carefully avoid all traces of an independent 
 thought. 
 
 At this present moment, Russian society 
 seems to be without aspiration, and with no 
 ideal of any kind. There is not a single great 
 question about which intellectual war is waged. 
 The most sacred principles count but sceptics 
 and unbelievers. It would seem as if the 
 chosen few of Russian society (among whom, 
 in other times, such powerful currents of 
 thought have been produced) had lost the fac- 
 ulty of feeling the beating of their own heart. 
 An atmosphere, dull and gray, pervades the 
 whole. Tliore is absolute stagnation. 
 
 For how long will this state of things last? 
 Ten, twenty, thirty years? Who will be the 
 deliverer? Who will come to drag Russian 
 society from its dull and lifeless state? Alas, 
 no one can answer this question. 
 
 One event alone has been as a ray of light on 
 
 252
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 this dark and gloomy sky,— the circular of the 
 24th of August, 1898, and the conference at 
 The Hague, which was the result of it. Unhap- 
 pily, neither has this event succeeded in rousing 
 Russian society from its torpor. Many people 
 in Russia expressed themselves on the subject 
 of The Hague conference with a pessimism both 
 scornful and ironical. Furthermore, the noble 
 attempt of the Emperor Nicholas II. has hardly 
 passed out of the domain of theory. Russia 
 has not disarmed a single regiment; quite the 
 contrary. This year the number of recruits 
 called to active service is greater than last. 
 And Russia has also experienced a recrudes- 
 cence in naval affairs, a more foolish madness 
 even than militarism. The construction of 
 ironclads has been resumed with great ardor. 
 Russia is at present going through one of the 
 dullest and most spiritless periods of her his- 
 tory. The Russian people have, I am sure, too 
 much exuberance of vital power not to react 
 eventually. Some day the nation will resume 
 
 253
 
 THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE 
 
 its forward march. Of that there can be no 
 shadow of doubt. But just now, Russia seems 
 as if motionless, hesitating and irresolute 
 between progress and reaction.* 
 
 (0 Written in 1901. 
 
 254
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 AN INTERPRETATION
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY. 
 
 An Interpretation 
 
 vladimir g. simkovitch 
 
 The Russian Autocratic System has of 
 late faced a more serious trial than ever be- 
 fore. The war with Japan, while diverting 
 public attention for the moment, cannot 
 change to any material extent the course of 
 Russia's inner development. Indeed, it is 
 more likely to hasten the crisis. The sys- 
 tem is breaking down and the day when it 
 will be abandoned ought to be a day of 
 praise and thanksgiving, not only for the 
 people but for the Czar too. For Russian 
 Autocracy has brought the country to the 
 verge of ruin and starvation, and has ruled 
 Czar Nicholas II. himself with a rod of 
 iron, out of a man of noble motives and 
 high ideals making a pathetic figurehead 
 
 257
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 suffering under the weight of inherited 
 system. 
 
 Prince Ukhtomski, an old friend of Czar 
 Nicholas II., whose patriotism and loyalty 
 are beyond question, has summed up the 
 situation in the following words: 
 
 "Russia is chronically starving. Pauper- 
 ism increases in extent and degree, and 
 there are neither ways nor means to stop 
 or to mitigate the evil. Expenditure is 
 growing on all sides and in all directions, 
 without bounds, though the sources of pro- 
 ductive labor are exhausted. The peoj^le in 
 the country, young and old, labor with all 
 their force, but all their exertions are not 
 enough to satisfy the requirements of the 
 state and of those who live on the labor of 
 the })easants. * * * There is but one way 
 towards a l)rigliter future and that is the 
 delivery of the i)eople from the yoke of 
 bureaucracy." (St. Petersburgskia Vedo- 
 mosti, November lo, lUOl.) 
 
 258
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 But it is not bureaucracy as such, it is 
 the specific spirit of the Russian bureauc- 
 racy, it is the point of view, the doctrinaire, 
 sinister Byzantinism, the system of Alex- 
 ander III., of Pobedonosceff, Katkoff, 
 Leontyeff, etc., that has gradually led to 
 the moral and material degeneration of Rus- 
 sia. Nicholas II., a man of an entirely 
 different make-up, could not free himself 
 from the established system and from the 
 statesmen it had produced. And yet Alex- 
 ander III. and Katkoff, and Leontyeff and 
 Pobedonosceff, etc., were all, with the pos- 
 sible exception of Katkoff, perfectly honest 
 men, who sincerely and unselfishly worked 
 for what they considered the salvation of 
 Russia. Alexander III. witnessed the ter- 
 rible death of his father, the great reformer, 
 and reaction forced him back on the severe 
 absolutism of Nicholas I. Yet under Nich- 
 olas I. Russia was a part of Europe. Au- 
 tocracy was a fact, but not a doctrine. Only 
 
 259
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 under Alexander III., and after the experi- 
 ences at the Berlin Congress of 1878, did 
 absolutistic Russia feel conscious of being 
 fundamentally different from Western Eu- 
 rope; feel that it might indeed have in 
 common with some western states the divine 
 right of kings, and yet become aware of the 
 abyss that separated Europe from Russia. 
 
 The Slavophiles and Panslavists rejoiced 
 over the spirit in which Alexander III. de- 
 termined to govern Russia, but without 
 cause. Only a distorted selection of i)oints 
 acceptable to a Czar and pernicious to a 
 people were taken over from the Slavojihile 
 code, and these were fused with a system 
 of government, in its spirit and origin, more 
 Tartar than Slavonic. 
 
 What is this System? There is nobody 
 who rei)resents and inter])rets its spirit 
 more correctly or fearlessly than Nikolay 
 Konstantinovich LeontyefT. LeontyelT liim- 
 self is often regarded as the last great 
 
 2G0
 
 liUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 Slavophile publicist, though this is a mis- 
 take. He represents precisely the peculiar 
 fusion of degenerate Slavophilism with 
 Russian governmentalism which is the 
 spirit and principle of the reign of Alex- 
 ander III., — present-day Russia's inheri- 
 tance and "System." 
 
 Let the philosopher of the System speak 
 for himself.^ Let him begin with under- 
 lying principles, with his theory. 
 
 The basic principle is "Byzantinism." 
 Byzantinism is the nervous system of Rus- 
 sia. It stands for something very definite. 
 Politically it is Autocracy, religiously it is 
 Christianity with very distinct features, 
 which allow no confusion with western 
 churches and with the teachings of heretics 
 and dissenters. In matters of morals it 
 does not share the western exaggerated no- 
 
 (') Leontyefif develops his philosophy in his famous 
 work, Vostok, Rossia and Slovyanstvo (i.e., '"The 
 East, Russia and the Slavs "), 2 vols. , Moscow, 1885. 
 
 261
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 tions of the value and importance of human 
 personality. The Byzantine ideal is a gen- 
 eral hopelessness on the subject of every- 
 thing earthly, — personal happiness, per- 
 sonal purity, and personal moral perfection 
 (Vol. I., p. 81). Russian Autocracy, Rus- 
 sian Czarism, developed under Byzantine 
 influences. Byzantine ideas were the only 
 elements common to such widely differing 
 portions of the Russian Empire as Little 
 Russia, Lithuania, and Great Russia (I. 
 pp. 98, 99). Byzantine Christianity teaches 
 strict subordination. It inculcates the doc- 
 trine that the worldly, the political hier- 
 archy is but the reflection of the heavenly. 
 There is no eipiality, because the church 
 teaches that even angels are not equal 
 among themselves (IT. 41). 
 
 Christianity is tiie surest and most prac- 
 tical moans of ruling the masses of the peo- 
 l»h' with an Ii<»n hand. l>iit this ixnvor only 
 true Christianity has, tlie Christianity of 
 
 2(52
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 the peasants, the monks and the nuns, not 
 Christianity a Veau de rose, with its talk 
 about love without fear, about the dignity 
 of men and the good of mankind (II. 48). 
 Love of mankind is anthropolatry and un- 
 christian. The basis of true faith is fear. 
 Everybody can comprehend fear, fear of 
 punishment here or hereafter, and who 
 fears is humble, and who is humble seeks 
 authority and learns to love the authority 
 above him (II. 268-269). And authority is 
 constructive, is organizing. Organization, 
 social organization, is by nature nothing 
 else than chronic despotism, which is ac- 
 cepted by all in the organization ; by some 
 through love, by others through fear, or 
 through the hope of benefit to be derived 
 from despotism. True constructive prog- 
 ress lies therefore in limiting freedom and 
 not authority (II. 288). Freedom and lib- 
 eralism are what disintegrate countries. 
 Slowly but surely they destroy their na- 
 
 263
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 tional existence. Liberalism is everj^where 
 an enemy to the historical principles of the 
 people, of the discipline in which the people 
 have developed. Liberalism is everj^iere 
 negative ; it is the negation of all discipline. 
 And the more honest, the more sincere, the 
 more incorruptible is this liberalism — the 
 more it is pernicious (11. 37). 
 
 Freedom for freedom's sake, the rights 
 of habeas corpus, legality, the principles of 
 1789, "Ze bien-etre materiel et moral de 
 Vhumanitey * * * "Oh, these miserable 
 ideals. These miserable men," exclaims 
 Leontyeff. "The more sincere, the more 
 lionest, the more convinced they are, the 
 worse, the more harmful they are in their 
 naive moderation, in their imperceptible 
 l)rogress and fatal insidiousness. It is awk- 
 ward to punish them, to persecute them, 
 to execute them. * * * Entrenched behind 
 legal safeguards they are more dangerous 
 ill an arrant knaves, against whom every 
 
 264
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 country wields the sword, the penitentiary, 
 exile" * * * (Vol. IL, p. 40). Liberal- 
 ism is a new idolatry that sacrifices nations, 
 with their historical, national peculiarities 
 and characteristics, to a new idol, to a new 
 and strange faith in the dignity and the 
 rights of the common European bourgeois 
 (II. 100). The liberal is half-nihilist, but 
 more dangerous than the nihilist, because 
 he does not dare to fight openly. He 
 breathes safely under the uniform of a state 
 official, in the professor's chair, on the 
 judge's bench and especially in the clever 
 and cunning articles of the liberal papers, 
 which know at the proper time how to safe- 
 guard themselves with patriotic yells, with 
 monarchistic exclamations, so that the hiss 
 of the serpent and his treacherous coiling 
 may not be noticed (II. 109). 
 
 " 'Prepare, honest citizens, prepare 
 the future !' cry these liberals. 'Teach your 
 children to grumble against authorities, 
 
 265
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 teach tliem that above all it is important to 
 be an 'honest man,' and that a man may 
 have any religion he pleases. * * * Teach 
 them to call piety bigotry, and to object to 
 religious fanaticism, teach them that devo- 
 tion to the Czar's service and respect to 
 superiors is servility. * * * Teach them 
 not to care "e>^ principe" for offices and 
 decorations. * * * Prepare, prepare the 
 future! Send immediately anatomical at- 
 lases to the public schools, so that the chil- 
 dren of the peasant, these citizens of the 
 beautiful future, may learn soon that there 
 is no soul in a man, and that everything is 
 nerves and nerves * * * (and if there is 
 nothing but nerves — why should they go to 
 confession, or obey the policeman?) * * * 
 Take sjDCcial care that common people 
 should not think that the earth stands on 
 three whales r * * * Oh, refined, slow poi- 
 son is more terrible than fire and sword" 
 (II. pp. 44-45). 
 
 266
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 All such doctrines, such innovations have 
 to be nip]3ed in the bud, otherwise they are 
 victorious, declares Leontyeff. Their posi- 
 tive side for the most part remains a castle 
 in the air; their destructive activity un- 
 fortunately too often achieves its negative 
 end. 
 
 For the perfect destruction of what is left 
 of the former social organization of Europe 
 there is no need for barbarians, for a for- 
 eign invasion. The further spread of the 
 religion of Eudaimonism, with its device, 
 "Le bien-etre materiel et moral de Vhu- 
 manite" will accomplish it! (I. 183). 
 
 Thus the general profession of faith of 
 the Russian interpreter of Autocracy is 
 clear, and it might as well be pointed out 
 that all his opinions were those also of Kat- 
 koff, Pobedonosceff, as well as of the late 
 Emperor Alexander III. Let us now pene- 
 trate a little further into this doctrine that 
 has for over two decades ruled Russia. 
 
 267
 
 EUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 The Russian Czar by his authority and 
 according to the fundamental laws of the 
 Empire has the right to do everything ex- 
 cept to limit his authority. The Autocrat 
 cannot cease to be an autocrat (11. 164). 
 Anything that the Czar does is good and 
 legal. His doings cannot be judged by the 
 merits of the case; the pleasure of the Su- 
 preme Authority, the Czar, is the supreme 
 criterion. He who does not see this and can- 
 not understand it, may be in the circum- 
 stances of his private atf airs an honest man ; 
 but he is not a true Russian (TI. 51). Tlie 
 Manifesto of Emperor Alexander III. of 
 April 29, 1881, was a true Russian Mani- 
 festo. In the face of the whole of constitu- 
 tional Euroj)e and the whole of republican 
 America it declared that Russia did not in- 
 tend to live any longer with somebody's else 
 brains, and that from now on Autocracy 
 would rule in Russia sui)remely and fear- 
 fully ("grozno"); even a dream of a con- 
 
 268
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 stitution would not be tolerated (I. 283). 
 The duty of the conservative elements is 
 not to be ashamed of calling themselves re- 
 actionaries (11. 79), because a reaction is 
 necessary in Russia. There has been too 
 much freedom. A violent rule is what the 
 country needs. Violence, when there is a 
 doctrine behind it, convinces many and con- 
 quers all (II. 80). A violent rule is what 
 the true Russian ought to love and the Rus- 
 sian peasant does so; he likes officials that 
 are brilliant, bold, hard, even harsh. Bish- 
 ops, generals, military commanders not only 
 are esteemed by the peasant, but please and 
 appeal to his Byzantine feelings. * * * He 
 loves decorations and looks at them with an 
 almost mystical respect. * * * But the 
 present nobility! Even a Gambetta and a 
 Bright would appeal to them more than a 
 Muraviefe or Paskevitch (II. 130). The 
 higher classes are already infected. Russia 
 is surrounded with this liberal pest. And 
 
 269
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 immediate action must be taken against 
 equality and liberalism. * * * Russia must 
 be kept frozen that it may not grow putrid 
 (II. 86). Russia's illiteracy is therefore 
 Russia's good fortune (II. 9). Since the 
 Crimean War everything has tended to Eu- 
 ropeanize Russia, and if she has been saved 
 from this fate it is due to the common peo- 
 ple and to a large extent to their illiteracy. 
 But let a man dare straightforwardly and 
 sincerely to doubt the value of public 
 schools ! Let a man say that it is still very 
 questionable if it is necessary or truly use- 
 ful to teach the peoi)le, the liberals would 
 laugh at him. But is it really advisable to 
 propagate among the people European no- 
 tions, tastes, ideals, prejudices, and terrible 
 mistakes^ (II. l.T.). 
 
 Almost as pernicious as the schools are 
 the new courts of justice as established by 
 Alexander IL, say tlio autocrats. They 
 have undermined all authority. They have 
 
 270
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 publicly attacked and convicted statesmen, 
 abbots, barons, generals, mayors of cities, 
 and men and women of quality. * * * And 
 the public was glad. The introduction of 
 the new courts and the jury system was an 
 extremely radical step, and to maintain an 
 equilibrium the judges ought to interpret 
 the new institutions properly, and favor the 
 older elements, the generals, the abbots, the 
 noblemen, the fathers and mothers, as 
 against the younger and weaker elements. 
 The weaker element may soon become too 
 strong ! We must not disaccustom the peo- 
 ple and the youth to obedience ; it is against 
 the spirit of Greek Orthodoxy, in which the 
 Monarchy has grown up. Without talking 
 much about it publicly therefore, the pres- 
 ent courts must be modified (II. 136-142). 
 — It may be remarked here, by way of foot- 
 note, that this has indeed taken place. 
 
 The great cardinal problem for Russian 
 interior administration, as well as for Rus- 
 
 271
 
 EUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 sian foreign policy, is liow to weaken de- 
 mocracy. "How to weaken, how to strangle 
 democracy, Europeanism, liberalism in all 
 countries — that is the question!" (I. 301). 
 Whosoever wishes Russia well must de- 
 sire the ruin of western civilization and 
 of the foremost nations representing this 
 civilization. This western civilization is 
 already going to pieces, but it has not yet 
 lost its charm for the majority of the cult- 
 ured people of Russia, who are still naive 
 enough to believe in "democracy and the 
 welfare of humanity" (I. 305). On the 
 suppression of liberalism depends the out- 
 come of the solution of the Eastern ques- 
 tion — this is another oi)inion of Leontyeff, 
 who was a great authority on Eastera af- 
 fairs, having si)ent over ten years in Turkey 
 in the Russian di])Iomatic service. 
 
 Panslavism is a necessity, continues the 
 expounder of Autocracy, but if Greek-Ortho- 
 dox Panslavism is salvation, liberal Pan- 
 
 272
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 slavism means ruin, and ruin first of all for 
 Russia! (I. 267) ; because all the Slavs out- 
 side of Russia are Europeans and liberals. 
 If Greek Orthodoxy is still strong in the 
 East it is due to the Turks. Turkish op- 
 pression was all that preserved the Balkan 
 Slavs from the destructive influences of 
 European liberalism. 
 
 Russia's true national policy cannot be 
 based on purely racial considerations. It is 
 the spiritual idea that is Russia's strength, 
 and this idea is Greek Orthodoxy and Au- 
 tocracy. One may talk anything "for Eu- 
 rope," but one must think logically and 
 clearly for one's self. The existence of Tur- 
 key is beneficial to Russia so long as she is 
 not ready to take its place on the Bosphorus. 
 A Pasha is better than a Greek democratic 
 Nomarch (prefect) ; the Pasha is more 
 autocratic, more statesmanlike (II. 255). 
 Racial sympathies with the Slavs should 
 not mislead any Russian. As a matter of 
 
 273
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 fact it may as well be pointed out that 
 among all the Slavonic nations, says Leont- 
 yeff, Russia is the least Slavonic. Russia 
 is different in her history and her composi- 
 tion, different psychologically and intellect- 
 ually, from all other Slavs. "Russia is the 
 most easterly, the most, so to say, Asiatic 
 Turanian nation in the Slavonic world, and 
 she can develop quite independently of Eu- 
 rope. Without this Asiatic influence of 
 Russia the other Slavs would soon become 
 most miserable continental Europeans and 
 nothing else, and for such a miserable end 
 it is not worth their while to 'shake off their 
 yoke' or for us to undertake self-sacrificing 
 crusades" (I. 285). In the Russian make- 
 up are strong and important characteristics 
 that resemble the Turks, the Tartars, the 
 Asiatics rather than the southern and west- 
 ern Slavs. Russians are hrzier, more fa- 
 talistic, more obedient to authority, more 
 good-natured, more recklessly brave, more 
 
 274
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 inconsistent, and infinitely more inclined to 
 religious mysticism than Servians, Bulga- 
 rians, Czechs, or Croatians (I. 284). 
 
 The tendencies of the Southern Slavs are 
 evil; worse even than those of the French. 
 The French nation has at least checking 
 traditions. It still has royalists, ultramon- 
 tanes, aristocrats, feudal traditions, that 
 keep it from a democratic disintegration. 
 The Slavs, on the other hand, are through- 
 out liberals, constitutionalists, democrats. 
 They have no ground under their feet that 
 develops men of thought and authoritative 
 conservatism (I. 307). But is it not Rus- 
 sia's great destiny to unite all the Slavs'? 
 This destiny is a dangerous burden, it is a 
 sad necessity ; it may mean the downfall of 
 autocratic Russia exchanged for God knows 
 what. The Slavs are fundamentally differ- 
 ent from old Russia of the Gremlin of Mos- 
 cow. Take Bulgaria, for instance. Its 
 cultured classes are of the most common 
 
 275
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 European liberal stamp. And what harm 
 these cultured Bulgarians have already done 
 to Russia and their own people! No, Bul- 
 garia is not misguided: it is calculat- 
 ing and bold, it is a fatal and dangerous 
 nation ! 
 
 Why then unite ourselves with these na- 
 tions that are to such an extent liberal and 
 constitutional 1 Why bother Turkey, which 
 by its very existence is so useful to us in 
 checking this great European pestilence of 
 democratic progress! (II. 67). And this 
 last Turkish war * * * the Russian army 
 crossing the Danube, the Russian army 
 passing the Balkans. * * * The victorious 
 army standing before Constantinople. * * * 
 And yet it did not enter it, it did not occupy 
 it! It looks like an evident weakness, like 
 a ])hn ider. * * * But it was, as God views 
 it, right, "in that year we were still un- 
 wortliy to ciitor there, we should have 
 spoiled everything. * * * We were then 
 
 276
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 still too liherair ' (II. 261). The final re- 
 pulsion of the Turks is necessary, but in 
 taking their place we ought not to have in 
 view the "liberty" of the Christians, but 
 their organization. And we must, therefore, 
 by all means clear our own as well as their 
 minds from all sorts of constitutional and 
 liberal likings, customs, and tastes. Other- 
 wise we shall ruin our own future as well 
 as the future of the East. And when the 
 time comes to expel the Sultan, we shall not 
 expel him because he is an autocratic Asi- 
 atic monarch — well for us that he is — but 
 because he has become too weak and cannot 
 longer resist the influences of liberal Eu- 
 rope. But Russia can resist them if it 
 wants to ! Russia has proved that it can. 
 It proved it by the Manifesto of the Em- 
 peror Alexander III. of the 29th of April, 
 1881 (I. 282-283). And for the present 
 
 (') The Turkish war was in the liberal reign of 
 Alexander II. 
 
 277
 
 EUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 Russia must keep in mind the old princi- 
 ple — divide et impera! It is essential for 
 Russia that on the Balkan peninsula there 
 shall be as little as possible of state unity, 
 of political harmony, and as much as pos- 
 sible of church unity, of Greek-orthodox 
 unity. Russia's friends are the Greek Pa- 
 triarchs, the Greek monks, the Montenegro 
 warriors; her enemies, the enemies of the 
 church, the enemies of Russian Autocracy, 
 are the parliaments of Greece and of the 
 Balkan States (I. 226-230). 
 
 The South-Slavonic bourgeoisie stands in 
 the way of a Russo-Byzantian autocratic 
 Empire. Kussia has to reckon with this class 
 and must change or neutralize it. Russia 
 must find some powerful antidote for this 
 miserable European liberalism. And for 
 tlie time being the only and the best avail- 
 able antidote is the nursing and strengthen- 
 ing of the Greek-orthodox Church in the 
 Balkan States (I. 230). 
 
 278
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 As things are now, western diplomacy is 
 already trying to diminish Russian influ- 
 ence in Greece and Bulgaria, and from past 
 experience one can foresee what would hap- 
 pen if Constantinople should become some- 
 thing like an absurd neutral city. All the 
 motley, self-seeking, and irritable population 
 of Christian Turkey would be left to its 
 passions without the Russian friendly but 
 fatherly severe "veto!" To see Constanti- 
 nople a free European town is to see it di- 
 rectly and indirectly closed and inaccessible 
 for Russia (1.255). 
 
 The other danger is still greater. Russia 
 may become contaminated, may catch the 
 disease from the Southern Slav whom she 
 is warming at her bosom. The Russian, 
 like the Frenchman, may learn to love any 
 kind of Eussia, as the Frenchman has 
 learned to serve any sort of France. But 
 who could care for a Russia that is not 
 autocratic and not Greek-orthodox! (II. 
 
 279
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 149). And because Katkoff for decades has 
 preached this doctrine he deserves a monu- 
 ment during his lifetime. 
 
 But the great truth is that Russia has 
 already caught the disease. In the bottom 
 of their hearts the Russians are already lib- 
 eral. They do not realize that it is simply 
 a sin to love Europe (II. 306). Yes, dur- 
 ing recent years the Russian people has 
 shown that its character is becoming very 
 doubtful, if not really bad. It seems that 
 sooner or later the conmion people will fol- 
 low the intelligent leaders. And these in- 
 telligent ones are throughout liberal, i. c, 
 empty, negative, and unprincipled (II. 182). 
 
 What then can save a country in such a 
 pass? The answer is inequality. The more 
 equal the rights, the more similar are the 
 subjects of the empire, and the more similar 
 are their demands. Divide et impcra! is 
 therefore not a i)iece of Jesuitism, but a law 
 of nature, a fundamental i)rinciple of good 
 
 280
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 government. So long as there are different 
 castes, different provinces, with different 
 peoples, so long as the education is differ- 
 ent in different classes of society, so long 
 will there be still a good chance to fight 
 democratic progress (I. 165). But if the 
 equalizing tendencies of liberalism and the 
 democratic spirit gain the upper hand then 
 there is only one salvation left — and that is 
 the conquest of new and original countries, 
 the conquest and occupation of new terri- 
 tories with a foreign and dissimilar popu- 
 lation, the annexation of countries that 
 carry in themselves conditions favorable for 
 autocratic discipline, an annexation that 
 does not hurry with any deep or inner 
 assimilation (I. 171-179). Divide et im- 
 peral 
 
 281
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 n. 
 
 We have presented the interpretation of 
 the Russian system of government as firmly 
 adhered to by Alexander III., and illus- 
 trated by all his administrative activity. 
 The closing lines of the last chapter of 
 Leontyeff's book throw, perhaps, some light 
 on the occupation of Manchuria and on the 
 causes of the present war. But the Russian 
 people is clamoring not for Manchuria, but 
 for its daily bread, and such safeguards of 
 personal liberty as the Anglo-Saxons have 
 secured in their Magna Charta. 
 
 Wlien Nicholas 11. succeeded his father, 
 a sigh of relief went through Russia. Tt 
 was expected that ho would revert to the 
 l)olicy of his grandfather, thai he wouhl 
 grant some sort of conservative constitu- 
 tion, such as Alexander 11. was about to 
 
 282
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 sign when he was murdered. All these 
 hopes failed. Nicholas II. was too weak a 
 man to take a step of any importance what- 
 soever. The numerous petitions of provin- 
 cial assemblies of the nobility praying for 
 guarantees of life, liberty, and property, 
 were answered by arrests and exiles. The 
 Czar solemnly declared on January 17, 
 1895, that he would rule in the spirit of his 
 father, and no change in the system, no 
 "foolish dreams" would be tolerated. 
 
 He has kept his word. But he did not 
 rule, he does not rule, and Russia is drift- 
 ing towards rack and ruin, still in the grip 
 of the same all-powerful System, with a 
 thoroughly good but helpless Czar as its 
 first slave, and perhaps its last victim. Not 
 restrained by a responsible man, in the 
 hands of a motley body of advisers, who 
 have none of the honesty and integrity and 
 unselfishness of fanatics like Alexander III. 
 or Pobedonosceff, the autocratic System of 
 
 283
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 Alexander III. has become more unscrupu- 
 lous than ever. Bezobrazoff and Alexeyeff 
 plunged the country into a terrible and un- 
 necessary war, and the ministry of von 
 Plehve managed Russia by attending chiefly 
 to the extermination of the "inner foe" — 
 that is, the enlightenment of the i:)eople. 
 
 The crimes of government are interpreted 
 by foreigners as the barbarism of the peo- 
 ple, and the fair name of Kussia is dis- 
 graced throughout the world. The opinion 
 of the average American is that the Russian 
 people is barbarous and its government en- 
 lightened, lie forgets that it is not the 
 government, but the i)eople, that has pro- 
 duced the great Russian artists, the great 
 l^ussian novelists, the great Russian schol- 
 ars famous throughoui the world. The 
 Russian people has ])roduced them too, not 
 with the lieJ]), but in spite of, the autocratic 
 government. Were not the two greatest 
 Russian ])oets, Pushkin and TiOniionloff, 
 
 284
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 harassed and persecuted by the govern- 
 ments? Did not Turgeneff live in exile in 
 Europe? Was not Dostoyevski sentenced 
 to death, his punishment being commuted 
 on the scaffold to forced labor in Siberia! 
 Was not Tolstoi anathematized, and is it 
 not an oi)en secret that he would long ago 
 have been sent to Siberia were it not for the 
 bad impression such an action might have 
 produced on Europe? 
 
 Was it the Russian people that drowned 
 6,000 innocent Chinese men, women, and 
 children in the Amoor ; or was it the troops 
 obeying with horror orders received? But 
 what is Russia's good name to its govern- 
 ment? As Prince Gregory Volkonski cor- 
 rectly says, the one thought and care of the 
 Russian government is that the power shall 
 not slip out from its hands.^ This slipping 
 out process, however, has already begun. 
 
 (') Prince Gregory Volkonsky. The Present Condi- 
 tion of Russia (in Russia), Stuttgart, 1903, p. 23. 
 
 285
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 The Autocratic System still exists in its 
 irresponsibility, yet it is not any longer in 
 the hands of the autocrat. The imperial 
 mantle is already being pulled to shreds and 
 pieces, and there is a constant scramble be- 
 tween grand dukes and common climbers 
 and intriguers for the most of it. Did the 
 autocrat of all the Russias want this war? 
 Did he not state to the Japanese Minister in 
 all sincerity that there would be no war? 
 Did he not order Alexeyeff to transmit on 
 New Year's Day to the Far Eastern troops 
 his imperial greetings and his assurance 
 that peace would be preserved in the Far 
 East? Nobody doubted the good faith of 
 the Czar, but everybody in ,7a])an and else- 
 where was convinced of the bad faith of 
 the Imperial IJiissian Government, of its 
 Machiavellian, sixlecnth-ccntury methods of 
 diplomacy. And (lie woild is tired of it. 
 Honest, straigliti'orwartl nidliods in inter- 
 national dealings may weigh on some gov- 
 
 286
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 ernments as a nightmare, but they must con- 
 form to them nevertheless. 
 
 And now to the last — we hope the last — 
 great crime of the Autocratic System. For 
 what is Russian blood now sacrificed and 
 billions of rubles wrung from the starving 
 Russian people, wasted on the fields of 
 Manchuria? Does the Russian people need 
 Manchuria? Not in the least. Even such 
 expansionists and nationalistic papers as 
 Suvorin's "Novoe Vremya" and Prince 
 Ukhtomski's "St. Petersburgskia Vedmosti" 
 were bitterly opposed to it. But who cares 
 for national interests, when personal are at 
 stake! In Corea a company formed by a 
 couple or more of grand dukes and some 
 higher bureaucrats has obtained valuable 
 lumber and mining concessions — a sufficient 
 cause for declaring northern Corea under 
 the Russian sphere of influence.^ As to the 
 Manchurian adventure, everybody in Rus- 
 
 (') Osvoboshdenie, No. 31, p. 118. 
 
 287
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 sia knew perfectly well and talked freely 
 about this new promised land for official 
 thieves. It is estimated that about three- 
 quarters of the hundreds of millions appro- 
 priated for the railroads, the new commer- 
 cial cities, the ports, etc., were stolen, and 
 the money went high enough up to interest 
 a powerful element of the autocratic admin- 
 istration in perpetuating this new Elldorado. 
 Already, in the beginning of 1002, Pro- 
 fessor Migulin of the University of Kliar- 
 koff,* a very conservative man and an ex- 
 I)ert in railroad finance, called attention to 
 what was going on in Manchuria. The 
 railroad afforded no technical difficulties 
 whatsoever, the Chinese coolie labor used 
 in its construction was the cheapest in the 
 world, the material was imported duty-free. 
 And yet the laying of inils alone, not count- 
 ing ('([uipment, cost of stations, ]>latrorins, 
 
 (') ]'. P. Mit,'iiliii. Our Liihst RaUnuul rolii-i/ ami 
 liailruad Luaua i\\W\-\W2), KliurkolT, JU02. 
 
 288
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 etc., cost the government more than 152,000 
 rubles pro verst, that is, about 230,000 ru- 
 bles a mile ! ^ Professor Migulin then also 
 pointed out that Manchuria, on account of 
 its extremely cheap coolie labor, is a place 
 entirely unfit for Russian colonization, and 
 likely to kill agriculture and colonization in 
 the Russian Amoor region, since Russians 
 cannot compete with Chinese wages and the 
 low price of agricultural products'. 
 
 Prince Ukhtomski, the president of the 
 Russo-Chinese Bank, and formerly an in- 
 timate friend of Nicholas II., in an inter- 
 
 (') The Manchurian railway cost the Russian people 
 $115,0.00 per mile, while the average cost of an Amer- 
 ican railway in the Western plains is $13,000 to 
 $15,000 a mile. The inspecting engineer for the U. S. 
 Government estimated, in 1887, the cost of reproduc- 
 tion of the Central Branch of the Union Pacitie R. R. 
 at $20,040 a mile ; and it must be rememl)ered that in 
 the intervening twenty years the track and roadbed 
 had been put in a much better condition tiian at the 
 time of original construction. See Reports of the 
 TJ. S. Pacific Railway Commission, Senate Executive 
 Documents, 50th Congress, 1st Session, No. 51, pp. 
 4437-4468. 
 
 289
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 view granted to the correspondent of the 
 "Frankfurter Zeitung," did not hesitate to 
 acknowledge that the cause of the war was 
 "graft." 
 
 "Whose fault is it, in the opinion of Your 
 Highness, that affairs have taken such a 
 course?" he was asked. 
 
 "In the present episodes the fault is en- 
 tirely with Japan, which wants the war, is 
 prepared for the war, which hates Kussia 
 and is full of warlike enthusiasm. But in 
 general, of course, such a situation would 
 never have arisen if we had adhered to a 
 policy of civilization rather than to pro- 
 moters' politics." 
 
 "What do you mean by promoters' poli- 
 tics?" 
 
 "Oh, there are ])lenty of jieople interested 
 in the iimumeral)Ic millions npi)ropriated 
 for railroads, etc. The 'Chunchuses' (Man- 
 churian ])rig;nids) and the 'raiustonns' 
 have so fantastically comi)licated the work, 
 
 290
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 so fantastically increased the expenses, that 
 really, without being particularly suspi- 
 cious, one cannot help seeing how things 
 were managed there." 
 
 These immediate appetites were the im- 
 mediate little causes of the war, but not the 
 fundamental cause. The great cause is 
 pointed out by Leontyeff. It was the thirst 
 for the Asiatic continent, which carries in 
 itself conditions so favorable to a perpetua- 
 tion of the Russian Autocracy in scecula 
 scBCulorum. Manchuria, with its millions of 
 strong, warlike people, means a tremendous 
 additional strength, a great step, in the 
 reali^iation of this dream. 
 
 And will this dream be realized! Cer- 
 tainly not in the light- in which the Russian 
 Autocracy sees it. Theoretically it may be 
 a very pretty scheme of checking the prog- 
 ress of Russian civilization, with the help 
 of Cossacks, Turkomen, and Manchurian 
 hordes. But the time element was entirely 
 
 291
 
 RUSSIAN AUTOCRACY 
 
 left out of consideration. It takes no 
 prophet to foresee that the Russian people 
 will finish with the autocratic regime long 
 before it possibly can take a new lease of 
 life in Asia. The present war is only hast- 
 ening the crisis. Even such an oi)timistic 
 and stanch advocate of Autocracy as Prince 
 Meshcherski takes up with the role of a 
 Cassandra, and declares that he does not ex- 
 pect the war to be a beneficial thunder-storm 
 that will clear the atmosphere for tlie Rus- 
 sian Autocracy. On the contrary', no matter 
 if Russian arms are eventually victorious, 
 a terrible economic decline is bound to fol- 
 low, when all the little rivulets find channels 
 will unite in a sea of general dissatisfaction. 
 Then, we may confidently add, the real 
 regeneration of Russia will begin. 
 
 292
 
 THE SLAVS
 
 THE SLAVS. 
 
 Peter Roberts 
 
 "When a Slovak priest was asked : "AVliat 
 is the meaning of the word Slav?" he in- 
 stantly replied, "Glory," and added, "In all 
 churches wherein the Slavs worship, Slava 
 Bogu (glory to God) is chanted, and Slava 
 is the same word as Slav." 
 
 This is the interpretation commonly ac- 
 cepted by the majority of the race. Schol- 
 ars support this view by affirming that the 
 root 'from which the word is derived signi- 
 fies "intelligence" and that Slav means "the 
 intelligible people." Others, however, de- 
 rive the word from a root signifying "to 
 call," and affirm that Slav means the "called 
 ones" — those who are commanded; that is, 
 serfs and slaves. The former interpretation 
 represents the pride and expectation of the 
 
 295
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 Slavophiles, who believe that their race is 
 providentially destined to lead the world in 
 civilization, by preserving and perpetuating 
 the Christian faith, by establishing law and 
 order, by enforcing obedience to authority, 
 and by realizing the full fruition of forces 
 of progress which are now arrested by the 
 senility of European nations who stand at 
 an open grave wherein the glory of extinct 
 kingdoms is buried. The latter interpreta- 
 tion represents the sentiments of the Slavo- 
 phobs, who believe that no good has ever 
 come or ever will come from the Slav, be- 
 cause its sons are the arch-corrui)tionists of 
 the Christian faith; the uncompromising 
 foes of democratic institutions ; the destroy- 
 ers of the inalienable rights to freedom of 
 thought and of conscience ; and the greatest 
 liindrance to the onward i)rogress of that 
 civilization which has done so much for the 
 peoples of Euroi)e. Both ])ositions are those 
 of extremists, and eacli is wide of the mark 
 
 296
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 chalked out by the judgment of history. 
 This article is a study of the Slav's (I) His- 
 torical Development, (II) Racial Charac- 
 teristics, (III) Recent Progress. 
 
 I. 
 
 The Slav, in the family of nations, be- 
 longs to the Indo-European stem, which 
 comprises the Asiatic and European Ar- 
 yans. The European branch separated to 
 north and south; the former comprised the 
 Germanic and the Letto-Slavic peoples ; the 
 latter, the Greeks, Italians, and Kelts. The 
 Letta- Slavs were separated into Letts and 
 Slavonians. The Slavonians are divided 
 into East, West, and South Slavs. The 
 East branch comprises the Great Russians, 
 the A^^iite Russians, and the Little Rus- 
 sians ; the West branch, the Slavs who live 
 on the Elbe, the Wends of Lusatia, the Poles 
 who dwell in the extinct kingdom of Poland 
 
 297
 
 THE SLAYS 
 
 and in Galicia, the Czeks in Bohemia and 
 Meringia, and the Slovaks in the northern 
 principality of Hungary; the South branch 
 comprises the Slavs inhabiting the southeast 
 portion of the Alps in Austria, the Bulga- 
 rians of the Danube, and the inhabitants of 
 Croatia, Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Mol- 
 davia, and Slavonia. All these people do 
 not speak the Slavic language. Those on 
 the Elbe have been Germanized, those of 
 Moldavia and Slavonia have been Roman- 
 ized, and many in the Turkish empire are 
 zealous Mussulmans. The Bulgarians — a 
 people of Ugrian origin — have alienated 
 their tongue more than any other branch of 
 this great race, while the Polish language 
 contains many foreign elements. Neverthe- 
 less, the vast majority of Slavs si^eak the 
 ancient Slavic language, or dialects of the 
 same, and an educated I\uthenian said that 
 hu had little dinicnlly in conversing with 
 representatives of the 100,000,000 Slavic 
 
 298
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 peoples. At the bead of these millions stand 
 the Great Russians, whose language in mag- 
 nificent prospect rivals that of any race and 
 whose dignity and strength admirably "fit 
 it to be the tongue of an imperial people.*' 
 No date can be fixed for the coming of 
 the Slav to Europe. In the table of nations 
 given by Herodotus (450 b.c), a tribe, the 
 Budini, is described as having blue eyes and 
 blonde hair. These people, with consider- 
 able probability, have been pointed out as 
 the ancestors of the Slavs. Pytheas (200 
 B.C.), the Massilian, spoke of the Germanic 
 tribes but not of the Slavs. Tacitus (100 
 A.D.) and Ptolemy (150 a.d.) spoke of the 
 "Wends — a name given the Slavs by the 
 Germans. The first time the word appeared 
 in history was in the work of the Gothic 
 historian, Jordanes (600 b.c), who men- 
 tioned the "Sclavini et Antes" among the 
 unsettled peoples of Eastern Europe. The 
 Teutons preceded the Slavs on the Conti- 
 
 299
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 nent; the former first settled on the shores 
 of the Pontus, and, moving westward over 
 the highlands of Central Europe, settled be- 
 tween the Vistula and the Elbe; the latter, 
 moving in the same direction from the 
 shores of the Caspian Sea, settled between 
 the Dwina and the Vistula. The Teutons, 
 following the rivers emptying into the At- 
 lantic Ocean, became the heirs of the civ- 
 ilization of the Mediterranean races and 
 found their sphere of influence in hospitable 
 regions; the Slavs, following those empty- 
 ing into the Arctic Ocean, settled among 
 peoples living in the hunting and fishing 
 stages of civilization, and found their sphere 
 of influence limited to inhosjiitable regions. 
 These facts, in i)art, explain the Slav's slow 
 progress in civilization as compared with 
 the Kelts and Teutons. 
 
 The ]»lains of Russia, from time immem- 
 orablo, have been the scene of Mongolian 
 and Tartar invasions. Over these the no- 
 
 300
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 mad Slavs wandered, but little is known of 
 their movements during the first three cen- 
 turies of the Christian era. At the close of 
 the third century, Slavs were found in the 
 Balkan peninsula, where probably they 
 were transported as prisoners of war. Two 
 centuries later, they drove out the dwellers 
 in the plains east of the Carpathian moun- 
 tains, and, in the following centuiy, Herac- 
 lius, the Byzantine Emperor, employed 
 them as a bulwark against the incursions 
 of the Avars. Slav nomads, at this early 
 date, proved themselves brave warriors. 
 When a company of them was brought into 
 the cainp of the Khazars, a sage prophesied : 
 "These men's swords have two edges ; ours 
 have but one. We conquer now, but some 
 day they will conquer us." The prophecy 
 was fulfilled in the tenth century. In the 
 seventh century the Serbs left their home 
 on the Carpathian mountains and joined 
 their brethren in the Balkan peninsula. The 
 
 301
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 Bulgarians, settling about the middle of the 
 seventh century in Moesia, conquered the 
 Slavs of the Balkans, and for three cen- 
 turies held their own against the Huns, the 
 Turks, and Byzantium. The Slavs of the 
 south must have played a leading i^art in 
 these conflicts, for by the ninth century they 
 had so Slavonized their conquerors that the 
 old Finnish tongue was abandoned and the 
 Slavic language adopted in divine worship. 
 In the eighth century, two streams of Slavic 
 colonizers moved eastward to the western 
 plains of Russia. The northern left the ter- 
 ritory watered by the Elbe and Vistula, the 
 southern that of the Danube. These, living 
 in democratic communities, were soon to 
 consolidate and enter into the arena where 
 the nations of two continents wrestled for 
 the mast(!ry. 
 
 Thus, foi- five hundred years, when F'inns 
 and Norsemen, Huns and Avars, Mongo- 
 lians and Tartars, shifted tiic nations of 
 
 302
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 Europe as the simoon the sands of the des- 
 ert, the Slav maintained his individuality, 
 preserved his type, and kept his language 
 essentially intact. His wanderings brought 
 him to the Elbe on the north and to Austria 
 and Greece on the south. As the tenth cen- 
 tury dawned, he stood in the vigor of youth 
 on the plains where kingdoms rise and 
 wane: "The archers have sorely grieved 
 him, and shot at him and persecuted him, 
 but his bow abode in strength, and the arms 
 of his hands were made strong." 
 
 Each of the Slav groups now consoli- 
 dated. The Serbs formed a kingdom in old 
 Illyricum and a part of Moesia; the Poles 
 on the highland where the Vistula and Oder 
 rise; and the Russians in the vicinity of 
 Lake Illmen. Rurik, the Norseman, led the 
 Russians, and, by conquering the neighbor- 
 ing Slav tribes, firmly established a dynasty 
 of kings who ruled for six centuries. His 
 son and grandson extended their kingdom 
 
 303
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 southward and engaged the armies of By- 
 zantium, and for the first time a Muscovite 
 king coveted the Golden Horn. Igor did 
 not succeed (941 a.d.) in capturing Con- 
 stantinople, but in the following year a 
 treaty of peace was made and signed by 
 fifty of his chiefs, among whom three were 
 Slavs. To the southwest of the kingdom of 
 Russia, a rival rose under the leadership 
 of princes of native blood. Located on an 
 undulating plain, having no natural bul- 
 warks against the onslaught of powerful 
 rivals, the rise of the Polish kingdom was 
 more precarious than that of its kinsmen to 
 the north. On the west were the Germans; 
 on the north the Scandinavians ; on the east, 
 the most dangerous foe of all, the llussians. 
 With these foes Poland struggled for eight 
 hundred years, and at last was ruined by 
 the selfishness of its aristocracy, the intrigue 
 of its ecclesiastics, and the serfdom of its 
 peasantry. The Serbs in Illyricum and 
 
 304
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 Moesia established a kingdom which lasted 
 four centuries. The leadership was taken 
 by one of the Zupans into which the terri- 
 tory was divided, and, notwithstanding the 
 close proximity of Byzantium, its power 
 in the twelfth century enabled it to com- 
 pete successfully with the Greek emperors. 
 In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 
 the Serbs maintained their independency 
 against the attacks of Mongols, Huns, and 
 Greeks. The unhappy people, however, 
 were destined to lose their independence. 
 After a brief taste of civilization, they were 
 sent back to the yoke of their ignorant and 
 unsympathetic Ottoman masters by the com- 
 plete defeat sustained at the hand of the 
 Turks in "the field of blackbirds" (1389). 
 For four hundred years did the iron yoke 
 of the Mussulmans rest heavily upon the 
 Serbs, and Servia lost the best of her sons, 
 who migrated to escape the tyranny of the 
 Turk. In 1804, this branch of the Slav race 
 
 305
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 rose in rebellion and was finally saved from 
 complete defeat by the intervention of Rus- 
 sia. 
 
 During the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies, the kingdoms of Poland and Russia 
 paid tribute to the Mongol, and, although 
 they escaped the fate of their brethren of 
 the south, their suffering was second only 
 to that of Servia. Tartars swept over their 
 plains, burned their towns and villages, and 
 forced their princes to bow the knee to the 
 Great Khan. While the struggle went on, 
 the so-called Christian nations of Europe 
 looked on complacently, and, while the Slav 
 was buffeted, took no interest in the war 
 except in so far as their own safety was 
 threatened. After two centuries of bondage, 
 the Slavs of the east and west threw off the 
 Mongol's yoke, but for another two cen- 
 turies this people formed the bulwark of 
 Elurope against Tartar invasions, until at 
 last the pious .Tohn Sobieski and his Poles, 
 
 306
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 in 1683, came to the relief of Austria, and 
 drove the Mongols from the continent. He, 
 as Charles Martel before him, saved Chris- 
 tendom from the Mohammedans, and was 
 greeted from the altar of the cathedral of 
 Vienna, wherein kings and princes returned 
 thanks for the victory, with the text : "There 
 was a man sent from God whose name was 
 John." The Poles made themselves a vica- 
 rious sacrifice and were rewarded by Chris- 
 tian Europe with wounds which finally 
 proved fatal. The craftiness of the house 
 of Hapsburg, the jealousy of their Teutonic 
 neighbors, the invasion of the Scandina- 
 vians, the rivalry of Russia, were more than 
 Poland could resist. Weakened by foes 
 from without and torn by internal dissen- 
 sion, Poland became the land of war, of 
 tumult, and of plunder. Its streets were 
 bathed in blood, its fields were burned by its 
 own sons, and the tramp of foreign armies 
 sealed the doom of the second kingdom of 
 
 307
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 the Slavic peoples. Its fate was determined 
 in 1772. Russia took the lion's share, sub- 
 dued the arrogance of its nobles, established 
 peace and order in the land, and made pos- 
 sible the economic advancement of this bril- 
 liant branch of the Slavic race. 
 
 The fall of Poland left Russia the sole 
 representative of the Slav among the king- 
 doms of the earth. The Muscovites waxed 
 strong and built their kingdom upon the 
 wrecks of democratic communities. The 
 nomads of the south gave them considerable 
 trouble. One of their chroniclers says: 
 "They burn the villages, the fannyards, and 
 the churches. The land is turned by them 
 into a desert, and the government fields be- 
 come the lair of wild beasts. Many people 
 are led away into slavery; others are tort- 
 ured and killed, or die from hunger and 
 thirst." Another says: "In the Russian 
 land is rarely heard the voice of the hus- 
 bandiiiau, but often the cry of the vultures 
 
 308
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 fighting with each other over the bodies of 
 the slain, and the ravens scream as they fly 
 to the spoil." The Khan of the Crimea, the 
 Cossacks of the Don, the Turks of the Otto- 
 man Empire, made periodical incursions for 
 booty and for slaves, and for centuries the 
 Slav's sword saved Europe from barbaric 
 hordes. Russia is called the "nation of the 
 sword," and well it was for the continent 
 that its sons could wield it so mightily, for 
 no other means was effectual to check the 
 advance of the Tartars, whose torch and 
 scimitar wrought untold havoc. The blood- 
 thirsty ruler, Mahmoud, with the instincts 
 of the savage, revelled in shedding the blood 
 of Christians, and nothing but the merciless 
 Slav could bring the merciless Turk to 
 reason. 
 
 But at home the Slav's hand was not less 
 gentle. The boyars sometimes rose and 
 slew their princes. Their conduct gave rise 
 to the proverb, "If the prince is bad, into 
 
 309
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 the mud with him," No Tailar ever wit- 
 nessed more bloody conflicts than those 
 waged by Ivan tlie Terrible in Novgorod, 
 in 1570. The Slavs used the iron hand, but 
 the work they had to do and the material 
 upon which they worked required the sol- 
 dier more than the priest. Peter the Great, 
 with his master mind, found it necessary to 
 drown the arrogance, prejudices, and super- 
 stitions of his nobles in blood. Not till the 
 middle of the eighteenth century was the 
 Slav recognized among the powers of Eu- 
 rope, when the light of western civilization 
 began to stream through the window opened 
 by the greatest of the Muscovite Czars on 
 the Baltic Sea. In the nineteenth century, 
 the Slav stood forth as the champion of 
 Christians who groaned under Mussuhnan's 
 misrule. Christian Europe stood aloof 
 when their co-religionists were mercilessly 
 slain l)y Ottomans, but the Slav compelled 
 the Sulian to honor the conscience of their 
 
 ;^io
 
 THE SLAA^S 
 
 brethren, and, releasing Moldavia, Wal- 
 lachia, Servia, and Bulgaria from the Turk- 
 ish yoke, caused a new era to dawn for 
 them. Eussia's work in Turkey is one of 
 the brightest pages of nineteenth-century 
 history. The Slav, regenerated by the leav- 
 en of new ideals, has earned the distinction, 
 on more than one occasion, of being the 
 restorer of law and order among the king- 
 doms of Europe. The Crimean War rudely 
 awoke him from his self-confidence, pride, 
 and ignorance, and, as the smoke of conflict 
 cleared, he saw a brighter day dawning, 
 which the emancipation of the serfs, in 1861, 
 proclaimed to all the earth. Russia, after a 
 thousand years of warfare and strife, is 
 to-day a worthy leader in the Pan-Slavic 
 movement, whose ideal is the hegemony in 
 the industrial, commercial, and religious af- 
 fairs of the world. 
 
 311
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 n. 
 
 Is the Slav capable of this? 
 
 The average Slav, anthropologically con- 
 sidered, is as good an animal as the average 
 member of any European people. The 
 dolichocephalic Saxon looks with prejudice 
 upon the brachycephalic Slav, but all cra- 
 nial forms possess only an artificial value 
 and tell us nothing respecting the several 
 grades of mental power contained within. 
 If we take cranial capacity, which most dis- 
 tinguishes man from the apes, and study the 
 measurements obtained from the researches 
 of A. Weisbach and Harmann Welcker, we 
 find that they are not unfavorable to the 
 Slavs. The average weight of the brain of 
 Germans is 1314.5 grains; that of Magyars 
 1322.8; that of Slavs, 1325.2. If it is 
 claimed that the capacity of the skull is of 
 
 312
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 more importance in ethnology than the 
 weight of the brain, the Slavs need not be 
 ashamed of this test. The average capacity 
 of the skull of Kelts is 1459 cubic centi- 
 metres ; that of Magyars, 1422 ; that of Ger- 
 mans, 1470 ; and that of Slavs, 1478. Again, 
 if we take the discovery of Calori of Bo- 
 logna, we must believe that the brachy- 
 cephali have heavier brains than the doli- 
 chocephali, which is decidedly in favor of 
 the Slavs, whose index of breadth varies 
 from 81.6 to 85.1, that of Germans from 
 76.7 to 80.1, that of Kelts from 73.4 to 79.5. 
 Thus if the capacity of the cranium, the 
 weight of the brain, or the form of the skull, 
 has anything to do with the future domi- 
 nancy of the world, the Slav's chance is as 
 good as that of any race on the continent 
 of Europe. 
 
 No scientist has discovered in the Slav 
 pithecoid features which assign him a lower 
 place than that occupied by the peoples of 
 
 313
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 Europe^ iu the supposed hierarchy of the 
 races of mankind. Virchow has shown that 
 prognathy is inconsistent with the full de- 
 velopment of the brain, and that the prog- 
 nathous type of face is almost exclusively 
 confined to nations in which civilization ap- 
 pears somewhat immature. But this unpro- 
 pitious position of the jaw is not more 
 prevalent among the Slavs than among 
 other European races. It is not so common 
 in Moscow as in Paris, and cases of prog- 
 nathy can be seen as frequently in England 
 and Germany as in Russia. Craniologists 
 have also shown that prognathy prevails as 
 a rule in narrow skulls, while medium and 
 broad skulls are mostly mesognathous or oc- 
 casionally opistognathous, which fact again 
 favors the Slav. The shortness of the upper 
 limbs se])arates man from the animals which 
 most resemble him. Carl Vogt has ex- 
 pressed this relation by saying that the 
 ornng can, in an oroct ])osition, touch liis 
 
 314
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 ankles; the gorilla, the middle of the tibia; 
 the chimpanzee, the knee ; whereas man can 
 scarcely reach the middle of the thigh. 
 Weisbach's measurements show that the av- 
 erage length of the arms of Germans is 
 0.469 of the length of the body, and that of 
 Slavs, 0.467. If, finally, the bodily height 
 and weight of the average Slav are com- 
 pared with those of the average mem- 
 ber of the European races, the result is as 
 favorable to the former as to the latter. 
 Snigriew, after a careful comparison of the 
 measurements of German, Lithuanian, Po- 
 lish, and Russian recruits, concluded that 
 there was no practical difference between 
 the several peoples. Thus, anthropologi- 
 cally or ethnologically considered, the Slav 
 is not a whit behind those nations who claim 
 a right to lead in the civilization of the 
 world because of greater fitness to discharge 
 the duties and obligations involved in the 
 task. 
 
 315
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 If we compare the social and industrial 
 life of the Slav with that of the Teuton, he 
 must be assigned a lower place in the his- 
 tory of civilization. Industrially consid- 
 ered, the great mass of the Slav race is an 
 elemental people, making, with their own 
 hands, in their own homes, what they wear 
 and use. Under the stern rule of many of 
 the Czars, men who dreamed of making 
 their brethren happy, virtuous, and refined 
 were sent to exile and the scaffold. The 
 social awakening that followed the revolu- 
 tion of 1848-1849 was energetically arrested 
 by Nicholas, who substituted "the French 
 quadrille in the place of Adam Smith." 
 The majority of Slav agriculturalists are 
 still in the primitive stage. The margin be- 
 tween the real want and the felt want of the 
 Slav is small. The masses wear compara- 
 tively little underclothing ; the favorite ma- 
 terials emi)loyed in native cookery are sour 
 c'lbljage, cucumbers, and kvass. Eternal 
 
 316
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 stillness is the character of Slav provincial 
 life. The system of public instruction in 
 Russia is inadequate. The paternalism of 
 the government has been fatal to individual 
 initiative; autocracy has strangled all at- 
 tempts at constitutional government; and 
 religious authority, while suppressing free- 
 dom of conscience, has tolerated gross su- 
 perstition and buried the essential principles 
 of morality under a weight of sensuous 
 forms and mysterious rites. The emigrant 
 Slav in an American police court considers 
 the most barefaced and patent falsehood as 
 a fair means of self-defence, and many of 
 them have very lax ideas as to the rights 
 of persons and property. These specks and 
 blemishes are visible, but the student will 
 patiently study the phenomena and seek the 
 deep-rooted causes by which these specks 
 and blemishes are produced rather than 
 make sweeping generalizations. Catherine 
 said of Riviere, the French physiocrat : "He 
 
 317
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 supposed we walked on all fours, and very 
 politely he took the trouble to come from 
 La Martinique to teach us how to stand on 
 the hind legs." Teutons and Kelts have 
 manifested the same proud contempt for 
 the Slav in modern times, giving little 
 thought to the fact that he is the child of a 
 different civilization from our own. 
 
 The Slav has lived under the iron hand 
 of autocracy. Outside the Mir he has no 
 voice in the government. It is second nat- 
 ure in him to obey. When Teutonic kings 
 had to struggle with municipal institutions 
 to prevent them from becoming too power- 
 ful, the Czars had to struggle to prevent 
 them from committing suicide or dying of 
 inanition. The Slav, accustomed to lean on 
 the arm of autocracy, has not advanced on 
 the road of progress in a smooth, gradual, 
 and ijrosaic way as Teutons do, but rather 
 by a series of unconnected and frantic ef- 
 forts as the whim i)ossessed the autocrat. 
 
 318
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 Slavs regard the state as an entity wholly 
 distinct from themselves and having inter- 
 ests entirely different from their own, and 
 the state never hesitated ruthlessly to sacri- 
 fice the interests of the individual when its 
 own were involved. Under a state policy 
 that knows no change generation after gen- 
 eration, the boundaries of the empire have 
 been extended, so that to-day the Czar's sons 
 are seen on the shores of the Arctic and 
 Pacific oceans, on the frontier of China and 
 in Central Asia, the embodiment of patient 
 endurance, of dogged resistance, and stoical 
 fortitude. Fed on sour cabbage, soup, black 
 bread, dried fish, and weak tea, the Slav 
 soldier is patient, good-natured, and never 
 complains. On sea or land he is obedient, 
 tenacious of purpose, self-confident, and 
 contented ; is never anxious for the morrow, 
 for his plans embrace generations yet un- 
 born. 
 
 The results are that in Turkestan and in 
 
 319
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 Central Asia, the Slav lias wrought won- 
 ders. He has established law and order 
 where anarchy once prevailed; the wilder- 
 ness has blossomed under his rule ; avenues 
 of commerce have been opened and the na- 
 tions of the earth enriched ; the barbarian is 
 on the highway to industrial efficiency, for 
 the robber chief is sui)pressed and the tillers 
 of the soil find their persons and property 
 safe. In Siberia, the Slav is at his best. 
 This foraier land of convicts, by the indus- 
 try and thrift of the colonizers is become 
 one of the greatest wheat granaries of the 
 world. On the slopes of the Pacific, the 
 robber bands who defied Mongolian rulers 
 have been annihilated, and Chinese and Slav 
 farmers feel perfectly secure under the pro- 
 tection of the Muscovite. Pekin has been 
 brought within two weeks' journey of Mos- 
 cow, ajid llic K'nssian steamers between 
 Odessa and Tort Ai'lliur afford facilities 
 for travelling and commerce second to none 
 
 320
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 in tlie world. At home the same strong 
 hand guides the destiny of the Empire. By 
 the dictum of the Czar 40,000,000 serfs were 
 liberated. It was the greatest reform of the 
 nineteenth century and effected without a 
 revolution. The nobility were deprived of 
 their land, the serfs given freehold claims, 
 and the conditions of the transaction laid 
 down by the Autocrat of St. Petersburg. A 
 ukase establishes the gold standard, erects 
 a tariff wall around the empire, fosters in- 
 fant industries, takes under its protection 
 the vodka shops of the empire, curbs the 
 selfishness of employers and the arrogance 
 of employees, and makes industrial war a 
 crime. A ukase prohibits the black clergy 
 from deviating from the rules of St. Basil, 
 refuses permission to a Russian once within 
 the pale of the orthodox church to depart 
 thence, commands the white clergj^ to re- 
 frain from innovation, secures the laity uni- 
 formity and continuity in divine worship, 
 
 321
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 plants churches wherever its children go as 
 colonizers, and secures its Mohammedan, 
 Roman Catholic, and Protestant subjects 
 immunity from persecution. Paternalism is 
 the very breath of life of the Russian Gov- 
 ernment, and if the Slav has lost individual 
 initiative he has gained in obedience to 
 authority; if he has lost constitutional gov- 
 ernment, he has gained immunity against 
 the arrogance of nobles and the breed of 
 entrepreneurs ; if he has lost freedom of 
 opinion and freedom of conscience, he has 
 gained exemption from the tyranny of ma- 
 jorities, the vicissitudes of public elections, 
 and the multiplicity of sects. Autocracy 
 and democracy have their weak and strong 
 points. It is not our task to decide which 
 is the better for a nation. The Slav is the 
 child of autocratic power and none dare say 
 that his efficiency among the nations of the 
 world is conij)r()mised thereby. On the 
 shores of the Pacific, on the table-lands of
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 Tibet, on the plateaus of Mongolia, on the 
 bi'oad plains of Siberia, the Slav has been 
 a presiding genius. When he has spoken in 
 Pekin, or Cabool, or Teheran, or Constan- 
 tinople, the nations of Europe have been 
 silent and emperors taken council. 
 But the Slav peasant; 
 
 " A thing that groans not and that never hopes. 
 Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox ? " 
 
 what of him? Mr. N. T. Bacon has said 
 {Yale Review, May, 1904, p. 53): "From 
 our standpoint the Russian peasant is idle 
 and good-for-nothing." A. J. Beveridge 
 thinks differently ("Russian Advance," p. 
 319) : "He it is who tills the soil and fills 
 the factories; he who consumes the tea, 
 drinks the vodka, pays the taxes; he who 
 equips the army and fights the empire's bat- 
 tles; he who mans the ships of Russia's 
 growing fleets ; he on whom the whole gov- 
 ernment rests; he who holds in his breast 
 
 323
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 the destiny of the Slav race." Consider the 
 following picture by the same author (p. 
 304) : "They (the peasants) were working 
 at their 'kustar trades' in that short period 
 between the cultivation of their fields and 
 the harvest of the grain which was not yet 
 ripe. Thus their time and labor were turned 
 into productive industry. In tens of thou- 
 sands of the little country villages * * * 
 workingmen employ every moment of their 
 time during the long winter months in some 
 kind of manufacture. Not only the men, 
 but the women and children, work at these 
 trades." A people who in 1902 supported 
 themselves and exported $420,000,000 worth 
 of goods composed of 62 per cent, of grain 
 and provisions, and 32 per cent, of raw and 
 undressed materials, and only two per cent, 
 of cotton goods; a people who, working at 
 their "kustar trades" between sowing and 
 harvest or during winter, supply about nine- 
 tenths of the goods for domestic consump- 
 
 324
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 tion ; a people who paid in taxation for the 
 maintenance of the imperial government 
 $900,000,000 and manned the army and 
 navy which guard the frontiers or protect 
 the coast, ought to be counted good for 
 something, no matter from what standpoint 
 they are studied. 
 
 There are, in the United States, about a 
 million and a quarter Slav immigrants who 
 represent the peasant class. Whoever has 
 studied them in the mines and on the farms, 
 in the mills and on the wharfs, in the for- 
 ests and on the rivers, must bear testimony 
 to their daring courage, constant industry, 
 prompt obedience, and patient endurance. 
 Men believed a generation ago that the 
 mining industry of Pennsylvania could not 
 be carried on if the English and Welsh, 
 Irish and Scotch, Germans and Americans 
 were withdrawn. To-day, in eight shafts in 
 the Mahanoy Valley employing about 2500 
 contract miners, less than 5 per cent, of 
 
 325
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 tliem are Kelts and Teutons. The Poles, 
 Rutlienian^, and Slovaks get out the coal 
 and the per capita production is to-day 
 greater than it was twenty-five years ago, 
 notwithstanding the fact that the operation 
 requires three times the muscular effort 
 which it then required. In 1903, over five 
 hundred of these men sacrificed their lives 
 in the collieries of Pennsylvania, and an- 
 other army of 1500 was injured in this risky 
 business. The Slav will work where "white 
 men" will not; he is willing to work ten, 
 twelve, and fourteen hours a day if he can 
 earn high wages. He is patient and per- 
 severing, sometimes stupid and slow, but 
 often also apt and efficient. Always the 
 Slav is amenable to discipline, submissive 
 to authority, and silent under difficulties. 
 He is easily led, believes absolutely in and 
 idolizes his leader, is easily excited, and 
 when aroused soon forgets tlie teachings of 
 civilization and falls to the unstable nature 
 
 326
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 of his barbaric ancestors. Many Slavs are 
 unclean ; all drink ; tlieir quarrels and fights 
 are fiendish in their atrocities; their stand- 
 ard of living is low; their social customs 
 repugnant, and some of their religious prac- 
 tices are tainted with superstition. But in 
 all this we speak as Americans, we judge 
 as Americans, and our standard is the high- 
 est ever attained in the history of civiliza- 
 tion. Compare the social and moral con- 
 ditions of Slav mining communities with 
 those of Great Britain as depicted in the 
 Parliamentary report of 1866, or compare 
 their life to-day with that found in anthra- 
 cite communities in 1876 by Abram S. 
 Hewitt: "In 1876 * * * I made a tour of 
 inspection through the mining regions. T 
 found terrible conditions there. I found the 
 men living like pigs and dogs, under wretch- 
 edly brutal conditions." These were immi- 
 grants of the British Isles, and few Slav 
 settlements to-day deserve so dark a setting. 
 
 327
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 The Moujik has many undesirable quali- 
 ties. But let us remember that yesterday he 
 was a serf who could be sold as the ox and 
 the horse. If he ran away or dared to pre- 
 sent a petition against his master, he was 
 beaten with the knout or sent to the mines 
 in Siberia. His proprietor could impose on 
 him every kind of labor, could take from 
 him money dues, could demand from him 
 personal service, and could send the prom- 
 ising youth to the army. Is it strange, 
 then, that these men bear in their body and 
 mind the marks of twenty centuries of serf- 
 dom? And yet this peasant — the heir of 
 five centuries of vassalage — is good-natured 
 and pacific, is adaptable and imperturbable, 
 has an instinct for organization, is an apt 
 pupil under competent masters, is admira- 
 bly fitted for the work of peaceful agricul- 
 tural colonization, is long-suffering and con- 
 ciliatory, and capable of bearing extreme 
 hardships. When he is taken out of the 
 
 328
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 environment where the blight of serfdom is 
 still felt and comes in contact with foreign 
 nations, he immediately adopts foreign 
 ideas and foreign inventions. When freed 
 from the trammels of hereditary concep- 
 tions, when liberated from the bondage of 
 clannish suspicion, when once he treads the 
 jjath of industrial and commercial specula- 
 tion, his "go-ahead" is truly American. 
 Practical common-sense sways the vast ma- 
 jority of this people. Sentimental consid- 
 erations and loud-sounding phrases have 
 very little if any place in their life. What 
 they want is a house to live in, food to eat, 
 raiment wherewith to be clothed. Neo-Mal- 
 thusianism is not in the Slav's creed; both 
 men and women believe that children are 
 "an heritage of the Lord" and are "as 
 arrows in the hand of a mighty man." 
 Bachelors and spinsters are not found 
 among them. In no country in Europe is 
 the birth-rate so high as among Slavs, and 
 
 329
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 medical science, in recent years, has benefi- 
 cently checked infant mortality among the 
 peasants. With the increase of material 
 well-being, of intellectual and moral culture, 
 refined sensitiveness and keen sympathy 
 with physical suffering are becoming char- 
 acteristics of Slavs. Slav peasantry is fal- 
 low ground for the seed of a higher civ- 
 ilization, and none better appreciates the 
 light. This young giant, who "hath as it 
 were the strength of the wild ox," and who 
 "as a lion doth lift himself up," turns his 
 face, radiant with hope, to the rising sun. 
 He is conscious of a mission to joerform; 
 he shakes himself from the dust; he looses 
 himself from the bands of his neck, "he 
 shall not lie down until he eat of the prey 
 and drink the blood of the slain." 
 
 330
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 III. 
 
 Signs of the Slav's progress are not want- 
 ing. Etlino-sentimental considerations are 
 moving Slavic nobles, who have in recent 
 times exhibited a sensitiveness to humani- 
 tarian conceptions second to none on the 
 continent. They look upon the peasant as 
 a brother and have few of the frailties of 
 aristocrats. A noble's fortune is no longer 
 computed by the number of his serfs. 
 Priests and nobles no longer receive cruel 
 corporal punishment with whips because of 
 delinquencies. In 1771, Archbishop Am- 
 brose was massacred in Moscow for attempt- 
 ing to enforce sanitary measures during a 
 plague ; in St. Petersburg, about the middle 
 of the last century, a mob pelted the Metro- 
 politan with missiles, and threw the doctors 
 out of the windows of the hospital because 
 
 331
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 they suspected them of poisoning the wells ; 
 to-day sanitary measures are instituted 
 according to modern scientific principles; 
 the hospitals have on their staffs some of 
 the leading scientists of the world ; and the 
 masses gather in people's palaces, where 
 weak tea and free entertainments are fur- 
 nished. A century ago the papers of Mos- 
 cow advertised serfs for sale, and a Russian 
 who evinced any desire for travel was re- 
 garded with suspicion; to-day, the Moscow 
 press advertises free land for ):>easants and 
 Russians travel extensively. Fifty years 
 ago only two x)er cent, of the peasants who 
 joined the army could read; now 33 per 
 cent, of them can do so. Forty years ago, 
 two-thirds of the people of Russia had no 
 rights which they could enforce against 
 their superiors, and justice, when adminis- 
 tered, proclaimed its decrees from behind 
 closed doors. Now, tlio i)roceedings of the 
 tribunals are public, criminal cases are tried 
 
 332
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 by jury, petty cases are tried by Justices of 
 the Peace, and the course of justice is sim- 
 plified to meet the demands of the people. 
 Frederick the Great said of the Russian 
 soldiers, "We have to do with barbarians, 
 who are digging the grave of humanity." 
 A century later. General Skobeleff, in the 
 war of Bulgaria, had to command a halt 
 and furnish carts and men to care for the 
 babes who were thrown away by their Turk- 
 ish mothers and picked up by the Russian 
 soldiers as they pursued the foe. These are 
 landmarks of progress. 
 
 The Slav soldier is still capable of wield- 
 ing the sword with the ferocity of a Jeph- 
 thah or a Gideon, but it is on the principle 
 that it is better to cut off the hand and the 
 foot than have the whole body cast into hell. 
 When Skobeleff sheathed his sword, in 
 Central Asia, peace, order, and safety were 
 established, but previous to the advent of 
 the Russian tumult, anarchy and terrorism 
 
 333
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 prevailed. Under the wise guidance of pa- 
 triotic statesmen the accursed vodka shops — 
 the breeders of drunkenness and poverty — 
 are regulated, and the peasants are provided 
 with tea houses where the social instinct of 
 the Slav is met. In no European state are 
 there more comprehensive laws relative to 
 employers' liability than in Russia, while 
 many of the States of the Union can well 
 afford to learn of Slav statesmen how to 
 regulate factories where children are sacri- 
 ficed both day and night upon the altar of 
 mammonism. The railroads of Manchuria 
 and the Caucasus have broken down the 
 barbarous custom of collecting transporta- 
 tion taxes which rendered commerce in the 
 interior of Asia and China impossible. Un- 
 der the Slavs' supervision good roads are 
 made and model towns are built where for- 
 merly barbarous communities dwelt in filth. 
 Wherever the Slav builds he guards against 
 disease, squalor, and unsightliness, which 
 
 334
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 are common occurrences where Mongols and 
 Tartars dwell. The Slav peasant is slowly 
 awakening to a realization of his independ- 
 ence, to a due appreciation of economic 
 freedom, to an understanding of the rights 
 of property, and to the market value of in- 
 dustry, temperance, and truthfulness. Slav 
 statesmen proclaim the commercial value 
 of honesty, the necessity of enterprise in 
 manufacturing industries and commerce, 
 the worth of new methods in production, 
 and the markets which await the production 
 of fai-ms and factories. All the lessons 
 which industrial liberty teaches, all the 
 blessings which science and art bring, all 
 the results which centuries of civilization 
 realize, are brought to the feet of this youth 
 in whose heart are stored the energies of 
 centuries of stolid living. Give him time, 
 and the pressure of new wants and new 
 ideas will awaken his sleepy brain and set 
 in motion his sluggish nerves and effect a 
 
 335
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 metamorphosis which the combined wisdom 
 of philosophers and theorists cannot effect. 
 Lobenoff changed the face of Europe in an 
 incredibly short time; the foreign states- 
 manship of Russia in far-sightedness is not 
 surpassed by that of any other modern na- 
 tion; the Slav has developed a diplomacy 
 which equals in skill and resource that of 
 any other people of ancient or modern 
 times; and when the Slav peasant fully 
 awakes to the demands of modern life, he 
 will go forth with singing and "come again 
 with joy, bringing his sheaves with him." 
 Let another Peter the Great arise to lead 
 these 100,000,000 Slavs, strong in their 
 youthful vigor, confident that they have a 
 mission to fulfil, and what obstacles can 
 stand before their onward march? If they 
 arm themselves for battle their armies will 
 shake two continents, and the Shivophobs' 
 worst fears will be realized. If they seek a 
 liigher victory — "the victory of Science, 
 
 336
 
 THE SLAVS 
 
 Art, and Faith" — the dream of the Slavo- 
 philes in part may be realized, viz., that the 
 Slav will restore the world, demoralized by 
 atheism in religion and anarchy in govern- 
 ment, to sanity, faith, and order. 
 
 337
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA. 
 Isaac A. Houkwich 
 
 I. 
 
 Two events occurring in the year 1903 
 fastened the eyes of the civilized world 
 upon Russia : the Czar's manifesto of Feb- 
 ruary 26th (March 11th), on religious toler- 
 ance, and a few weeks later, the massacre of 
 the Jews at Kishinyov on Easter Sunday 
 and Monday. 
 
 In the preamble to the manifesto the Czar 
 declared his "holy vow * * * to guard the 
 ancient foundations of the Russian state," 
 as well as his "inflexible determination to 
 satisfy without further delay the matured 
 needs of the state." First in order of enu- 
 meration was the need "to secure, in matters 
 pertaining to religion, strict observance, by 
 the authorities, of the mandates of tolerance 
 inscribed in the fundamental laws of the 
 
 341
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 Russian Empire, which, devoutly respect- 
 ing the Orthodox Church as supreme and 
 dominant, grant to all our subjects of 
 heterodox and non-Christian denominations 
 the freedom of observing their faith and 
 worsliipping in accordance with the rites 
 thereof." 
 
 This solemn announcement of the Czar's 
 "inflexible determination" to secure for his 
 subjects the' enjoyment of privileges "in- 
 scribed in the fundamental laws of the em- 
 pire" admits, by implication, that "the man- 
 dates of tolerance" have not always been 
 respected by the authorities. The need had 
 matured for strict observance of the law by 
 the officers of the law, and must be "satisfied 
 without further delay." The Kishinyov 
 massacre emphasized the point. 
 
 Religious tolerance is an elastic term. 
 As interpreted by the Czar's manifesto, its 
 scope is confined to freedom of worship, a 
 strict construction unquestionably in accord 
 
 342
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 both with the letter and spirit of the funda- 
 mental laws as they are. No innovations 
 are contemplated by the manifesto, which 
 vows "to guard the ancient foundations of 
 the Russian state." 
 
 What is meant by religious tolerance, ac- 
 cording to the laws of the Russian Empire, 
 is thus laid down by the late Professor Gra- 
 dovsky, of the Imperial University of St. 
 Petersburg, an eminent authority on Rus- 
 sian public law : 
 
 The full scope of freedom of conscience or re- 
 ligious faith embraces the following tests : (a) the 
 freedom of public worship in accordance with the 
 rites of one's creed ; [b) the freedom of choosing a 
 creed ; (c) the freedom of preaching, with the pur- 
 pose of converting persons belonging to other de- 
 nominations, as well as of founding a new church ; 
 (d) the full enjoyment of political and civil rights 
 by all persons regardless of church affiliation. 
 
 The rules of religious tolerance, as expressed 
 in the Kussian law, are substantially confined to 
 the freedom of worship.^ 
 
 (') A. QreLdovsky, Mements of Russian Public Law, 
 vol. i., pp. 373, 376. 
 
 343
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 But even in this narrow sense religious 
 tolerance in Russia is subject to very ma- 
 terial limitations. 
 
 About one-third of the population of the 
 Russian empire are not affiliated with the 
 Orthodox Greek-Catholic Church. The law 
 divides the forty-five million heterodox and 
 non-Christian subjects of the Czar into two 
 classes: (1) "foreign denominations," and 
 !< (2) "heresies and schisms." The fonner, as 
 the term denotes, represent bodies of citi- 
 zens of foreign descent added to the popula- 
 tion of the empire chiefly through territorial 
 expansion, and to some extent through im- 
 migration. "Heresies and schisms" are 
 religious divisions which have grown up 
 within the Orthodox Church itself. Where- 
 as "heresies and schisms" remain to this 
 day within the i)urview of the criminal law, 
 sound statesmanship has from the earliest 
 times enjoined towards "foreign denomina- 
 tions" a degree of tolerance varying with 
 
 344
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 the circumstances under which each of them 
 came within the jurisdiction of the expand- 
 ing Russian state. 
 
 By the ukase of Empress Anne (Febru- 
 ary 22, 1735), which is still the law, relig- 
 ious tolerance is defined to mean merely 
 freedom of worship, but not the freedom 
 of preaching for the purpose of making 
 converts among Russian subjects, which is 
 prohibited under severe penalties. Inas- 
 much as the established church is a part of 
 the state, the power of the state is strength- 
 ened by the growth of the Orthodox Church. 
 Other denominations may hold their own, 
 but all missionary work is the exclusive 
 prerogative of the established church. Eng- 
 lish missionaries, who, during the reign of 
 Alexander 11., endeavored to preach the 
 gospel among the heathen natives of East- 
 ern Siberia, were promptly ordered out of 
 the Empire. 
 
 Until the Polish insurrection of 1863 the. 
 
 345
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 Koman Catholic Church enjoyed the same 
 privileges as all other foreign Christian de- 
 nominations, but the leading part taken by 
 the Eoman Catholic clergy in the struggles 
 of the Polish people for national inde- 
 pendence called forth vigorous measures 
 of reprisal from the Russian government. 
 Churches were closed and church edifices 
 converted into barracks and stables. 
 
 An incident in this repressive policy is 
 the ''conversion" of the Uniats. The Uniat, 
 or United Greek Church, is a branch of the 
 Eastern Church, which accepts the suprem- 
 acy of the Pope though in all other respects 
 adhering to the doctrine of the Greek-Cath- 
 olic Church. The Uniat Church embraced 
 a large portion of the White Russian peo- 
 ple, of the fomier Grand Duchy of Lithu- 
 ania. In order to wrest the White Russians 
 from Polisli influence, it was deemed im- 
 perative to "reunite" them to the established 
 church. Missionaries were sent out among 
 
 346
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 the Uniats, and wherever persuasion failed 
 of effect were reinforced by the police and 
 the military. Uniat priests who objected to 
 joining the established church were impris- 
 oned and banished; their churches were 
 placed in charge of orthodox priests, their 
 parishes were officially declared "reunited,*' 
 with the result that those who persisted in 
 their allegiance to the church in which they 
 were raised were treated by the law as 
 "apostates" from Orthodoxy. 
 
 II. 
 
 Among the "foreign denominations" are 
 numbered also the Jews, whose settlement 
 in some parts of the Russian Empire is con- 
 temporaneous with, or even antedates, the 
 appearance of the Russian people itself on 
 the stage of history. In the Ipatievsky 
 Chronicle, dating as far back as the mid- 
 dle of the twelfth century, the Jews are 
 
 347
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 mentioned as old residents of Russia. In 
 Poland they resided from time immemorial ; 
 since the eleventh century their presence in 
 Poland is established by historical evidence. 
 In the kingdom of the Chazars, which occu- 
 pied the southeast territory of the present 
 European Russia, the Jews were settled in 
 large numbers as early as in the seventh 
 century. It is therefore against all evidence 
 to class them, as is done in some quarters, 
 with the "foreign" elements of the popula- 
 tion of the empire. As well might the de- 
 scendants of the Norman conquerors be 
 classed to-day among the foreign popula- 
 tion of Great Britain. 
 
 So much is true, however, that there was 
 no Jewish population within the boundaries 
 of the Muscovite state. The federation of 
 southwestern principalities which centred 
 around the capital city of Kiev, — the cradle 
 of the Russian nation, — had, through the 
 vicissitudes of liistor}^ become incorporated 
 
 348
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 in the Polish commonwealth, and it was only 
 with the partition of Poland that the Rus- 
 sian Empire came into possession of the 
 bulk of its Jewish population. 
 
 The old Muscovite attitude toward the 
 Jews was expressed by Empress Elizabeth 
 in 1743, when the Senate represented to her 
 that the enforcement of the law directing the 
 expulsion of Jewish merchants from Rus- 
 sian fairs affected injuriously the fiscal 
 interest. To this the Empress rejoined, 
 "From the enemies of Christ I desire no 
 lucrative returns." 
 
 The Muscovite law which shut the door 
 against the Jews could not be applied to 
 new possessions thickly settled with Jews. 
 But while the imperial government could 
 not order the depopulation of the cities and 
 towns in the newly acquired provinces, it 
 "guarded the ancient foundations of the 
 state" in so far as it excluded the Jews, as 
 before, from the original Muscovite terri- 
 
 349
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 tory, merely leaving them where it had 
 found them. Thus the "pale of settlement" 
 was created, by that name the law describ- 
 ing the limited area within which the Jews 
 were permitted to reside. The boundaries 
 have undergone many changes, at first being 
 widened, then again narrowed down. When- 
 ever a province or a city, formerly within 
 the pale, was excluded, thousands of Jewish 
 settlers were ordered out of the forbidden 
 territory. The latest expulsions took place 
 during the reign of Alexander III. 
 
 The Jewish riots of 1881 and 1882 cre- 
 ated a public sentiment in Russia extremely 
 hostile to Jews, and the sentiment was 
 given official expression in the "Provisional 
 Rules" of May 3-15, 1881, which prohibited 
 the Jews from settling and ac(juiring real 
 estate outside of cities and towns of the pale 
 of settlement. Though the law on the face 
 of it had no retroactive i)ower, yet in prac- 
 tice it resulted in the gradual expulsion of 
 
 350
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 about one-fifth of the Jewish population 
 from their places of residence. Many of 
 these rural Jews were lessees of farms and 
 flour mills, with leases that could not be re- 
 newed when their terms expired. Thus 
 scores of tenants were forced to quit the 
 land upon which they and their fathers had 
 been born and raised. In 1889 the cities of 
 Taganrog and Rostov on the Don were ex- 
 cluded from the pale. Such of the Jewish 
 residents as were enrolled as burghers of 
 those cities were not molested, but all those 
 enrolled elsewhere and residing in Rostov 
 or Taganrog on passports were ordered 
 within six months to wind up their busi- 
 nesses and go. In 1891 the Jews of Moscow 
 were similarly ordered to depart within not 
 more than six months, a time considered by 
 the government ample for the closing up of 
 their business matters. 
 
 Step by step, the civil and political rights 
 of the Jews were materially curtailed. 
 
 351
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 Jews are practically debarred now froni 
 holding public office or positions in the civil 
 service; only limited numbers of Jewish 
 children are admitted to the public schools, 
 and few private schools for Jews are 
 licensed. Local authorities have gone to 
 great lengths in widening the scope of the 
 retroactive regulations beyond the limits 
 originally contemplated by the central gov- 
 ernment. Whenever appeal has been taken 
 to the Senate, the local authorities have in- 
 variably been reversed.^ But appeals are 
 slow and costly, and in most cases the rul- 
 ings of the local authorities stand. More- 
 
 (') The Senate is a judicial body divided into sev- 
 eral departments. The First Department, which has 
 jiirisdiction of all aj)peals from the rulings of the 
 .iihuiiiistration, has an honorable record as a strict 
 npliolder of the law and of the ri^j^lits of citizens. 
 The ('riminal Cassation Department, which is a 
 court of error in criminal cases, has, t)n flie contrary, 
 suited its interpretation of the law to the policies of 
 the government. It is a faniiHar maxim among the 
 ie^,'al profession in Russia tlint " there are no reversi- 
 ble errors for a Jew. "
 
 RELTOIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 over the decisions of the Senate on appeal 
 are not regarded by the administration as 
 precedents, but merely as orders in particu- 
 lar eases. The Provincial Board of Bessa- 
 rabia went so far as to disregard the deci- 
 sions of the Senate even in those cases 
 where its rulings were appealed from and 
 reversed. 
 
 The Kishinyov massacre revealed to the 
 outside world the fact that the representa- 
 tives of government authority were capa- 
 ble of denying to Jews the protection of 
 the law when lives and property and the 
 honor of their women were attacked hj a 
 riotous mob. It is, perhaps, not as well 
 known that the conduct of the authorities at 
 Kishinyov was in no way exceptional. The 
 commission, with Count Palen as chairman, 
 appointed by the government to inquire into 
 the causes of the frequent anti-Jewish riots 
 during the reign of Alexander III., said in 
 its report : 
 
 353
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 It is beyond any doubt that, in most cases where 
 the riots assumed especially grave dimensions, 
 their growth was caused by the inadequacy or 
 weakness of the measures adopted by the police. 
 When police supervision was made more efficient 
 and the administration was made responsible for 
 anti-Jewish outbreaks, the latter did not recur, 
 or were nipped in the bud. 
 
 In a strictly centralized autocratic gov- 
 ernment, like that of Russia, local officers 
 of the administration seek to anticipate the 
 wishes of the central government; the mo- 
 ment the latter announced its intention to 
 hold all officials responsible for laxity in 
 dealing with anti-Jewish riots, rioting 
 ceased. Apparently, prior to that an- 
 nouncement, there had been something in 
 the attitude of the central government to 
 create the belief among local authorities 
 that they would not be held liable for inac- 
 tion. In the light of earlier events the in- 
 action of the Kishinyov authorities is trace- 
 able to the same cause, namely, the fooling 
 
 354
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 that the govemment at St. Petersburg 
 would hold the local authorities blameless. 
 
 That the policy of the government tow- 
 ards the Jews is dictated by religious mo- 
 tives is officially denied, and with certain 
 qualifications the denial may be accepted. 
 The college-bred class from among whom 
 the officers of the government are selected 
 are notoriously indifferent in matters of 
 religion. The high dignitary in Tolstoi's 
 "Resurrection" who vicariously represents 
 the Czar as the head of the church, though 
 without any religion himself, is not over- 
 drawn. Like the aristocratic infidels in 
 France before the Revolution, the Russian 
 official of that type regards the established 
 church as a part of the police machinery of 
 the state. Tolerance towards Protestants 
 and Mohammedans, persecution of Roman 
 Catholics and Jews, are purely political 
 matters. 
 
 In the discussion of the Jewish question, 
 
 355
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 following tlie Kisliinyov massacre, it was 
 given out by the Russian Ambassador at 
 Washington that the cause of the hatred 
 against the Jew in Russia was "Jewish ex- 
 ploitation." Shirking the labor of the 
 farmer, the Jew is said to be a natural born 
 banker; as soon as he has accumulated two 
 dollars he invests his capital by loaning it 
 at usurious interest to his peasant neighbor. 
 Hence the frequent anti-Jewish riots are 
 outbreaks of the hatred of the debtor class 
 against the creditor. The legal discrimina- 
 tion against the Jew is intended for the pro- 
 tection of the poor peasant against "Jewish 
 exploitation." 
 
 The opinion is noteworthy in that it 
 shows the unconscious effect of socialistic 
 propaganda upon the official Russian mind. 
 The term "ex})loitation" in a vituperative 
 sense has come into the Russian vocabulary 
 from the writings of the socialists. From 
 the socialistic point of view laboi' is the sole 
 
 356
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 creator of value; any income not i^roduced 
 by the labor of its recipient is in the last 
 resort surplus value, the result of "exploita- 
 tion" of labor by capital. In the crude 
 "poi)ulist" interpretation of this theory by 
 the disciiDles of Michael Bakounine, agri- 
 cultural labor was substituted for labor in 
 general. These ideas have permeated the 
 whole Russian periodical press, and the 
 government, while banishing the populists 
 and socialists to Siberia, has itself adopted 
 their views in dealing with "Jewish exploi- 
 tation." The tendency found expression in 
 the "Provisional Rules" of May 3-15, 1881, 
 which" resulted in the expulsion of Jews 
 from the rural districts. 
 
 From the standpoint of Russian state- 
 craft, the anti-Jewish policy was a signal 
 success. It earned the approval of a por- 
 tion of the populists ; it turned the sentiment 
 among the university students from radical- 
 ism to Judeophobia, thus causing division 
 
 357
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 in the most turbulent portion of the educated 
 classes. The most influential populist peri- 
 odicals and newspapers, committed to the 
 theory of equal rights, were reluctant to ap- 
 prove the policy of discrimination against 
 the Jews, neither could they espouse the 
 cause of the "exploiters" of the people; 
 and so they maintained a dignified silence, 
 though some publications of the same per- 
 suasion openly sided with the government 
 on the Jewisli question. 
 
 Within the last few years, however, a re- 
 vulsion of sentiment has set in. The rapid 
 spread of the social democratic and labor 
 movement throughout Russia, especially 
 among the Jewisli workingmen, has created 
 a strong public opinion opposed to religious 
 or race discrimination. On the other hand, 
 disaffection is beginning to si)read from the 
 cities to tlie rural districts. In the spring 
 of 11)02, as a result of bad crops, serious 
 disturbances of an agrarian character broke 
 
 358
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 out over a wide area of Southern Russia. 
 Driven by starvation the peasants of sev- 
 eral counties broke open the barns of the 
 landlords and divided among themselves the 
 grain stored there. In a few eases the build- 
 ings were demolished or burned down. 
 
 Precisely as the anti-Jewish riots of a 
 generation ago followed close after the as- 
 sassination of Alexander II., which marked 
 the culmination of the revolutionary move- 
 ment of those days, so did the Kishinyov 
 massacre come very opi)ortunely at a time 
 when the socialistic agitation among all 
 classes of the people had become a serious 
 menace to the safety of the autocratic gov- 
 ernment. The anti-Semitic journal, Bess- 
 arabetz, which had on its editorial staff 
 the vice-governor of Kishinyov, wrote im- 
 mediately after the massacre that "it was 
 the answer of the Christian people to the 
 socialistic agitation of the Jews." In a few 
 instances the local authorities, when re- 
 
 359
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 quested by committees of Jewish citizens to 
 take steps for the prevention of rumored 
 recurrences of the anti-Jewish riots, de- 
 manded, as the condition of their giving 
 protection to Jewish women and children, 
 that leading citizens among the Jews should 
 induce their co-religionists to refrain from 
 taking part in revolutionary demonstra- 
 tions. The effect of these official utterances, 
 by arraying racial solidarity against polit- 
 ical sympathies, has been to bring division 
 into the midst of the Jews themselves. Rus- 
 sian journals published outside the domin- 
 ions of the llussian censor have reported a 
 few cases of Jewish socialist agitators hav- 
 ing been delivered by their co-religionists 
 into the hands of the police. 
 
 The massacre at Kishinyov must, on the 
 other hand, have acted like a damper on 
 many advocates of i)opular government in 
 Russia. ]f the people are yet so low mor- 
 ally as to find a fiendish delight in inflicting 
 
 360
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 torture upon defenceless women and babes, 
 how can tliey be entrusted with the privilege 
 of governing themselves? 
 
 That the effect of the Kishinyov massacre 
 has been to strengthen the stability of the 
 autocratic government, is taken by the Rus- 
 sian opposition of all shades of opinion as 
 proof of connivance at the rioting on the 
 part of the ministry of the interior. A 
 friendly foreign public, having no grievance 
 of its own against the Russian government, 
 may give it the benefit of the doubt. Let 
 us rather consider what steps have since 
 been taken to prevent the recurrence of such 
 outrages. 
 
 By order of the Emperor, governors and 
 chiefs of police were reminded, through the 
 Minister of the Interior, that "it was in- 
 cumbent upon them, under their personal 
 responsibility, to take all measures for pre- 
 venting violence and pacifying the people, 
 in order to remove all cause of apprehen- 
 
 361
 
 EELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 sion among any portion of the people for 
 their lives and property," and further, "that 
 no organizations whatever for self-defence 
 (among the Jews) could be tolerated." 
 Where the governors and chiefs of police 
 must be reminded by special order of the 
 Emi^eror that it is their duty to prevent 
 violence and preserve peace, the situation is 
 certainly abnormal. Under such circum- 
 stances, to forbid organizing for self-de- 
 fence, when life and property and honor are 
 threatened, is at best to subordinate the 
 safety of the Jewish people to the integrity 
 of the Russian police state. The Minister 
 of the Interior has merely reaffirmed a fun- 
 damental theory of Russian jjublic law, that 
 any military organization of citizens, for 
 whatever pury)0se, is incompatible with au- 
 tocratic government. 
 
 Still, the fact must not be overlooked 
 that, although the motive of all legal dis- 
 criminations against the Jews is political, 
 
 362
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 it assumes the guise of religious intolerance. 
 The test of a Jew, as defined by the law, is 
 not racial, but religious.^ A baptized Jew 
 is no longer treated by the law as a Jew. 
 Even so extreme an anti-Semite as the edi- 
 tor of the Bessarabetz, while warning the 
 Jews to quit Russia within one year for 
 their own good, proposes to them as an 
 alternative that they "become Christians 
 and our brethren" and stay at Kishinyov, 
 presumably with the privilege of "exploit- 
 ing" their brethren in Christ. 
 
 III. 
 
 y The degree of tolerance accorded by the 
 fundamental law to "foreign denomina- 
 tions" does not include the vast class of 
 dissenters from the national church coming 
 under the head of "heresies and schisms." 
 
 (') Decisions of the First Department of the Senate, 
 1889, No. 25. 
 
 363
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 The report of the Procurator of the Holy 
 Synod for the years 1894 and 1895 esti- 
 mated the membership of these sects at 
 thirteen millions. Students of the religious 
 movements among the Russian people place 
 the number nearer twenty millions. 
 
 Reform tendencies in the Russian Church 
 date as far back as the fifteenth century, 
 which was marked by a widespread interest 
 in religious and philosophical questions in 
 the famous Hanse town of Novgorod and 
 the city-republic of Pskov, then the centres 
 of Russian civilization. The reduction of 
 these republics to the condition of i)rovinces 
 of the Muscovite state i)ut an end to that 
 early movement for religious reform which, 
 for a brief time, however, seemed to have 
 conquered the conquerors. 
 
 About 1471, a learned Jew, Zacharias of 
 Kiev, was brought to Novgorod among the 
 attendants of the newly elected Prince Mi- 
 chael Olelkovich. Zacharias laid the foun- 
 
 364
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 dation of the heresy of the Judaizing, a 
 rationalist sect which very rapidly gained 
 adherents among both clergy and laity. 
 The Muscovite Grand Duke John III., on 
 visiting Novgorod, called to his court two 
 Novgorod priests identified with the new re- 
 ligious movement. They fervently applied 
 themselves to preaching the new doctrine 
 and gained many converts among the clergy 
 and the courtiers. The Grand Duke himself 
 was favorably inclined towards them and 
 lent his influence to elevate one of the new 
 teachers to the see of Metropolitan of Mos- 
 cow. But the orthodox party was too strong 
 for these early pioneers of reform, and soon 
 regained its ascendency. In 150-i the teach- 
 ers of the Judaizing were tried for heresy, 
 and sentenced, some to be burned at the 
 stake, others to have their tongues cut out ; 
 many were imprisoned in convents or ban- 
 ished, and the incipient movement for re- 
 ligious reform was stopped. 
 
 365
 
 EELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 The ignorance of the clergy, as dense as 
 that of the people,^ insured for generations 
 to come the unity of the Orthodox Church 
 against division bred by the spirit of in- 
 quiry. With the first beginnings of educa- 
 tion among the clergy, its ritualism, im- 
 pregnable in its adherence to tradition, was 
 bound to crumble under its own weight. 
 Through the ignorance of clerical scribes 
 many errors kept creeping into the liturgy 
 and prayer-books of the Russian church. 
 A revision was attempted early in the sev- 
 enteenth century under the direction of a 
 learned Greek, who unfortunately was not 
 familiar with the Slav language used in the 
 church, whereas his assistants had no 
 knowledge of Greek. The revision was as 
 defective as the old liooks, and a commis- 
 sion was sent to the Orient, that fountain 
 of tradition. A vast collection of ancient 
 manuscripts was secur(»(l ard l)roiight to 
 Moscow. Jealousy naturally sprang up be- 
 
 366
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 tween the revisers and the new commission. 
 To settle the controversy, a church council 
 was held at Moscow in 1654, presided over 
 by the Russian Patriarch, Nikon, and at- 
 tended by the Patriarchs of Antioch and 
 Servia, the changes recommended by the 
 commission being approved in accord with 
 the ritual adopted in the Oriental churches. 
 This decision was the signal for a great 
 schism. A large faction among the clergy 
 refused to accept the innovations and re- 
 mained faithful to the "old ritual." Perse- 
 cution of the opposition widened the breach. 
 The Orthodox Church was denounced as 
 "the nest of Antichrist," and the Czar was 
 bitterly arraigned for having allied himself 
 to the heretics and persecutors of the true 
 orthodoxy. 
 
 Persecution of the "schismatics" grew in 
 severity, and in 1681 their leader, Proto- 
 pope Awacum, with a number of his dis- 
 ciples, was burned at the stake. Unlike the 
 
 367
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 movement of the Judaizing, the great schism 
 of the old ritualists could not be killed with 
 its leaders, for it drew its strength from a 
 deep-seated discontent in church and state. 
 The Patriarch Nikon was a representative 
 of that type of man who, in another en- 
 vironment, might have been a military 
 dictator, like Napoleon, a political boss, or 
 a captain of industry. His domineering 
 character and centralizing tendencies an- 
 tagonized many among the lower clergy, 
 and the "old ritual" merely proved a con- 
 venient issue to bring together all those who 
 instinctively inclined towards a democratic 
 organization of the church. 
 
 The state having espoused the cause of 
 the dominant church, drew upon itself the 
 enmity of the leaders of the schism. Oppo- 
 sition to the church developed into opposi- 
 tion to the state; the "old ritualist" clergy 
 became the natural leaders of all the dis- 
 contented in the realm. The reforms of 
 
 3G8
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 Peter the Great taxed all the resources of 
 the nation. The introduction of a standing 
 army; the extension of serfdom to provide 
 laborers for state mines, mills, and facto- 
 ries; stringent anti-vagrancy laws which 
 affected the numerous class of fugitive 
 serfs, — these and many other measures of 
 the new fiscal policy bred discontent among 
 the common people. On the other hand, 
 Peter the Great, finding the way of reform 
 blocked by the conservatism of the people, 
 naturally distrusted them. Discarding the 
 Assembly of the Commons and the Council 
 of the Boyars, or house of lords, he was the 
 first Russian Czar to rule as an autocrat. 
 While the Commons had had, during the 
 Muscovite period, merely a consultative 
 voice, and it was optional with the Czar to 
 call the Commons together, custom had de- 
 manded that the voice of the Commons be 
 heard on all matters of public importance. 
 Whenever a new code of laws was to be 
 
 369
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 enacted, the Czar invariably sought their 
 advice. 
 
 Peter the Great, by breaking with this an- 
 cient custom, antagonized all classes of the 
 people. The old ritualists earnestly be- 
 lieved him to be the Antichrist, and in all 
 revolts against his reforms were the mov- 
 ing spirits. The original controversy over 
 Hallelujah, or the proper si)elling of the 
 name of Christ (whether "Jesus" or "Isus") 
 thus developed into a democratic, religious, 
 and political movement. 
 
 Very early in its history the great schism 
 split into two branches over the question of 
 priesthood. Since the patriarch and the 
 bishoi)s had abandoned the true faith and 
 joined the "Nikonian heresy," who was to 
 ordain new i)riests! The people of the 
 sparsely settled extreme North, who, owing 
 to geographical situation had been accus- 
 toined to live without jn'iests, came to the 
 conclusion tli;il liciiceforth there could be no 
 
 370
 
 EELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 priesthood in the true church. Without a 
 priest to administer the sacraments there 
 could be no sacraments, and thus, proceed- 
 ing from a purely ritual controversy, the 
 "Priestless," as they were called, arrived 
 ultimately at a rationalistic conception of 
 religion. These, again, maintaining the 
 right of free interpretation of the Scrip- 
 tures, soon split up into a number of ration- 
 alistic sects. The other, more conservative 
 branch of the schism, recognizing priest- 
 hood, preserved its unity, and after a long 
 struggle forced the state to grant them a 
 degree of tolerance. 
 
 Under the law of 1685 the schismatics 
 were liable to be burned at the stake and 
 their property was subject to confiscation ; 
 those harboring them were liable to be pun- 
 ished by the knout and banished. Driven 
 by persecution the dissenters fled to the out- 
 skirts of the empire, a powerful factor in 
 Russian territorial expansion. The spirit 
 
 371
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 of martyrdom was so strong in them that 
 not infrequently, when caught by the au- 
 thorities, they would burn themselves alive 
 rather than surrender. Within the first five 
 years after the enactment of the law of 
 1685 as many as twenty thousand persons 
 sacrificed themselves in this way. In the 
 eighteenth century on one occasion more 
 than two thousand persons resorted to this 
 mode of self-destruction. Gradually, how- 
 ever, a modus vivendi was established ; the 
 officers of the government soon recognized 
 the possibilities of the laws against the 
 schism and made them a source of hand- 
 some revenue for themselves, in considera- 
 tion of which iunnuuity was granted to the 
 dissenters. 
 
 After a century of persecution the im- 
 I)eiial government realized the fact that the 
 "schism" had come to stay. By the ukase 
 of Peter III., in M(V2, the ])rivileges ac- 
 corded to foreign denominations were ex- 
 
 372
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 tended to the native sects. Catlierine II., it 
 is true, born a Protestant princess and con- 
 verted to orthodoxy in order to marry the 
 Russian heir to the throne, showed her zeal 
 by prohibiting the construction of old ritu- 
 alistic churches. The old ritualists retali- 
 ated by taking an active part in the peasant 
 rebellion led by Poogatchov, who, under the 
 assumed name of Peter III., for nearly a 
 year held half the empire subject. Perse- 
 cutions were renewed during the short reign 
 of the insane Paul I. His successor, Alex- 
 ander I., educated by Laharpe in the prin- 
 ciples of French liberalism, relaxed the 
 severity of the law by granting the dis- 
 senters the privilege of private worship ; all 
 public manifestations of worship, however, 
 remaining under the ban, as before. 
 
 The political reaction which set in during 
 the latter part of the reign of Alexander I., 
 brought with it a recrudescence of the old- 
 time intolerance. Under the act of 1824, 
 
 373
 
 EELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 backsliders from among the "converted" old 
 ritualists were to be drafted into the army, 
 and women were to be banished to Siberia. 
 As the alleged "conversions" were never 
 voluntary, the act of 1824 was virtually a 
 return to the seventeenth-century policy. 
 Under Nicholas I. a systematic campaign 
 of persecution of old ritualist worship was 
 inaugurated. Count Protasov, the Procu- 
 rator of the Holy Synod, in his report to 
 the Czar in 1842, divided the Russian sects 
 into two classes — the "more harmful" and 
 the "less harmful." The former class in- 
 cluded all "Priestless" sects, whose danger 
 was manifested in their democratic spirit. 
 He recommended that the "more harmful" 
 sects should be dealt with by the penal code, 
 whereas the "less harmful" should be dis- 
 couraged by a system of civil and political 
 disal)ilities. The recommendations were ap- 
 j)i'oved by the Czar. The old ritualists were 
 debarred practically from holding i)ublie 
 
 374
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 office by the provision of tlie law requiring 
 them to take the oath of office in accordance 
 with the orthodox rite. They were denied 
 admission to high schools and universities. 
 Their marriages were not recognized by 
 the law and their children were treated as 
 illegitimate. They were disqualified from 
 testifying in civil actions against members 
 of the Orthodox Church. In certain prov- 
 inces they were prohibited from buying real 
 estate. Many of them were forbidden to 
 leave their domiciles. Their worship was 
 materially interfered with. The erection of 
 new prayer-houses or the repairing of old 
 ones was prohibited; those which became 
 dilapidated were to be condemned and shut 
 up by the authorities, while the use of dwell- 
 ings for prayer-rooms was likewise prohib- 
 ited. And, though thus treated as an ele- 
 ment of public danger at home, they were 
 nevertheless not permitted to emigrate from 
 Russia. 
 
 375
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 Alexander II., the Reformer, continued 
 the policy of his father. All restrictive laws 
 enacted under Nicholas I. were included in 
 the "Revised Statutes" of 1857, published 
 by the authority of the new Czar. The pol- 
 icy of the temporal and spiritual powers 
 was directed, in official phraseology, tow- 
 ards "the eradication of schismatic errors 
 among the peoi)le." As a concession to the 
 spirit of the times, those born of dissenter 
 parents were not to be molested, but all 
 proselyting was forbidden. One important 
 reform was enacted late in the reign of 
 Alexander II., by the law of 1874, which 
 introduced the institution of civil marriage 
 among the old ritualists. This is an excep- 
 tion from the general law which regards 
 marriage as a sacrament whose legality is 
 conditioned upon its celebration by compe- 
 tent si)iritual authority. The Russian state 
 will not recognize the "schism" as a Chris- 
 tian church, hence the institution of civil 
 
 376
 
 EELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 marriage. In all other respects the condi- 
 tion of the dissenters throughout the "lib- 
 eral" reign of Alexander II. remained the 
 same as under the iron rule of his father. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Only in 1883 did a limited degree of tol- 
 erance come to be accorded to the dissenters. 
 By the act of May 3, 1883, all their civil 
 and political disabilities were removed. 
 They were also permitted to hold pub- 
 lie worship, provided, however, that their 
 prayer-houses should not have the outward 
 appearance of churches ; they must have no 
 crosses or bells to distinguish them. 
 
 On the face of it the new law would seem 
 to extend to the dissenters the same privi- 
 leges as those enjoyed by the Protestant 
 denominations. This tolerance, however, is 
 practically nullified by the law, still remain- 
 ing in full force, which punishes apostasy 
 
 377
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 from the Orthodox Church and the spread- 
 ing of "heresies and schisms." ^ Only those 
 of the dissenters who were born of dissenter 
 parents enjoy the immunity from persecu- 
 tion granted by the act of 1883. But the 
 bulk of the membership of the recent sects, 
 for example, the Stundists or Baptists, are 
 "apostates" from the Orthodox Church. 
 Under Section 190 of the Penal Code, those 
 of them who bring up their children in their 
 new faith are liable to imprisonment for a 
 term of not less than eight months, or more 
 than sixteen months. Moreover, "their chil- 
 dren are entrusted to the care of relatives 
 of the orthodox confession, or, in the ab- 
 sence of such, to the care of guardians, 
 likewise of the orthodox faith, who are 
 appointed for the purpose by the govern- 
 ment." 
 
 Nor is this a dead letter. The most con- 
 spicuous case of the law's being applied in 
 
 (•) Penal Code, Seetions 189 and 196. 
 378
 
 EELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 all its severity was that of Prince Hilkoff, 
 a relative of the present minister of trans- 
 portation, and a follower of Tolstoi. The 
 story of the separation of his children from 
 their parents a few years ago was told to 
 the press of the world by the heartbroken 
 mother. There are many such mothers 
 among the Russian peasantry. 
 
 Under the conditions of peasant life in- 
 deed no dissenter can escape the charge of 
 seeking to make converts among members 
 of the Orthodox Church. The writer once 
 witnessed the trial of a case which may be 
 taken as typical. The prisoner himself was 
 a Stundist, but his son married an orthodox 
 girl, and, as is customary among Russian 
 peasants, took her into his father's house to 
 live. At times the Stundists of the village 
 would meet for the reading of the Bible at 
 the old man's home. An average peasant 
 house consists of a kitchen and one sitting- 
 room, so it was quite inevitable that the 
 
 379
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 daughter-in-law should be present at the 
 Stundist meetings. This was enough to 
 make out a complete case of preaching an 
 heretical doctrine to a member of the Ortho- 
 dox Church. The old man was found guilty 
 and sentenced to forfeiture of all civil rights 
 ("civil death") and banished to the Trans- 
 caucasian region. 
 
 The effect of this policy can be easily 
 imagined. Persecution has not prevented 
 the spread of religious dissent, but has 
 merely brought about a sort of natural se- 
 lection, by which only the seekers after 
 truth, those who are ready to suifer for the 
 sake of truth, have joined the new religious 
 sects. The result has been a higher moral 
 tone among the "sectarians" than is usual 
 among the peasantry, complete absence of 
 drunkenness and dissipation, a spirit of 
 mutual helpfulness and co-operation, and 
 liand in hand with this moral and social 
 regeneration an imi)rovement of the cco- 
 
 380
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 nomic condition of the dissenter peasants. 
 This object lesson has been a more potent 
 factor in attracting new converts than mere 
 preaching could be. 
 
 The most "dangerous" of all the modern 
 sects is the Shtoonda (German "Stunde") 
 which first made its appearance in Southena 
 Russia soon after the emancipation of the 
 peasants (1861) and owes its origin to the 
 influence of German colonists. Its rapid 
 spread was due to the political and eco- 
 nomic conditions of the time, which made 
 the more intelligent portion of the peasantry 
 susceptible to influences of an idealistic 
 nature. 
 
 The peasant reform of Alexander IL, far 
 from satisfying the peasantry, became the 
 cause of widespread discontent among them. 
 Owing to certain historical causes the peas- 
 ant's ideal of "freedom" included the divi- 
 sion of the land among the peasantry. 
 
 The peasantry of the nineteenth century 
 
 381
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 continued to live amidst the conditions of 
 the seventeenth century, when the title to all 
 lands was vested in the sovereign and the 
 nobility held their estates merely for public 
 services, subject to forfeiture at the pleas- 
 ure of the Czar; on the other hand, the 
 peasants were adscripts to the land likewise 
 for the needs of the state. Emancipation 
 from personal dependence upon the noble- 
 man was to the peasant mind merely a re- 
 form of the public service ; the peasant was 
 to serve the Czar directly, instead of indi- 
 rectly through a master. The nobleman was 
 to go to the city and enter the civil service 
 or the army. The reform of Alexander II. 
 merely abolished the personal power of the 
 nobleman over the peasant ; the peasant was 
 given the alternative of either accepting an 
 allotment of land at an exorbitant price, or 
 paying a tribute to or i)erforniing labor as 
 before for the master. This unsettled con- 
 dition of "temi)orary servitude," as it was 
 
 382
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 officially termed, continued throughout the 
 reign of the "Czar-Liberator," and ap- 
 plied to fully one-half of the fonner 
 serfs. 
 
 The whole scheme was so radically at 
 variance with the peasant's conception of 
 "freedom" that he refused to accept it as 
 genuine. It seemed to him a huge con- 
 spiracy of the landed and office-holding no- 
 bility against the Czar and the people. The 
 carrying out of the reform was naturally 
 attended with serious disturbances through- 
 out the empire, but the opposition of the 
 peasants was crushed by military force. 
 Broken in spirit, with their ideas of truth 
 and justice badly shattered, they were given 
 hope in this hour of despair by the teachers 
 of the new Christianity. They had heard 
 the Bible read in a foreign, unintelligible 
 tongue in the Orthodox Church, as merely 
 a part of the ritual. The Bible read and 
 explained to them by the Stundist teachers 
 
 383
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 was a living truth, full of meaning, going 
 to their own minds and hearts. 
 
 The Stundist movement rapidly spread 
 among the peasantry, winning village after 
 village from the Orthodox Church. The 
 clergy were aroused; poorly paid by the 
 state and burdened with large families, they 
 depended upon the fees paid by their pa- 
 rishioners for religious services, and the new 
 religious movement threatened to deprive 
 them of their livelihood. A vigorous cam- 
 paign of persecution followed, which has 
 not been relaxed up to the present day. 
 
 Persecution by the government turned 
 the attention of the Stundists to political 
 questions. The spread of education has 
 made them familiar with the political and 
 social ideals current among the upper 
 classes. The work of Count Tolstoi has 
 served as a connecting link between the 
 progressive elements of the common i)eoi)le 
 and the reformers and radicals of the "iu- 
 
 384
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 telliguentzia," or the cultured classes. The 
 two million Stundists to-day are the strong- 
 est social group working for democracy in 
 Russia. 
 
 The Czar's manifesto proclaiming the ur- 
 gent need of religious tolerance is a recog- 
 nition of the recent political aspect of the 
 religious movement among the common peo- 
 ple. Born of political necessity, religious 
 tolerance will, in conformity with precedent, 
 extend as far as the exigencies of the situa- 
 tion justify. The native dissenters will very 
 likely be restored to the privileges which 
 were granted to them one hundred and 
 forty-one years ago by the ukase of Peter 
 III., putting them on a footing with "for- 
 eign denominations." All indications, how- 
 ever, are to the effect that the Czar's 
 manifesto on "religious tolerance" must be 
 construed in the narrow sense of the funda- 
 mental Russian laws. 
 
 Two acts affecting the civil rights of the 
 
 385
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 Jews have indeed been passed since the 
 promulgation of the manifesto. One ex- 
 tends the Ghetto to one hundred and one 
 rural settlements from which the Jews have 
 heretofore been excluded. Upon closer 
 sciTitiny, however, it appears that these 
 settlements are either suburbs of cities that 
 have expanded far beyond their corporate 
 limits, or villages that have developed into 
 industrial towns, though still retaining their 
 village organization, their incorporation be- 
 ing only a question of time. There is, con- 
 sequently, no abandonment of the principle 
 that the Jews must be confined to urban 
 settlements. The principle has received 
 some further extension through the suspen- 
 sion of the law i^ermitting certain privileged 
 classes of Jews, such as university gradu- 
 ates, merchants in higli standing, etc., to 
 acquire farming proix'iiy outside of the 
 pale of settlement, but il has been discov- 
 ered, runs the edict, Hint the Jews have
 
 RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA 
 
 availed themselves of the privilege to a con- 
 siderable degree, and therefore it has been 
 deemed wise to suspend it until further 
 notice. 
 
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