RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 27 17
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 KKW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
 ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd, 
 
 TORONTO
 
 At the Cossack picnic : stirring the cauldron of soup with birch 
 
 branches.
 
 RUSSIA AND THE 
 WORLD 
 
 A STUDY OF THE WAR AND A STATEMENT 
 
 OF THE WORLD-PROBLEMS THAT 
 
 NOW CONFRONT RUSSIA 
 
 AND GREAT BRITAIN 
 
 BY 
 
 STEPHEN GRAHAM 
 
 AUTHOR OF "WITH POOR IMMIGRANTS TO AMERICA' 
 
 " WITH RUSSIAN PILGRIMS TO JERUSALEM " 
 
 ETC. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1917 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 Copyright, 1915, 
 Bv THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1915. Reprinted 
 September, 1915; April, 1917. 
 
 Wortoooli Preas 
 
 J. 8. Gushing Co. — Berwick <fc Smith Co. 
 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
 
 G^ 76. 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 In December, 1913, when I was just returning to 
 Russia after my tramp in America, The London Times 
 came forward and put its columns at my disposal, and ' 
 I was able to record my impressions there throughout 
 the whole of the year. During the winter I was seeking 
 words and stories and impressions that would convey 
 better the idea of Russia as the great religious force 
 of Europe : Russia the sanctuary from Westernism. 
 My first articles dealt with the religion of Russia, the 
 meeting of old friends, the idea of sanctuary. I visited 
 many old friends of whom I have written in my books 
 before — Pereplotchikof, the Russian painter, with 
 whom I spent a summer in the forests of Archangel; 
 Loosha, whom I met at Batum ; Varvara Ilinitchna, 
 of the cottage with the Chinese wall at Gelendzhik, on 
 the Black Sea shore; the old grandmother at Vladi- 
 kavkaz, to whom I brought a crown of thorns and a 
 cross after my pilgrimage to Jerusalem. My first 
 letters home were from Moscow, Kief, Vladikavkaz, 
 and other towns. 
 
 But with the coming of spring the road tempted me, 
 and I set out on the longest and most difi5cult tramp I
 
 vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 had yet attempted — across Russian Central Asia to 
 the frontier of China and the south of Central Siberia. 
 I went by train as far as the road would take me, and 
 then went on with pack on back. I visited Bokhara, 
 Samarakand, and Tashkent, those wondrous cities 
 which Russia possesses on the northern side of Afghanis- 
 tan in the Hindu-Koosh. Towards the end of May I 
 set out across the Kirghiz steppes, through Sindaria 
 and Seven Rivers Land, and saw many scores of new 
 Russian villages and irrigated farms in this the young- 
 est of Russian colonies. I was continually with the 
 pioneers of Russian emigration — the endless caravan of 
 ox-drawn or pony-drawn carts carrying all the goods 
 and families of Russians going to the remote East in 
 search of land. It was an interesting tramp, but very 
 hot, very trying. The sun beat down on the desert, 
 and for days there was never a tree, not even a palm 
 tree, under which to shelter. It is a land full of big 
 game, many tigers, many panthers, ibex, antelope. 
 There are many serpents, many eagles and vultures 
 and huge bustards. There are also myriads of creatures 
 of the desert — tortoises, marmottes, dust beetles. 
 
 I reached the posts of what is nominally the boundary 
 line of Mongolia, and passed through many Cossack 
 settlements by Kopal, Lepsinsk, and Lake Maiman to 
 Semipalatinsk. At Semipalatinsk, where, by the by, 
 Dostoieffsky suffered part of his exile to Siberia, I came 
 into touch with civilisation, received a stack of letters
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 and newspapers, among other things, read of the assas- 
 sination of the Archduke Ferdinand and his bride and 
 of the consequent punitive expedition of the Austrians. 
 It seemed a serious matter to me then, and I wondered 
 whether things might not be more interesting to me if 
 I returned to the more western parts of Russia, but I 
 was loth to forgo the prospect of resting through late 
 July and August in the Altai — those magnificent pine- 
 covered snow-crested mountains that divide Siberia 
 from China, and give birth to those wondrous rivers 
 of Asia, the Irtish and the Yenisei. I went south to 
 Malo-Kranoyark, and then alongside the main Altai 
 range and over the green hills up to the highlands of 
 Katun Karagai. And there, whilst living in a Cossack 
 station, I heard the barely credible intelligence that 
 there was war. 
 
 No one could say with whom there was war, but 
 there certainly was war with some one. It was a terrible 
 moment when I heard that Germany had declared war 
 on Russia, but it was tempered by the fact that I could 
 hardly believe the news to be true. Still, with the call 
 to arms my vagabondage in Central Asia came to an 
 end for the time being. So the war came across my 
 little thread of life. 
 
 This book takes up my story on the day of mobilisa- 
 tion on the Altai Mountains. At first I thought of 
 including the whole of the year's experience and 
 thought, and the impressions of my Central Asian
 
 viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 journey in one book with my pictures and thoughts 
 of the war. But I have thought it better to put aside 
 the earlier matter, as hardly relevant to the immediate 
 question of how the war is affecting Russia and how 
 Russia stands in relation to the nations she protects and 
 to the world in general. Some time later I hope to 
 return to the Altai village and resume my wanderings 
 where I left off, and when I have crossed Siberia may 
 perhaps present a personal impression of the Russian 
 Empire. 
 
 As regards the spelling of Russian and Polish names 
 I have kept to the rule of spelling according to sound. 
 This was followed in my articles, but The Times fol- 
 lowing a tradition preferred to change my Chenstokhof 
 into Czestochowa and so on. It would be well if the 
 press as a whole would spell according to sound and 
 Przemysl became simply Pshemisl as it is pronounced, 
 
 and so on. 
 
 S. G. 
 
 February, 191 5.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 WAR 
 
 CHAPTER PACK 
 
 I. How THE News of War Came to a Village on 
 
 THE Chinese Frontier i 
 
 II. The Journey from the Altai Mountains to 
 
 Moscow 9 
 
 III. The Englishman 15 
 
 IV. In Moscow 19 
 
 9. V. Why Russia is Fighting 36 
 
 ^ VI. Is IT A Last War ? 42 
 
 VII. Autumn Leaves 47 
 
 ^VIII. The Economic Isolation of Russia • • • 53 
 
 IX. On the River Niemen 58 
 
 X. An Aeroplane Hunt in Warsaw .... 65 
 
 XI. The First Battle of Warsaw .... 74 
 
 XII. The Day of Victory 80 
 
 XIII. Suffering Poland : A Belgium of the East . 85 
 
 XIV. The Censorship 91 
 
 XV. The Soldier and the Cross 95 
 
 ^'XVI. School Children 100 
 
 XVII. Trophies 105 
 
 XVIII. The Evergreens Remain no 
 
 NATIONS 
 
 I. Russians 119 
 
 II. The Germans . 135
 
 X CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 PAGB 
 
 III. The Future of the Poles i43 
 
 IV. The Future of the Jews IS4 
 
 V. Turks 170 
 
 VI. Americans I79 
 
 INDIVIDUALS 
 
 "I. The Great White Tsar 185 
 
 II. M. Sazonof 192 
 
 POLICIES 
 
 I. The Vodka Prohibition 201 
 
 II. Distrust of Russia or Friendship with Russia . 213 
 
 III. The Settlement of Peace 222 
 
 IV. Arbitration 230 
 
 V. The Future of the Russian Empire . . . 236 
 
 VI. The Future of the British Empire . . . 269 
 
 VII. Naturalisation 274 
 
 VIII. Conscription 276 
 
 LAST THOUGHTS 
 
 I. Petrograd 283 
 
 II. Returning from Russia to England . . . 288 
 
 III. Not Too Loud 302
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 At the Cossack picnic : stirring the cauldron of soup with birch 
 
 branches Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Cossack bringing his fur coat to the revision of kit . . . 4 
 
 The Altai Village-church .44 
 
 Making the sign of the Cross with holy water on each Cossack's 
 
 head. The priest is using paint-brush ..... 92 
 Carrying the village ikons to the Cossacks' Consecration Service 148 
 Dancing round the Rouble : Cossack shows the Tsar's head on 
 the silver coin, while the others sing the National Anthem 
 
 and dance round 
 
 Hoisting the Ataman at the mobilisation. The Cossacks also 
 came to the author and said : '■'■ Pozvoltye vas raskatchat — 
 
 permit us to give you a swing " 252 
 
 On the way to the point of mobilisation : 1,000 miles from the 
 nearest railway station ; 4,000 miles from the battlefields of 
 Poland 278 
 
 194
 
 " And He who sat upon the throne said : ''Behold^ 
 I make all things new.'
 
 I 
 
 WAR
 
 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 I. WAR 
 
 How THE News of War came to a Village on 
 THE Chinese Frontier 
 
 I WAS staying in an Altai Cossack village on the 
 frontier of Mongolia when the war broke out, 1,200 
 versts south of the Siberian railway, a most verdant 
 resting-place, with majestic fir forests, snow-crowned 
 mountains range behind range, green and purple val- 
 leys deep in larkspur and monkshood. All the young 
 men and women of the village were out on the grassy 
 hills with scythes; the children gathered currants in 
 the wood each day, old folks sat at home and sewed 
 furs together, the pitch-boilers and charcoal-burners 
 worked at their black fires with barrels and scoops, 
 and athwart it all came the message of war. 
 
 At 4 A.M. on July 31st the first telegram came through, 
 an order to mobilise and be prepared for active service. 
 I was awakened that morning by an unusual commo- 
 tion, and, going into the village street, saw the soldier 
 population collected in groups, talking excitedly. My
 
 2 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 peasant hostess cried out to me, "Have you heard the 
 news? There is war." A young man on a fine horse 
 came galloping down the street, a great red flag hanging 
 from his shoulders and flapping in the wind, and as he 
 went he called out the news to each and every one, 
 "War! War!" 
 
 Horses out, uniforms, swords ! The village feldscher 
 took his stand outside our one Government building, 
 the volostnoe pravlenie, and began to examine horses. 
 The Tsar had called on the Cossacks ; they gave up 
 their work without a regret and burned to fight the 
 enemy. 
 
 Who was the enemy? Nobody knew. The tele- 
 gram contained no indications. AU the village popu- 
 lation knew was that the same telegram had come as 
 came ten years ago, when they were called to fight the 
 Japanese. Rumours abounded. All the morning it 
 was persisted that the yellow peril had matured, and 
 that the war was with China. Russia had pushed too 
 far into Mongolia, and China had declared war. 
 
 The village priest, who spoke Esperanto and claimed 
 that he had never met anyone else in the world who 
 spoke the language, came to me and said : 
 
 "What think you of Kaiser Wilhelm's picture?" 
 
 "What do you mean?" I asked. 
 
 "Why, the yeUow peril!" 
 
 Then a rumour went round, "It is with England, 
 with England." So far away these people lived they
 
 THE NEWS OF WAR 3 
 
 did not know that our old hostility had vanished. 
 Only after four days did something like the truth come 
 to us, and then nobody believed it. 
 
 "An immense war," said a peasant to me. "Thir- 
 teen powers engaged — England, France, Russia, Bel- 
 gium, Bulgaria, Servia, Montenegro, Albania, against 
 Germany, Austria, Italy, Roumania, Turkey." 
 
 Two days after the first telegram a second came, and 
 this one called up every man between the ages of 18 
 and 43. Astonishing that Russia should at the very 
 outset begin to mobilise its reservists 5,000 versts from 
 the scene of hostilities ! 
 
 Flying messengers arrived on horses, breathless and 
 steaming, and delivered packets into the hands of the 
 Ataman, the head-man of the Cossacks — the secret 
 instructions. Fresh horses were at once given them, 
 and they were off again within five minutes of their 
 arrival in the village. The great red flag was mounted 
 on an immense pine-pole at the end of our one street, 
 and at night it was taken down and a large red lantern 
 was hung in its place. At the entrance of every vil- 
 lage such a flag flew by day, such a lantern by night. 
 
 The preparations for departure went on each day, 
 and I spent much time watching the village vet. certi- 
 fying or rejecting mounts. A horse that could not go 
 fifty miles a day was not passed. Each Cossack 
 brought his horse up, plucked its lips apart to show 
 the teeth, explained marks on the horse's body,
 
 i/i 
 
 4 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 mounted it bareback and showed its paces. The 
 examination was strict ; the Cossacks had a thousand 
 miles to go to get to the railway at Omsk. It was 
 necessary to have strong horses. 
 
 On the Saturday night there was a melancholy 
 service in the wooden village church. The priest, in 
 a long sermon, looked back over the history of Holy 
 Russia, dwelling chiefly on the occasion when Napoleon 
 defiled the churches of "Old Mother Moscow," and was 
 punished by God. " God is with us," said the priest. 
 "Victory will be ours." 
 
 Sunday was a hoUday, and no preparations were 
 made that day. On Monday the examination of 
 horses went on. The Cossacks brought also their 
 uniforms, swords, hats, half-shubas, overcoats, shirts, 
 boots, belts — all that they were supposed to provide 
 in the way of kit, and the Ataman checked and certified 
 each soldier's portion. 
 
 On Thursday, the day of setting out, there came a 
 third telegram from St. Petersburg. The vodka-shop, 
 which had been locked and sealed during the great 
 temperance struggle which had been in progress in 
 Russia, might be opened for one day only — the day 
 of mobilisation. After that day, however, it was to 
 be closed again and remain closed until further orders. 
 
 What scenes there were that day ! 
 
 All the men of the village had become soldiers and 
 pranced on their horses. At eight o'clock in the morn-
 
 THE NEWS OF WAR 5 
 
 jng the holy-water basin was taken from the church 
 and placed with triple candles on the open, sun-blazed 
 mountain side. The Cossacks met there as at a ren- 
 dezvous, and all their women-folk, in multifarious 
 bright cotton dresses and tear-stained faces, walked 
 out to say a last rehgious good-bye. 
 
 The bare-headed, long-haired priest came out in vest- 
 ment of violent blue, and behind him came the old men 
 of the village carrying the ikons and banners of the 
 church; after them the village choir, singing as they 
 marched. A strange minghng of sobbing and singing 
 went up to heaven from the crowd outside the wooden 
 village, this vast irregular collection of women on foot 
 clustered about a long double line of stalwart horsemen. 
 
 The consecration service took place, and only then 
 did we learn the almost incredible fact that the war was 
 with Germany. It made the hour and the act and the 
 place even more poignant. I at least understood what 
 it meant to go to war against Germany, and the destiny 
 that was in store. h A'^ 
 
 "God is with you," said the priest in his sermon, J^ 
 the tears running down his face the while. f"God is 
 with you ; not a hair of your heads will be lost. Never 
 turn your backs on the foe. Remember that if you do 
 you endanger the eternal welfare of your souls, y**^ Re- 
 member, too, that a letter, a post card — one line — 
 will be greedily read by all of us who remain behind. 
 . . . God bless his faithful slaves!"
 
 6 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 When the lesson was read there was a great scramble 
 among the soldiers to get their heads underneath the 
 Bible. They looked true "slaves of God," these sol- 
 diers on their knees in the blazing sunlight, the great 
 Bible on their very heads. 
 
 Each soldier dismounted and prostrated himself in 
 the prayers ; each soldier at the last kissed the cross in 
 the priest's hand, and was anointed on the brow with 
 holy water. 
 
 And when anointed he passed away from the priest, 
 leading his horse by the bridle. He sought out mother 
 and wife in the waiting throng, embraced them, and 
 was blessed amidst sobbings that wrung the heart. 
 
 "They'll be back soon !" says one woman. 
 
 "Oh you don't know, you don't know," repUes an- 
 other in distraction. 
 
 Away ! Away ! Two miles from the village an ox 
 had been killed and was being cooked by the side of 
 the road, and gallon bottles of vodka waited in the 
 grass. The soldiers got into saddle again and rode out 
 through the crowds of women, old men, and children. 
 And a great number followed them to the place of 
 picnic. 
 
 The ox was cooked over a great fire by the river- 
 side, the green birches withering in the smoke. The 
 Cossacks came up quickly, and getting down from their 
 horses tied them to the trees. Buckets and kettles and 
 glasses were brought forth from a shed, also many
 
 THE NEWS OF WAR 7 
 
 plates, but no tables. There was soup and roast beef 
 and vodka for all comers. First of all the gallon bottles 
 of spirit were emptied into the buckets and kettles and 
 distributed among the men, the men themselves officiat- 
 ing. There were drinks all round, and healths to the 
 Tsar, and to Russia, and to themselves. Whilst the 
 vodka was being thus purveyed cauldrons were receiv- 
 ing attention, and directly the toasts were drunk the 
 soup was dealt out, each man holding his plate as he 
 stood and putting his lips to the hot liquid, blowing it, 
 and trying to drink it ; there were no spoons. Meat 
 was carved and taken promiscuously to eat, and then 
 the vodka was finished. Only a very limited quantity 
 had been supplied, but enough to inflame the emotion- 
 alised souls of men so lately taken through a moving 
 rehgious ceremony, so lately touched to tears by the 
 farewell to home. 
 
 One man held up a rouble, showing the Emperor's 
 face, and all the soldiers sang "God Save the Tsar," 
 and then danced round the coin. 
 
 The Ataman was taken, hoisted shoulder-high, and 
 thrown three times into the air, and caught again with 
 cheers — a great, stout, bearded military official. A 
 number of soldiers even came up to me and laid their 
 hands on me, saying, — " PozvoUye Vas raskatchat — 
 Let's give you a swing." 
 
 I had difficulty in getting away.
 
 8 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 The roaring little river rushed along under the birch 
 trees, the horses waited in the green shade, the men 
 danced and sang, the women sobbed and keened. 
 There was an hour of it, and then the officer in 
 command gave the word, and all the men were in the 
 stirrup again. The long journey and farewell began 
 in earnest. Even so, women on horseback accom- 
 panied their husbands twenty or thirty miles and 
 then said good-bye, and even watched them out of 
 sight as they dipped with their dust into the horizon. 
 
 So Russia sent off her men from the frontier of 
 MongoHa to fight on the far-off plains of Austria and 
 Poland.
 
 II 
 
 The Journey from the Altai Mountains to 
 
 Moscow 
 
 The day after the setting out of the Cossacks from 
 their Altai village on the Mongolian frontier I decided 
 to follow — hiring first the post and then the zemsky 
 horses. It was like following a reaping. Wherever I 
 went all the ablebodied men had gone before me ; there 
 were only old men, women and children remaining. 
 Boys of twelve and thirteen were in charge of the 
 Government horses, women who could neither read 
 nor write had charge of the post-stations. Greybeards 
 worked with girls in the haymaking fields. Outside 
 every village hung by day the red flag of war ; every 
 night, a great red lantern with baleful fight. 
 
 A fine journey along the corridors of the Altai ranges, 
 from settlement to settlement, through prairie grass, a 
 warm wind blowing all the day, a golden moon coming 
 up out of China to rule in the night. The heart 
 trembled at the thought of war, but all around was the . 
 indifferent peace of a remote country. It was tanta- 
 lising to look at this glowing Altai moon, so placid and 
 perfect, and to feel that four thousand miles away the 
 
 9
 
 lo RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 destinies of Europe were being settled on the field of 
 battle. 
 
 How slow was my progess. After four days I got 
 on a river steamer, packed with reservists, and started 
 the long river journey down the Irtish to Semipalatinsk 
 and Omsk. The cabins of the boat were occupied by 
 officers, the deck by the soldiers, and civil passengers 
 of whatever description were put in the holds with the 
 cargo, the men fore, the women aft. Doctors, peasants, 
 engineers, fishermen. Civil Servants, farmers, found 
 themselves cheek by cheek and knee by knee, trying 
 to sleep on sacks of rye and trusses of hay. But there 
 was no grumbling; everyone understood that it was 
 "soldiers first." 
 
 We stayed all night at Ust-Kamenygorsk. There 
 was a hurricane of wind and drenching rain. No one 
 on board the ship slept, but all sat and looked serious, 
 while soldiers stood about in their cloaks, and the pale 
 lights of the ships shimmered on black bayonets. Next 
 morning we were played off by a military band. There 
 was a crowd as if the whole female population of the 
 town had come out to see us off ; and as the National 
 Anthem was played the sobs of mothers and wives 
 mingled in unison with the music as we beat the water 
 into foam and steamed away. 
 
 All the way to Semipalatinsk the women came out 
 from the villages and lined the riverside to see us — not 
 to sell things, as in time of peace, but to give. We
 
 JOURNEY FROM ALTAI TO MOSCOW ii 
 
 stopped nowhere, but came gently alongside the village 
 landing-places ; and as we did so the women flung 
 aboard their gifts to the soldiers — 5 lb. loaves, cucum- 
 bers, red melons, cooked fish — crying and shouting 
 the while. Many loaves and fishes had adventurous 
 passages in their flight from the shore to the boat. 
 How good that this personal sort of charity is still 
 deep in Russia, not dried up ! In the old days when 
 the Siberian prisoners were marched from village to 
 village to the mines the population of the villages used 
 to turn out and befriend them in just such a way. To- 
 day in Moscow I see how the people of the towns wait 
 at the stations for the ambulance- trains and carry their 
 gifts to the captive and wounded — personally. Even 
 to the German prisoners of war. 
 
 There was a great deal of feasting and merriment 
 on board the boat, though no vodka or beer. The 
 stove in the general kitchen was always covered with 
 pots, and in the pots were fish, eggs, chickens, mutton. 
 There was eating and talking, and music and dancing. 
 When at Semipalatinsk we were transferred to the 
 much larger steamer Andrew the First-Called, there was 
 dancing all night. 
 
 On the deck of Andrew the First-Called we had a 
 thousand passengers, half of whom were reservists, the 
 other half a medley of delayed Siberian passengers : 
 Chinamen on the way to Peking, Chinese Tartars, 
 Siberian Tartars, gangs of labourers, colonists, school-
 
 12 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 teachers going home from their holiday in the Altai, 
 students going to the universities, a party of Caucasian 
 pioneers returning to Alagir, near Vladikavkaz; five 
 Ossetine tribesmen, who, strange to say, had been in 
 Canada and who spoke broken English, and were of 
 opinion that Siberia was "no good country" ; a family 
 of Ziriani going back to their home on the Petchora. 
 In every corner and on every table roUed canteloupes 
 and mushmelons, giving colours of gold and emerald to 
 the monotony of Siberian rags. We were a long-haired, 
 non-shaven lot of people. I myself had a month's hair 
 on my face. We were in bark boots, in jackboots, in 
 bare and dirty feet. We had many "hares" on board 
 — ticketless passengers, tramps, tatterdemahons, men 
 of the runaway convict type, beggars, thieves. 
 
 I lay in the midst of them all and slept not. An 
 orchestra was formed of two men with concertinas, 
 three with fiddles, and one with a mouth organ, and 
 even at three in the morning the musicians were 
 surrounded by a great crowd of men ; some on sacks, 
 some standing on benches and tables, some hanging 
 on from rafters in the roof above, cheering, shouting, 
 singing, as men couples went through the extraordinary 
 dumb show of the popular dances, coming towards one 
 another or retiring, averting their faces, shrugging 
 their shoulders, hunching their backs, slipping down, 
 and dancing as it were on hips and heels, springing up 
 again, kissing one another on the lips.
 
 JOURNEY FROM ALTAI TO MOSCOW 13 
 
 Besides myself there was another EngHshman on 
 board, a mining expert who had come down from 
 one of the mines which used to be worked by the 
 convicts, but which a British company is now exploit- 
 ing. Five hundred of his labourers had been taken 
 away for the war ; the mines would perhaps have to 
 close down. The company's stock must have depre- 
 ciated 50 per cent. It was the same with all the other 
 mining concerns. The Englishman, however, was 
 cheerful. Optimism had always carried him through. 
 He was still an optimist. By the time we got to Omsk 
 it would be arbitration. "Arbitration," said he, 
 "that's what it will be." A Russian officer, over- 
 hearing our talk and learning that we were English, 
 lifted his hat to us. 
 
 What animation there was at Omsk ; soldiers gallop- 
 ing about or leading horses to and from the river, great 
 companies of reservists in rags, free dining-places for 
 reservists' families, companies of soldiers in new attire 
 and with new rifles, squads of men drilling on the sands, 
 train after train packed with soldiers, all the red Sibe- 
 rian goods trucks emptied of the merchandise of peace, 
 and full of guns, saddles, oats, hay ; laden with military 
 carts and wagons, with soldiers and horses ! 
 
 I was appreciably nearer the war, but still far away. 
 The railway line was blocked for passenger service, 
 and it was only in the slowest, slowest manner that I 
 made the 2,000-mile journey west to Moscow, passing
 
 14 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 through the endless forests of Tobolsk, Perm, Viatka, 
 Kostroma, Vologda, tasting the sodden stillness of the 
 pine woods, picking up little contingents of reservists 
 at village stations, listening to the sobbing of women 
 saying "good-bye," watching military goods trains go 
 past us, waiting hours, waiting whole nights to go on, 
 the only diversion the telegrams for sale at the railway 
 stations, the news of the doings of the armies.
 
 m 
 
 The Englishman 
 
 I MET the Englishman at Semipalatinsk, the miserable 
 sandswept Siberian town where, for many years, Dos- 
 toieffsky was confined. I was wandering from the 
 quay up to the town hoping to get a current news- 
 paper to read, when suddenly, to my surprise, a man 
 in a cart cried out to me in my own tongue, the words : 
 "Speak English?" 
 
 "Why, yes," said I. "How did you guess?" 
 
 " I saw you reading an old copy of The Times yester- 
 day, but I thought probably you didn't know much 
 and it wouldn't be worth while speaking to you." 
 
 "You were on the Mongol? ^^ 
 
 "Yes, I got in at Ust-Kamennigorsk coming down 
 from a mine." ^ 
 
 "I suppose you know the news, England has de- 
 clared war also." 
 
 "What! Is she at it?" 
 
 "Yes, it's England, France and Russia against Ger- 
 many and Austria." 
 
 "No? But it won't last." 
 
 "There's no going home across Germany." 
 
 IS
 
 i6 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 "No?" 
 
 "I don't suppose there's any sailing from Baltic 
 ports." 
 
 "No. But it can't last. It'll be arbitration." 
 
 The mining engineer seemed perturbed. I went on 
 to the town, he returned to the boat after a night in a 
 hotel. We met later on Andrew the First-Called and 
 we had many talks. A very able man of middle years, 
 at once prosaic and sentimental, having soft blue eyes 
 ready to shed tears, faded hair and heavyish body. 
 He was homesick for England, and talked ever of his 
 wife and his little girl living in a cosy home in one of 
 our western seaports. 
 
 " Falmouth is a fine town with ships in the bay 
 And I wish from my heart it was there I was to-day. 
 I wish from my heart I was far away from here 
 Sitting in my parlour and talking to my dear." 
 
 Yet the stirring scenes of the Russian mobilisation 
 and the sobbing of the women touched him, and he 
 told me that up country he had seen sights no man 
 could face unmoved. 
 
 His first feeling about the war and England's part in 
 it was irritation, but as I read him extracts from the 
 sheafs of Government telegrams I had procured at 
 Semipalatinsk Town Hall, he was moved with the 
 spirit of adventure, and he told me of many things 
 that had happened to him whilst prospecting in Nigeria 
 and Ashanti; how he discovered a cliff of anthracite
 
 THE ENGLISHMAN 17 
 
 and wanted to take up an option on the working of it 
 but the Government forestalled him ; how he was once 
 reported dead, and came home to read his obituary 
 notice and find his wife in black. 
 
 He held that the Russian Empire was stronger than 
 the British Empire because of the lack of education in 
 Russia. Education always made for disintegration. 
 The educated man nearly always wanted to sacrifice 
 something else to himself and his own education. He 
 was not ready to make sacrifices for a larger ideal. 
 
 But the engineer believed in the English, especially 
 in contrast with Americans. The Americans always 
 think they can outdo other people in the rest of the 
 world by hustling. He told me how up at the mine 
 there were two Americans who tried "to get a move 
 on the labourers" by showing an example and taking 
 pick and shovel themselves. 
 
 "The men all stood round and laughed and let the 
 Americans work. No, the way to get Kirghiz and 
 Russians to work is to make a game of it, and knock a 
 man's hat off now and then and joke about it." 
 
 A cheerful, optimistic Briton. Once he lost £12,000 
 on an investment in American rails and he felt very 
 down in spirits. 
 
 "I might have saved £8,500 by selling out when I 
 wanted to, but my broker said 'Hold on till morning 
 and you'll double.' Next morning I was broke. I did 
 not let my wife know. I went about London all day
 
 u 
 
 i8 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 miserable. I always occupy the same room at the 
 'Cecil.' In the evening I went along to the Gaiety 
 Theatre. I sat in the stalls and stared at the piece but 
 couldn't take it in, I was so upset by the money I'd 
 lost. After the show I met an old acquaintance who 
 asked me into Romano's for supper. There by chance 
 1 met Edmund Payne, Gertie Millar, her husband and 
 some others. Gertie Millar asked me how I liked the 
 piece. I replied that it seemed pretty good, but my 
 mind was wandering all the time. 
 
 "'Why, what's the matter?' said she, and she looked 
 at me so kindly and seriously I could see she under- 
 stood, and she put her hand on my knee and said words 
 that I shall never forget : — 
 
 " ' Laugh and the world laughs with you, 
 Weep and you weep alone.' 
 
 "Next day I won £1,500 back on a thousand pound 
 margin on Ashantis. 
 
 "So I say it'll be arbitration. I shall get home from 
 St. Petersburg in three days, through the Kiel Canal. 
 Have you ever seen the canal? No? You ought to. 
 I've only seen it once and that was at night. But I 
 stayed up all night lookmg at it. It's a magnificent 
 piece of engineering."
 
 IV 
 
 IN MOSCOW 
 
 There is one characteristic in the life of a yoimg 
 man ; it is that no matter what happens, good results 
 to him thereby. Luck, so called, is much more on 
 the side of the young man than on the side of the old. 
 What hair-breadth escapes he has, what calamities he 
 faces, what hardships he undergoes. Yet he emerges 
 more powerful, more experienced. Indeed, danger and 
 privation are more beneficial to him than peace and 
 happiness. Russia is for the moment our young man, 
 with all his destiny before him. He has come through 
 the Japanese War, the great revolutionary danger, he 
 is now in the depths of his third and greatest struggle. 
 All goes to the making of mighty Russia. 
 
 So, when I got back tQ Moscow in September, 1914, 
 I found no depression of the national spirit in Russia ; 
 no strikes, no riots,' no revolutionary propaganda or 
 pessimism, but instead an all-pervading cheerfulness , 
 and national unanimity which even the most optimistic J 
 could not have foreseen. The peasants go to the front 
 with great enthusiasm ; and the intelligentsia, Radical 
 and Conservative alike, cheer them on. The news- 
 
 19
 
 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 papers of all parties are at one, and the Liberal organs 
 are as loyal as those of the extreme Right. There is 
 the same unanimity among the Poles and the Jews — 
 Jewish volunteer regiments have even been formed. 
 The only sympathy with Germany lies in the breasts 
 of the Finns ; the only instinct to fall into brigandage 
 and rebellion is among the Mohammedan tribesmen 
 of the Caucasus. All is well, and if success crowns 
 the Russian arms, the empire will become bound in 
 happy allegiance, to the Tsar as never before. On the 
 other hand, if the Germans gain the upper hand, and 
 inflict vast slaughter, the presence of millions of armed 
 Russians in Western Russia is pregnant with danger 
 for all who have property and culture and position 
 there. This war is a matter of hfe and death for 
 Russian civiHsation, as it is for all the other States 
 engaged. 
 
 The air is full of hope. All vodka shops have been 
 closed, and Russia at a word from the Tsar has taken 
 on the appearance of sobriety. It has been impossible 
 to obtain alcoholic liquors of any kind, and as a con- 
 sequence drunkenness has disappeared from the streets, 
 and with it a great army of beggars who only beg that 
 they may gather twenty kopeks for a bottle. The 
 absence of vodka made a great blank in the peasants' 
 lives, but that blank has been filled up by the war and 
 the interest of the war. Ordinarily the peasants feel 
 they have nothing to do but drink, but now it is other-
 
 IN MOSCOW 21 
 
 wise. It is as if in war they found a real reason for 
 existence, as if in death they found the object of living. 
 It is difficult to reconcile war with our Western Chris- 
 tianity, but the Church of Russia finds no difficulty — 
 going to the war is laying one's body on the altar of 
 sacrifice. In the fine rage of the Russian soldiers 
 going to meet the foe lies the thrill of exultation in the 
 souls of martyrs going to glorious death. 
 
 My ears ache with the sound of women's sobs. All 
 the way from the peaceful and happy villages of the 
 Altai the sounds of wailing and crying broke upon my 
 ears. Here, however, in Moscow it is different : some- 
 one has wiped away their tears, and the women with 
 sunshiny, if tear-stained, faces, are feverishly working 
 for the thousands of wounded who have come back for 
 their care, cutting Hnen and sewing bandages, collect- 
 ing money, organising hospitals. There are many 
 wounded in Moscow. All the pubhc hospitals and 
 infirmaries are filled, all the private hospitals. Scores 
 of large private houses, such as that of Prince Gagarin 
 on the Novinsky Boulevard and Mme. Morozof's, on 
 the Vozdvizhenka, are turned into lazaretti — honey- 
 combs of nursing chambers and beds; or into Knen 
 warehouses or workshops for bandage cutting and 
 rolling. The streets are thronged with Red Cross 
 sisters ; in every house women are thinking what they 
 can do personally for the wounded, how many they can 
 take to nurse. Alas ! we are only at the beginning of
 
 22 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 sorrow. Even all the care and thought of those at 
 home will be little to meet the suffering. 
 
 Love for the soldiers is hysterical. At the railway 
 stations where the wounded arrive, wait large crowds 
 of women with baskets of gifts; and when the huge 
 cross-marked, comfortable ambulance train comes in 
 and stops, there is a new and sweet invasion — all the 
 girls running along the corridors with cigarettes, with 
 tea and sugar, and cakes and newspapers. 
 
 Even on wet evenings the dense, uncomplaining 
 crowd waits for the wounded and the prisoners, and, 
 as the great red cross of the slowly approaching am- 
 bulance train looms through the darkness you may hear 
 sad whispered exclamations among the crowd — "Lord! 
 Lord!'' 
 
 Even the German wounded participate in the general 
 hospitality, and you frequently hear a Russian woman 
 say of the wounded enemy before her, ''Poor one; is 
 it his fault that he is fighting us?" The Germans, for 
 their part, are very suspicious, asking of the tea, "Is 
 it not vitriol?" refusing to take medicine, and asking 
 "When are we to be hung?" 
 
 The streets of the city present many sights — the 
 marching of soldiers, the endless stream of the army 
 moving out of the depths of Russia to the war ; a mag- 
 nificent peasantry, brought in some cases from the 
 remotest places of the Old World. They sing as they 
 march, they hft their hats and shout as they go, cheer-
 
 IN MOSCOW 23 
 
 ing for the war. In the midst of their number are many 
 peasant women, wives who refuse to be parted from 
 their husbands, and they help to carry the immense 
 baggage. 
 
 As a contrast, there are long processions of German 
 and Austrian prisoners, looking very sulky and tired ; 
 men in battered helmets, rent clothes, cavalrymen with- 
 out horses, foot-soldiers with the dust and blood of 
 the battlefield unremoved. Russians guard them with 
 drawn swords on their shoulders, the populace runs 
 alongside and laughs and criticises. " What small men ! 
 Wilhelm promised they should come to Moscow, and 
 they've come!" 
 
 No malice, however, seems to be borne the prisoners. 
 On the contrary, they are shown a great deal of kind- 
 ness. Sausage is provided for them and German news- 
 papers. Many people ask, "Is it not dull for you 
 here?" "Not so dull if only there were beer," is the 
 reply. 
 
 Or, as upon the festival of Dmitri Donskoi, there 
 come men with horns, men with bells and with gongs, 
 making a great din, and criers shouting, and pantech- 
 nicon vans attended by society ladies, merchants' wives, 
 and pretty actresses. Into these vans you throw what- 
 ever you fancy, promiscuously. Bright girls come into 
 your lodgings and you give them all the old clothes 
 you don't want, or the new warm things you have pre- 
 pared for the occasion and they take them and throw
 
 24 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 them into the vans ; people just coming out of shops 
 with parcels in their hands throw the parcels into the 
 vans on the impulse. The vans go to the richest and 
 to the poorest streets. From the poorest they take 
 even rags and tatters ; all can be put to use in the ser- 
 vice of the soldiers who, perchance, have to go through 
 a cold winter in the trenches. 
 
 There are frequent hurrahs on the streets as motor- 
 cars tear past with wounded men being taken to the 
 hospitals. Outside all the places to which for the time 
 being wounded are being carried there are crowds wait- 
 ing. When the cars stop at the hospital door there is 
 a chorus of cheers and exclamations: Bravo! Molotsi! 
 (fine fellows). Spasebo! (thanks) ; and the soldiers 
 answer, "Cheer up, we're winning!" 
 
 I visit Pereplotchikof and find him looking much 
 older, as if the autumn of life had breathed over the 
 summer of his prime. But he is very active, and has 
 a dozen war notebooks in his pocket. He spent the 
 summer quietly in a village on the Northern Dwina, 
 and when the war broke out returned directly to Mos- 
 cow. He saw the Tsar, as also did my LiavHa friend, 
 Alexey Sergeitch,* but now a Liberal tutor in a prince's 
 house. The unguarded Tsar was as free and cheerful 
 in Moscow as if he had never heard of revolutions, 
 nihilists, assassins. 
 
 * One of the revolutionaries mentioned in "Undiscovered Russia." 
 Varvara Sergevna, his sister, is a Red Cross nurse now.
 
 IN MOSCOW 25 
 
 With the outbreak of the war, hterature and art came 
 to an end. "I am no longer a painter," says Pereplo- 
 tchikof . " I have almost forgotten that I used to paint 
 pictures." Pereplotchikof serves on six committees for 
 the care of the wounded. Maxim Gorky has volun- 
 teered to go to the front with the Red Cross. The 
 author of "Jealousy" and "Sanin" works at the Brest 
 Station all day hke a porter, carrying wounded soldiers 
 from the just-arrived Red Cross trains to the am- 
 bulances and motor-cars and Red Cross trams waiting 
 to convey them to the hospitals. Nothing is now more 
 familiar than the double-coach Red Cross tramcars 
 gliding slowly along the iron ways, full of wounded, 
 the first coach with plain glass, full of those lightly 
 injured, the second with ground glass, but open win- 
 dows, showing a dozen or twenty upper and lower beds 
 laden with the heavily wounded. 
 
 All the doss-houses, and many schools and churches, 
 are occupied by the wounded. People of all ranks in 
 society are working together for their care. As I sit 
 with Pereplotchikof, the telephone bell rings. It is to 
 say that a certain big doss-house is much in need of 
 Bibles and books of a religious character, a few gramo- 
 phones are asked for ; and some women might help, 
 reading aloud, writing letters, and chatting to the 
 iUiterate. The nurses have all their spare time occupied 
 in writing love-letters to the soldiers' sweethearts. 
 
 I accompanied my friend to the doss-house, an
 
 26 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 immense building near the Riazansky Station. The 
 chief doctor showed me round. I expected to see a 
 very mournful spectacle, but was agreeably surprised. 
 Not one in twenty of the wounded was lying in his 
 bed. Every hall was full of gaiety and life ; the sol- 
 diers walking about in their white undergarments, 
 talking, reading, laughing, playing cards; men with 
 bandaged legs, bandaged hands, heads, bodies, with 
 their bare feet stuck into hospital slippers. 
 
 The doctor, who confessed to a great admiration for 
 the EngHsh, took me into the operating room, a place 
 of blood and disinfectant ; into the bandaging room, 
 where a young soldier was having his arm tied up anew ; 
 into the big basement hall, where the daily cabbage 
 soup is served out. 
 
 "What has happened to the tramps and beggars 
 who used to sleep here o' nights?" I asked. 
 
 "There are fewer of them," said the doctor. "Since 
 the sale of vodka stopped and the war began, the old 
 night population seems to have vanished. I do not 
 know how much good the war will ultimately bring, 
 but the sobriety which it has already brought would 
 justify it." 
 
 The wounded are full of their impressions of the 
 war and of Germany, and they talk readily. Thus: 
 " Germany is a fine country, no comparison with our 
 poor villages — stone houses, brick houses, three 
 storeys, fine carpets, chairs, gramophones. Every
 
 IN MOSCOW 27 
 
 house has a gramophone, and we all learned how to 
 set them going. One day, I had just come into a 
 house and set a gramophone going, when an officer 
 puts his head into the broken window and says, 'Stop 
 that music at once I ' I didn't know how to stop it, so I 
 just hits it, hiff, in the middle of the wheel and it goes 
 into bits all over the room. Then they have fiddles, 
 and every house has a big black box with a lid (piano), 
 and when you open the lid and bang it with your hand 
 it goes ^hir, bir, hir ; ho, ho, ho.^ 
 
 "Is there plenty to eat?" "Yes, pigs, as many as 
 you like. We had roast German pork every day; 
 hundreds, thousands of pigs. We caught them and 
 carried them to the camp." The wounded man hunts 
 in the sack by his bedside and brings out a murderous 
 looking knife. "That's what the Germans kill them 
 with," he says. 
 
 Many wounded have trophies taken from the dead 
 and from the houses of the ransacked villages — 
 watches, rings, guns ; one we saw had a bracelet. A 
 wounded officer whom we met at another place told us 
 how the streets of the German towns were strewn with 
 books, gramophones, vases, silver-plate, white piano 
 keys in handfuls, but no pictures, no statues. The 
 soldiers never touch any pictures, not even that of the 
 Emperor William — saying merely of him as they look 
 at his picture on the wall : "How the ends of his mous- 
 tache are turned up!" "We'll turn them down for
 
 28 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 him, eh brothers ? " The wounded are always asked — 
 "Do the Germans fight well?" and they answer, "Yes, 
 like dogs"; or "Not with the bayonet. They carry 
 their bayonets in their belts; we always have ours 
 fixed and ready. They are afraid of the hand-to-hand 
 struggle. They think the Cossacks are devils who 
 live far away in the forests like savages, Hving on raw 
 meat and blood. They are all afraid of the Cossacks." 
 
 There is great enthusiasm wherever people are 
 gathered together, and you know that all the talk is 
 war — war only. It is difiicult to get seated at a 
 restaurant and make a meal, owing to the number of 
 times national anthems are called for. Every minute 
 or so an ofiicer comes in, orders a bottle of wine, and 
 then, taking glass in hand, stands up and says, " Gen- 
 tlemen, our adored monarch!" or, "Gentlemen, our 
 noble aUies. Vive la France!" Or, "Gentlemen, 
 the English!" — "The Belgians!" and the orchestra 
 goes through the national hymns while the toasts are 
 dnmk. 
 
 One of the wounded who appeared at Moscow was 
 Kuzma Krutchkof, the first to receive the ribbon of 
 the Order of St. George for bravery. He gave a fine 
 account of himself. He is a handsome young man, 
 dark, slender, with a clever look on his sunburnt face. 
 
 "It was like this," he said. "On the 30th of July, 
 at ten o'clock in the morning, we set out from the town 
 of Calvary to Alexandrovo. There were four of us — I
 
 IN MOSCOW 29 
 
 and my friends Ivan Schtegolkof, Vassily Astakhof, 
 and Michael Ivanof . As we were climbing a little hill 
 we came up against a detachment of German soldiers 
 from the 9th Lancers, twenty-seven men with two 
 officers. At first the Germans were afraid, but after- 
 wards they made a dash at us. They had the advan- 
 tage of position, because they were on the hill and we 
 below them. However, we stood to them steadily and 
 killed a few of them as they came. In evading their 
 attack we got separated from one another — Schte- 
 golkof fought on my left ; on my right, near a bit of 
 marsh, fought Astakhof and Ivanof. There were 
 eleven Germans fighting me. I did not expect to re- 
 main alive, but I resolved to sell my life dearly. My 
 horse was agile and obedient. I wanted to use my rifle, 
 but in my haste the cartridge slipped out. A German 
 slashed at my fingers, so I threw the rifle down, seized 
 my sword and set to work. I got several slight wounds, 
 and I felt the blood flowing from them, but I knew 
 they were not serious. For every wound I got I gave 
 back a deadly blow which quieted a German for ever. 
 An officer sprang at me, but I repulsed his attack and 
 made him run and then chased him. When I caught 
 him up, I waved my sword and hacked at his head, but 
 only dented his helmet. I struck out again, but the 
 officer jerked his head aside as he dashed along, and my 
 sword caught him on the neck and almost completely 
 cut his head off. I killed a few more men, but I began
 
 30 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 to feel that my sword was difficult to wield, so I caught 
 hold of one of the German lances and killed all the 
 others in turn with it. 
 
 "Meanwhile my friends had managed the rest of 
 them very cleverly. Twenty-four corpses lay on the 
 ground, some being dragged about in terror by the 
 horses. My friends were a little hurt and I had six- 
 teen wounds, but they were all 'nothing,' just cuts on 
 the back, on my neck, and on my hands. My horse 
 was hurt in eleven places, too, but he carried me 
 back for six versts without being attended to. Then 
 he got weaker, and a peasant carried us the other four 
 versts in his cart. After our wounds had been bound 
 up, they sent the four of us to the hospital, and after- 
 wards here to Moscow, though I asked to stay in 
 Vitevsk, because there was no need for me to go to 
 Moscow — it only meant troubling the authorities, 
 and we were quite well. On the 14th of August, 
 General Rennenkampf came to me, and, taking off his 
 Order of St. George, pinned it on my breast, and con- 
 gratulated me on receiving it. 
 
 "My horse is alive and well. To-morrow I am off 
 again to the war — it is dull for a healthy fellow to be 
 here doing nothing. After our fight with the Germans, 
 only our boots and caps were whole. All the rest of 
 our clothes were cut and torn to bits. However, the 
 fight was not much — the Germans cannot use their 
 lances well ; they hold them stupidly under their arms,
 
 IN MOSCOW 31 
 
 and cannot wield them about; you can easily beat 
 them off and hurt them, especially on our good horses. 
 I am married — yes ; all of us are married. I have 
 two young sons, healthy little fellows. I'll see them 
 again some day, if God wills. But our Cossack women 
 and children must get used to accidents." 
 
 Kuzma has his picture in all the newspapers, but he 
 has now returned to the war. 
 
 Moscow is full of stories, for the convalescent are 
 up and about, and three times, seven times, kill the 
 slain. At the bath-houses of the city, it is amusing to 
 see naked soldiers exhibiting their wounds and telling 
 the stories of their battles to an admiring throng of 
 civilians, amusing to see the siege of garrulous soldiers 
 in the streets, in the taverns (where only tea is sold), 
 and in the tramcars. Moscow is very near to 
 the war. 
 
 I met, at the house of Vassily Vassilitch, a young 
 oflScer just returned from the front with dispatches, and 
 he gave a very interesting account of the state of the con- 
 quered territory in Eastern Prussia. He is a cousin of 
 one of my Moscow friends, a tall, energetic young man 
 with sunburnt face, eyes wide-opened, as in astonish- 
 ment, eyes that you feel have seen things,' lips parted as 
 if startled, voice still hoarse from shouting commands 
 upon the battlefield. 
 
 "Well, what is it all like out there?" 
 
 He takes a chair, puts it back facing you, and sits
 
 32 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 astride of it, and begins to talk as if bursting with the 
 need to tell his story. 
 
 ''How do we fight? Oh, splendid! The forward 
 movement is accomplished singing. The Germans 
 seem distressed by the songs of the Russians as they 
 fight. Yes, the Germans are just as brave as we are. 
 They stick to it to the last point. When captured, 
 they behave very correctly, and to all questions answer, 
 *I have no information to give.' They will ansv/er no 
 questions whatever." 
 
 "How do the German population behave?" 
 "Nevazhno; not very well. They shoot at us. 
 They spy a great deal, and have been able to give 
 much information by means of the subterranean 
 telephone. We could not understand how it was the 
 German artillery fire was so skilfully directed, till we 
 discovered the underground telephone. In a base- 
 ment cellar one day we actually found an eighty-five- 
 year-old crone telephoning to the enemy. During our 
 questioning she had a fit and died of fright." 
 
 "What are the towns like — Insterburg, for instance?" 
 " Insterburg is a fine town, about the size of Nizhni- 
 Novgorod. Life isn't much upset. Business goes on. 
 The value of a rouble has been fixed at three marks, 
 and everything is cheap. We sometimes fear poison, 
 and there have been some cases of poisoning, but the 
 inhabitants are afraid of punishment. As for shooting 
 from windows, we have fixed a tariff — first shot from
 
 IN MOSCOW 33 
 
 a house, we blow up the house ; second shot from the 
 same street we blow up the street. That is grim 
 earnest on our part. Gumbinen is a smaller town, 
 and is in rather a bad state. Eydkunen is a terrible 
 sight, has no semblance of a town. When I came 
 through with my regiment, the only thing we found 
 was beer; the cellars were full of it. Our men, who 
 had not had beer or vodka for a month, went mad 
 over it. There was a stream of beer down the main 
 street. You must understand there was not a soul 
 there but ourselves, not a house that was not blackened 
 by fire, not a window that was not broken, not a room 
 that had not been ransacked. Precious things of all 
 kinds lay in the streets, ruined and soaked by rain. 
 
 "As for the villages, they have mostly been looted 
 or burned. The Germans fire them as they retire. 
 Often at night we have been glad of the Hght of the 
 burning farms and villages, helping to find our wounded 
 on the battlefield. The conflagrations made night like 
 day. 
 
 " Yes ; it makes a melancholy impression to go through 
 village after village, blackened, deserted, looted. Once 
 I noticed a ripe apple on a tree in one of the looted 
 villages ; it caused me some surprise. It was some- 
 thing that had escaped the plunderer. 
 
 "It is dangerous travelling alone or in twos. Even 
 this conquered country is full of ambushes. The 
 people are extremely hostile. There are robber bands,
 
 34 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 detachments of German cavalry as yet uncaptured, 
 armed bicyclists. Many soldiers skulk in the woods. 
 It is good for us that the German roads are so firm, and 
 we can make journeys much more quickly than in the 
 sand or mud of Russian Poland." 
 
 "What is going to happen next up there?" 
 "Oh, a big battle, most likely. The Germans are 
 straining every nerve to arrange a big defeat for us. 
 Every one who can hold a gun is being pressed into 
 service against us. We know that by the dead they 
 leave in the field ; men without uniforms and in their 
 usual civilian attire, many sailors from their warships, 
 children of fifteen and sixteen, old men past the age of 
 fighting. Progress is very difficult, but the news of the 
 success in Austria inspires us, as no doubt it dispirits 
 the enemy. And, as every one knows, we have an 
 enormous number of men in the background — fresh, 
 eager. I go back, myself, with reinforcements." 
 "How did you feel under fire?" 
 " It was unpleasant at first, but after a while it became 
 even pleasant, exhilarating. One feels an extraordinary 
 freedom in the midst of death, with bullets whistling 
 round. The same with all the soldiers : the wounded 
 all want to get well and return to the fight. They 
 fight with tears of joy in their eyes." 
 
 "They feel active hate towards the Germans?" 
 "No; I wouldn't say that. They regard them 
 merely as the enemy — the old enemy."
 
 IN MOSCOW 35 
 
 "There is a certain beauty, in a way, in going to 
 death with songs," said I. 
 
 "I would even say there is no greater beauty," says 
 the young officer. 
 
 So war comes into its own in the popular imagina- 
 tion. Despite the praise of peace and the comfort of 
 peace, and even the fact that we are fighting to obtain 
 peace, war seems to be a thing that must eternally 
 recur — one of the human Uturgies of beauty.
 
 Why Russia is Fighting 
 
 Britain is fighting for disarmament and universal 
 peace. France is fighting to save herself from the 
 monster who has already devoured a portion of her side, 
 Alsace and Lorraine. Germany is fighting to impose 
 her order on the rest of the world, to make us all, as it 
 were, wear German uniforms. Germany has had great 
 dreams; one of them was of a German and Austrian 
 belt from Heligoland to Constantinople ; another was of 
 a finally subjugated France and possibly of a Belgium 
 absorbed into the German Empire. Germany, taking 
 herself seriously as the standard-bearer of Western 
 civilisation, considers that she has carried order, clean- 
 liness, education and national efficiency to a point of 
 perfection unattainable by the people of other coun- 
 tries. Russia is^fighting to preserve her national hfe 
 and religion. 
 
 Of all nations the most abhorrent to the Germans 
 must be the Russians. The Russian character tem- 
 perament and mind are all opposed to the German soul. 
 The Russian subtlety and contradictoriness, the Rus- 
 sian mysticism and unpracticality, above all things, 
 
 36
 
 WHY RUSSIA IS FIGHTING 37 
 
 Russian national untidiness, are intolerable to the 
 German. The German is filled with loathing directly 
 he passes the Russian frontier ; the difference between 
 the well built towns, storehouses, and firm highways of 
 Eastern Prussia and the wildernesses of Russian Poland 
 is almost incredible. To enter Russia is to step down 
 into an inferior world, a world that needs setting right. 
 
 "Russia offers wonderful material for the making of 
 history," said Bismarck; "let but its feminine type of 
 population be interbred with our strong, masculine 
 Germans." "The Slavonic peoples are not a nation," 
 wrote the Emperor William, "but rather soil on which 
 a nation with a historic mission might be grown." 
 
 In this it is impossible not to see a considerable 
 amount of German stupidity. The Germans are going 
 to suffer terribly through their ignorance of the strength 
 of Russia, through their inability to realise to what an 
 extent the Russians are national. It is because of 
 their national individuahty and of their vast popula- 
 tion of like faith, like tongue, and like point of view 
 that the Russians go to the front in confidence. When 
 the Germans attack the Russians they are attacking a 
 nation that has a background of 8,000 miles. 
 y The war has come as a relief to Russia, uniting all 
 Cparties under one idea. For a long while Russia has 
 bee» subjected to a strong German influence. Ger- 
 many has long felt that "something might be done" 
 with Russia, and it has done all it could to give a
 
 38 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Germanising tint to Russian government. It is not 
 without significance, that story in Dostoiefifsky's 
 "Adult," of the German who shot himself through 
 vexation at the idea that Russia might come to nothing. 
 The brutality with which the Russian revolutionary 
 movement was put down was not only approved by 
 the Germans, but received a considerable amount of 
 inspiration from them. 
 
 Prince Trubetskoy in a recent article is even ready 
 to say that there lies a German hidden under many 
 Russian breasts. If that is so, it may account for many 
 a brutal act and much of the feeling of oppression in 
 Russia. When war was declared Russia suddenly grew 
 lighter, as if an evil spirit had jumped off her back. 
 German subjects were put under arrest and sent to 
 remote places. German shops were closed. German 
 goods tabooed ; Berlinskaya Street became London- 
 skaya, Petersburg became Petrograd, Schlusselburg 
 became Oreshof, Kronstadt something else; in many 
 schools the German language was given up and English 
 taken instead ; the Hotel Vienna three doors from me 
 became the Hotel of Holy Victory. But not only that. 
 A little German devil of harshness and iron-heeledness 
 jumped out and disappeared, and the Grand Duke 
 Commander-in-Chief proclaimed reconciliation to the 
 Poles, and every one became kinder to one another. 
 People in Russia are naturally kind ; they have become 
 even gentler since the war began.
 
 WHY RUSSIA IS FIGHTING 39 
 
 "The German title Graf is related to the Russian 
 verb grahit, to grab, to steal," says Rozanof, of the 
 Novoe Vremya. "The Germans have always been a 
 predatory race as far as the Slavs are concerned. They 
 are the very opposite of the Russians. In the whole 
 of Russian literature there is not one page in which 
 mockery is made of poverty, of suffering, of a girl who 
 has been betrayed, or of a child that is illegitimate. 
 Russian hterature is one long hymn to the injured and 
 insulted." * 
 
 The whole of Russian popular feeling is of tender- 
 ness rather than rapacity, and though, of course, there 
 lurks in the Russian soul not only the brutal German 
 but the more brutal Tartar, yet it is love to one another, 
 fellow-sympathy in suffering, and gentle sociability that 
 keep the great nation together. It is these that unite 
 them round the sacred ark of the race. The Germans, 
 sneering at the weak and at the victims of their lust for 
 power, with their brutal materialism and their cruelty, 
 represent that which is most foreign to the Russian 
 heart, and consequently that which is most abhorred by 
 all the people. 
 
 One of the commonest headings in Russian papers 
 is "Holy War." A war, if it is going to have any 
 success in Russia, must be a holy war. The Crimean 
 War was a holy war to protect the Russian pilgrims 
 from the persecutions of the Turks. The Japanese 
 
 *V. V. Rozanof, "The Russian Idea."
 
 40 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 War never succeeded in getting thought holy — that 
 was why it failed so disastrously. This war is holy to 
 every one, and its motto is — getting rid of the German 
 ^spirit in life, getting rid of the sheer materialistic point 
 of view, getting rid of brutality and the lack of under- 
 standing of others. The great spiritual power of the 
 war has worked miracles in the social life of the people. 
 
 How seriously the war is taken. "What do you 
 make of the war?" I asked a well-known Russian the 
 other day. 
 
 "It is the Last Judgment," said he. "Every one 
 has been handed in his account. Now we've got to get 
 square with Destiny. We must realise all our resources 
 of will, and faith, and health, and put them in front of 
 our national life to save it. It reminds me of the crisis 
 in the drama of 'Peer Gynt. ' You remember when 
 the button moulder came and said to Peer that his day 
 was done, and that he must be put into the melting-pot 
 and recast as someone else. Peer searched in his his- 
 tory and in his life to get something that could redeem 
 him. Only in the peasant girl Solveig did he find refuge 
 from the moulder. So with Russia — to her also the 
 button moulder has come and offered to melt her up 
 with a strong alloy of Germany into something new. 
 She must go to her peasants if she wishes to remain 
 herself. In the hour of distress it is our peasants who 
 will save us." 
 
 Russia, above all things, is fighting that she may go
 
 WHY RUSSIA IS FIGHTING 41 
 
 on being herseK. Everyone who loves Russia believes 
 in her personal destiny. She is the youngest of the 
 nations ; she has a great life before her. 
 
 We fight, and the year grows colder and more bitter. 
 The yellow leaves are falling day by day, and winter 
 is at hand. Commissaries are in Moscow buying 
 heavy overcoats for the Army for winter, and we 
 know that the war becomes heavier, gloomier. Yet 
 now and again we spare a glance beyond winter and 
 ask, what will it be like when the foe is beaten ? 
 
 Will not Russia emerge greater than before — the 
 true mother of the Slav races? Will not the Eastern 
 Church remain unshaken, surer of itself, with aU its 
 heritage of early Christian tradition and present-day 
 spiritual strength?
 
 VI 
 
 Is It a Last War? 
 
 All the same, I do not believe in this war as a last 
 war, or in this war as "a, war of things," war of ammu- 
 nition, rifles, and clothes, rather than of men and ideals 
 and emotions, a war that is only a matter of mathe- 
 matics or addition and subtraction. 
 
 I have just read in Russian translation an article 
 by H. G. Wells on this war as a war of things, a war of 
 equipment and machines. "Things also make war," 
 says the Russian translation. And the editor of the 
 Russian paper insists on the lessons of that remarkable 
 Western book "A World Set Free" and on the power 
 of material things to put the world right. I think it is 
 a pity that the author of "A World Set Free" insists 
 on the power of material things. We British, alas, are 
 only too ready to think that it is things that count. It 
 gives rest to our souls to fix the responsibility upon 
 something solid and material and accepted. Hence 
 our passion for things, Acts of Parliament, book regula- 
 tions, equipments, conventions. 
 
 What we really need is a younger generation that has 
 faith in England's destiny, we need a nation physically 
 fit, we need knowledge and training so that we do not 
 
 42
 
 IS IT A LAST WAR? 43 
 
 in future wait until the time of war to learn what are, 
 for instance, the possibilities of the use of submarines, 
 and of floating mines. We need brains used for the 
 nation's sake. And last of all, as Mr. Wells says, "we 
 do, of course, need manufacture." 
 
 As a matter of fact we have got manufacture, we 
 don't need to ask for it. "I can't get out of the habit 
 of thinking in dozens of gross," said a London manufac- 
 turer to me the other day. 
 
 We go on manufacturing like the quern at the bottom 
 of the sea. There was once a wonderful quern which 
 came into the possession of a stupid man, and he said 
 to it "Grind me herrings and soup, and grind them 
 quickly and well." Unfortunately, he did not know 
 how to stop the machine, and it is grinding out herrings 
 and soup to this day. Hence the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 The German schoolmaster is our foe more than 
 the German manufacturer. The longer time German 
 children stay at school, and the bigger sacrifice of time 
 given to mihtary training tell tremendously in this 
 national struggle. As William Watson writes in one 
 of his poems : 
 
 " It's ignorance, ignorance, ignorance 
 Will pull Old England down." 
 
 Yes, ignorance, lack of national faith, lack of good 
 bodies. Only England will not be pulled down; we 
 do not intend to let her.
 
 44 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 It has been averred that Russia was prepared for 
 war, having the things ready. But that is to make a 
 great mistake. The Russians are winning their battles 
 because of their rehgious faith, their physical strength, 
 and their sobriety. Not because of their things, their 
 equipment. It is the Russians' bare breasts in the 
 mouth of the cannon, their songs against the roar of 
 artillery. They are inferior in guns, inferior in 
 aircraft, inferior in the quahty of their boots. They 
 have frozen and starved as no Germans could 
 freeze or starve. And they have won. The panoply 
 of Goliath is very suggestive. It wins battles for the 
 Philistines. But let us not insist on it ; it is the other 
 side of the question that we as a nation are most ready 
 to forget. 
 
 I read constantly in the Russian papers our English 
 and French opinions that this war is a last war, a war 
 for disarmament and universal peace, a final effort to 
 crush "barbarism." The socialists are to depose the 
 Kaiser. The working men of England are to enter 
 into alliance with the working men of foreign countries 
 to avert war in the future. The working men in Russia 
 and the Hberal bourgeoisie are greatly edified by this. 
 They find in it another instance of the greatness of 
 England. England, as ever, leads the other nations, 
 and shows them the ideal. She moves step by step 
 towards the millennium. 
 
 But despite the pleasing sentiment, is it not probable
 
 IS IT A LAST WAR? 45 
 
 that as a result of the war niihtarism will increase 
 throughout the whole world ? We shall probably beat 
 Germany, but we shall probably arrange with her a 
 generous peace — not a humiliating peace. Russia will 
 remain a great military nation the foundation of w^hose 
 aristocracy is military rank, and not, as with us in Eng- 
 land, ci\dl title. IVIighty Japan will remain. Italy, 
 who wantonly acquired TripoH, will remain. England, 
 with her dreadnoughts and with perhaps the Navy 
 taken from the Germans and possibly with some system 
 of conscription, will remain. And war has become 
 more interesting. 
 
 There is one nation that sincerely wishes peace, and 
 that is America. It is fortunate for America that her 
 people speak Enghsh and seem to be English by race. 
 We British give them a sentimental protection, and also, 
 as it happens, an accidental protection. If Germany 
 won, America would be in danger. As it is, the extreme 
 wealth of the American people sheds a baleful light on 
 her destiny. As war goes on, with its tremendous ex- 
 pense, America gains financial preponderance day by 
 day. She wiU be in a position to hold Europe in 
 bondage when the war is over. She seems destined to 
 attract to herself more and more European hate. 
 
 The world in which the armies move up and down 
 and against one another, in which there have been in 
 the past cultures greater than our own, where, since 
 everlasting, wise men have risen and spoken, poets sung,
 
 46 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 priests anointed to sacrifice — is the hurly-burly, which 
 remains ever the same. It is a mystery play planned by 
 the gods, and we all know our parts involuntarily. But 
 it is not a play in five acts, it goes on for ever. It does 
 not give an intellectual satisfaction, but a sensuous 
 pleasure. The whispering of the nations together, the 
 conspiracy, the march of men, the clash of arms, the 
 flow of blood, the dance of death — it blends in idea 
 and streams up to heaven in the great symphony.
 
 VII 
 
 Autumn Leaves 
 
 When I went to see Vassily Vassilitch one day he 
 said to me, "Have you heard the earth crying?" 
 
 "What do you mean?" I asked. 
 
 "Why," said he, "I've heard her crying. As I lay 
 in the grass with my ear to the ground I heard her. 
 Like this oo-m, oo-m, oo-m. It was the time the soldiers 
 were being mobilised and women were sobbing in every 
 cottage and at every turning of the road, so it may only 
 have been that I heard. But it seemed to me the earth 
 herself was crying, so gently, so sadly, that my own 
 heart ached." 
 
 I understood what he meant. One night in Septem- 
 ber, when I saw the first big, moist, yellow leaves come 
 down on the wind, a thought whispered itself to my 
 heart — the soldiers are dying. As I lay abed, long 
 after midnight, and listened to the moaning wind I 
 thought what many will think this autumn — the 
 leaves are falling, falling — and away, far away on 
 the battlefield, the soldiers are dying, dying. Listen 
 to the wind in the trees, and you hear the great storm 
 wind of Odin roaring through the Life-tree Yggdrasil. 
 
 47
 
 48 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 You hear the rush of the valkyries, the Choosers of the 
 slain. 
 
 All the way from Moscow to the seat of war the 
 forests are yellow and red, and the glades and meadows 
 are strewn with dead leaves. Only on the fringe of the 
 Baltic is it green as in England at this time of the year. 
 But even on the Baltic shore the symbol is showing. 
 Such a violent gale is raging that leaves and stems are 
 broken off before their time, and the feet tread gently 
 on a moving carpet of wrenched leaves. 
 
 In Moscow on the boulevards hundreds of Kttle 
 children with spades and pails make sand castles and 
 fortifications and play at war whilst the leaves dance 
 round them in circles and spirals. At Libau on the 
 seashore the leaves race past mingled in clouds of 
 bhnding sand, whilst beside them, and, as it were, 
 attacking them, the great black turbulent sea turns 
 over white in a dozen Hues of foaming waves and 
 thundering rollers. The white steeds of the sea rush 
 up and spend themselves and die as if they also were in 
 the great war. 
 
 Good, however, to be nearer the war, to be, as it 
 were, on the way to the war, and going with the soldiers. 
 When the war broke out there was a strange strain on 
 the mind. The feeling in London and Paris, in Eng- 
 land and France, was no doubt sharper, more terrible ; 
 but even far away in the depths of Russia, where there 
 was little news and where the fighting seemed remotest
 
 AUTUMN LEAVES 49 
 
 of all, there was a strain. We were tired out at the 
 end of the day even though we had been doing nothing. 
 Questions for which there were no answers incessantly- 
 dinned at the brain — 
 
 "What does it mean?" "What will be the end of 
 it?" "Is England safe?" All night long objurgatory 
 thrills passed through the body as if one were a sort of 
 psychic seismometer. Moscow nights were nights of 
 bad dreams wherein one suddenly became awake and 
 exclaimed under the breath such things as, "This 
 brings an era to a close." "When this is over we may 
 as well start again numbering from the year One." 
 
 It was a great relief when I felt free to leave Moscow 
 and could set out for the front. It was as if the mind 
 were a bird tired with vain flight over boundless seas, 
 and the bird had seen an island whereon to come to rest. 
 
 I arrived at Libau at eight o'clock. All was dark. 
 There was not a street lamp. The gas was turned low 
 in the railway station and the blinds were drawn. The 
 blinds were drawn in every house, and only by chinks 
 of Hght could you tell that the city was not abandoned. 
 As I sat in a cab going to a hotel a tramcar came slowly 
 past with dim Hghts showing many people. Even the 
 lights of the car had been shrouded in Httle curtains. 
 There were no people on the pavements and only my 
 cab in the street. We crossed a bridge and saw the 
 masts and black funnels of many ships — but never a 
 light among them. The lamp was not lit on the light-
 
 50 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 house. The pier was black. The cinema theatre was 
 closed and empty. 
 
 I went into the hotel, once the Petersburg, now the 
 Petrograd Hotel, and obtained a room. The Swiss 
 spoke to me in German, the attendant showing me my 
 room spoke German, the waiter addressed me in Ger- 
 man. It seemed to me they might as well have left 
 the name standing as Petersburg. 
 
 The population of all the district along the Baltic 
 shore takes its stand rather as German than as Russian. 
 Riga, Windau, Mittau, Libau, and many other towns 
 are more German than Russian. The High Street, the 
 glavnaya ulitsa as it is in Russian, is in these towns the 
 Grosse Strasse. The tramcar stops at the Halt Platz. 
 The newspapers sold are all zeitungs and tagehlatts. The 
 children talk German in the streets, the Jews talk Ger- 
 man in the markets. Even Russian officers and Sisters 
 of Mercy are heard talking German together. It is, 
 therefore, rather in vain that the Government, as I 
 read to-day, is going to re-name all the streets and 
 suburbs and institutions by Russian names. Let what 
 is German so remain ! 
 
 A cautious population that of Libau! Four-fifths 
 of the business people are German Jews, and they have 
 considerable hope that they will not suffer too much if 
 the Germans should come in. Nevertheless, they have 
 sent their women and their valuables into the depths of 
 the country. I am told that after the shelling of Libau, in
 
 AUTUMN LEAVES 51 
 
 the first flush of the idea that the Germans were coming 
 in, many tradesmen refused to speak or understand 
 Russian. Whether these false citizens had some under- 
 standing with the Germans seems to be a matter for 
 investigation. 
 
 Libau was never in flames. That was the first lie 
 of the war. It was shelled and one shell fell on the 
 sand, but all the others fell into the sea. No one was 
 hurt, no damage done. The German fleet has not 
 reappeared. 
 
 The city is under martial law ; no lights are allowed 
 at night, all visitors to the town have to show their 
 passports at once, sentries march up and down the 
 seashore, there is a military patrol of the streets. It 
 is generally felt that if it is Germany's intention to 
 wage at any time an active and not merely a passive war 
 .with Russia, this territory, so German in its sympathies, 
 is most liable to invasion. It can be invaded either by 
 land or by sea. In any case, until the German fleet is 
 destroyed or greatly weakened the Baltic ports will fear 
 attack. 
 
 That is why I came up to Libau. I should not be 
 surprised at any moment to hear the sound of guns. 
 Every day there are crowds of people on the sands 
 staring out to sea, as if they were likely to see ships of 
 war. But necessarily I shaU not wait. I go on south- 
 ward along the line of the struggle — as near as the 
 authorities will let me go.
 
 52 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 A strange impression of Libau I take away with me 
 — the empty and far-raging sea outside the town, and 
 the quiet harbour inside it. The harbour is a strange 
 sight with all the ships standing motionless and empty, 
 the big black and red British ship, Bannockburn; the 
 bulky Baltica, of the Baltic Lloyd Company; a ship 
 for some reason or trick painted with a huge red cross ; 
 the Vorms, the Folsjo, the Commerce, the Aira, the 
 Kazan; passenger ships plying to London, others to 
 New York. This Libau is the chief port from which 
 sail ordinarily the emigrants, the 300,000 Jews, Rus- 
 sians, Poles, and Lithuanians who leave Russia annu- 
 ally for America, but who are now closed in their 
 Motherland against their custom. The warehouses 
 are all padlocked, the quays are bare and empty, no 
 dockers, no watchmen. Not a man on all these vessels, 
 not a puff of steam from a funnel or a pipe in them. 
 All is quiet and empty.
 
 VIII 
 
 The Economic Isolation of Russia 
 
 Russia at the beginning of the war expected to be 
 shut within herself and cut off from the rest of Europe, 
 it seems. Libau and Riga and the rest of the Baltic 
 ports were dead, so far as shipping is concerned. The 
 Black Sea was stoppered at the Bosphorus, and the 
 ports of Odessa, Sebastopol, Novorossisk, and Batum 
 were consequently rendered idle. The Arctic Ocean 
 was considerably enlivened as a result of the war; 
 Archangel has become a great port, receiving American 
 liners, passenger steamers from England, and cargo 
 boats in great numbers. English steamers have sailed 
 down the River Ob as far as Tomsk — but the Arctic 
 closes early. Towards the end of October the port 
 of Archangel freezes and cannot be kept open later than 
 Christmas even with the help of ice-breakers. European 
 traffic with Russia ceases except by the laborious route 
 of the gulf of Bothnia and Sweden. But mines have 
 been laid along the Finnish coast of the Gulf of Bothnia 
 and Russian trade seems hkely to flow through Vladi- 
 vostok alone for a while. 
 
 The results of the blockade are noticeable in Russia, 
 
 53
 
 54 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Ordinarily Russia exports an enormous quantity of 
 foodstuffs — grain, butter, sugar, eggs, meat, and so 
 on — and as a consequence of her inability to discharge 
 these products she has an immense superabundance of 
 them on her hands. Directly the war began it was 
 possible to note in Siberia what may be called "the 
 returning tide of butter" ; butter had no exit and would 
 not keep, and therefore had to be sold to people at home 
 at any price — the peasant women in Siberia began to 
 use butter for themselves since it was so cheap. There 
 has been a general cheapening of food, and not only has 
 the cost of living not increased as a result of the war, 
 but it has decreased. But the value of the Russian 
 rouble has gone down twenty per cent, owing to Russia's 
 inability to export her products. 
 
 But though food has remained cheap other things 
 have become dear. The import of manufactured goods 
 into Russia has almost ceased, and the stock in many 
 shops gets less and less and is marked dearer and 
 dearer. Germany used to export to Russia immense 
 quantities of utensils and chemically prepared mate- 
 rials. Nearly all the medicines came from Germany, 
 and there is now a great famine in drugs. Even for 
 the wounded and the sick there is a scarcity of medicine, 
 and it costs a great deal more than it should do to cure 
 the poor soldier. Ink costs more than it did, photo- 
 graphic materials, clothes, Vienna boots cost fifty per 
 cent more ; Paris hats and costumes are disappearing.
 
 THE ECONOMIC ISOLATION OF RUSSIA 55 
 
 Russian women are going to be without fashions for a 
 long time to come. 
 
 So the middle and upper classes will feel the pinch 
 of the war ; but the poor, who do not ask for anything 
 more than food, will be better off, especially as they 
 are saved the great former waste of money on vodka 
 and beer. There are no unemployed, the beggars have 
 almost all disappeared. Women and children are work- 
 ing in the factories on day and night shifts. Money is 
 flowing like water, and, for all manner of reasons, life 
 is brisk. War is a great spending of savings. The 
 great rush of military expense has floated many a 
 poverty-stricken family and given it money and inter- 
 est and Ufe. 
 
 The vigour of the Russian Government at once 
 became evident and was well exemphfied by the action 
 as regards vodka and beer. In no other country in the 
 world could drinking be stopped, as it were, by a stroke 
 of the Monarch's pen. It has always been said that 
 vodka afforded so much revenue that the Tsar would 
 never take really active steps to suppress it. But, 
 here, in the midst of the greatest financial need, he 
 sacrificed an enormous revenue in order to save and 
 strengthen his people in the time of danger. To-day 
 the shutters are up in every Government monopoly 
 shop of the vast Russian Empire. It is a stupendous 
 fact. 
 
 It is sad to see so many wounded soldiers who have
 
 S6 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 lost two or three fingers. It seems trifling compared 
 with body wounds, but in reality the loss of fingers is 
 more pitiful. It means an end to useful toil, an end 
 also to shouldering the rifle for the Motherland. That 
 is what war means economicaUy ; the loss of labouring 
 hands in the building of the State. Russia was taken 
 in the midst of things by this war. How many railways 
 she was constructing, how many towns she was build- 
 ing! 
 
 All lies idle now as I write, and the autumn rains 
 drench down on thousands of scaffoldings and melan- 
 choly heaps of bricks and mortar, left as they were on 
 the day of mobilisation. It is interesting to speculate 
 how the contracts are being fulfilled on the Central 
 Asian Railway, and on the Altai Railway. The Aus- 
 trian and German prisoners of war are being drafted 
 on to the work, according to the Russian papers. A 
 number of these unfortunate Teutons will taste the 
 sorrows of a Siberian winter.* They must take the 
 place of those who are fighting. 
 
 *By February 1915 there were over 200,000 Austrian and German 
 prisoners in Siberia. Even far-away Yakutsk, with a winter where 60° of 
 frost is nothing unusual, has its hundred or so. There are several thousand 
 at Irkutsk, at Barnaul, at Krasnoyarsk, at Tashkent. They have the 
 hardest time of all prisoners since the Russian standard of living is so low 
 and the rigour of the climate so unexampled. It is reported that many 
 Germans have expressed their gladness to be captured and so out of the 
 struggle. But if so they did not know what was in store for them — the 
 task of replacing industrially those who have been taken from Siberia to 
 fight.
 
 THE ECONOMIC ISOLATION OF RUSSIA 57 
 
 It is astonishing to think of it. Practically all the 
 able-bodied men of the immense tract of Russia and 
 Siberia are now on the German and Austrian frontier. 
 Their customary work all remains behind ! They have 
 not a thought for it. Their eyes look ever forward to 
 Berlin and Vienna. Here at Koshedari, where I write, 
 thirty miles from the Nieman, I watch the fresh troops 
 still coming in every day from Russia. The trains do 
 not suffice to take them, they go forward on foot, on 
 horseback, in wagons and carts, with food supphes, 
 with saddles, with fodder, with officers, baggage and 
 equipments. They are all in clean and unfrayed uni- 
 forms, the faces are fresh and simple; a contrast to 
 those who return from the front, all dust and mud, 
 their faces set, their eyes glaring. What confidence 
 there is among the soldiers ! Youngsters with faint 
 down on their lips and cheeks come prancing past on 
 their horses, holding their black Cossack lances with 
 the assurance of men who have spent all their lives 
 fighting. Their officers look much more resourceful 
 and able than ever they did in peace. The war has 
 made them. 
 
 They all go forward to death or victory. The river 
 of Time has reached the rapids, and the smooth current 
 of existence has reached Niagara. Boys have become 
 men ; young men middle-aged men ; middle-aged men 
 old men. They all fly to destiny.
 
 IX 
 
 On the River Niemen 
 
 Grodno, on the River Niemen, is one of those 
 miserable towns of the Jewish Pale, crowded with 
 a poverty-stricken and slatternly humanity. Panic 
 has ranged there ever since the German invasion. 
 First it was crowded with penniless refugees from 
 Suvalki and the country round about, and then, in 
 its turn, its own people began to flee. Nearly all the 
 women and children left the town. The streets are 
 crowded with Russian soldiers, who outnumber the 
 rest of the population by twenty to one. The shops 
 are sold out of half their merchandise, for the soldiers 
 buy up everything edible. One passenger train a day 
 leaves for Vihia and one for Warsaw, and they are 
 packed with refugees. Six or seven trains of soldiers 
 leave every day to reinforce the troops at Lodz and 
 Petrokof . Trains of wounded arrive ; horse and motor 
 wagons of them arrive by the road. 
 
 I saw many soldiers' funeral services held in the 
 little wooden churches put up in the hospital yards. 
 Here lay the dead warriors in their open coffins, with 
 crowns on their heads, their faces like marble. Scores 
 
 s8
 
 ON THE RIVER NIEMEN 59 
 
 of soldiers, chance passers by, held candles and stood 
 round the dead ones and crossed themselves and kissed 
 the marble faces a last good-bye. "How did this one 
 die? How did this one die?" I heard in whispers. 
 "Shrapnel, shrapnel" came the whispered answer. 
 The coffins were lifted by the soldiers, a dozen for each 
 coffin, and hoisted on the shoulders — the wood that 
 held the dead lay against the cheeks of the Kving as 
 the procession went out through the town, with stand- 
 ards and standard-bearers, and priests in their vest- 
 ments. Many of the soldiers taking part in the service 
 were those who had not yet been under fire, but who 
 were going forward that very night. The idea of how 
 soon they might be white and dead, like those they 
 carried, must have crossed their minds; but death 
 calms a Russian, it does not unnerve him. The 
 soldiers' faces were calm and steadfast. 
 
 This was a Sunday afternoon ; all day, all evening, 
 all night it rained. I spent many hours at the railway 
 station watching the trains go off; watching German 
 prisoners being brought in; talking to the wounded, 
 and being myself cross-questioned by a poUce agent, 
 who thought me a suspicious character. About ten 
 o'clock I walked through the town to see what might 
 be going on. There in the ghetto I saw a touching 
 sight. A score of carts had come in from the country 
 and the battlefield, not the ordinary carts with tilts, 
 but those long, narrow contrivances on which the
 
 6o RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 peasant timber men brought from the forest to the 
 sawmill whole pine logs — twenty of these on loose and 
 blundering wheels were clattering over the cobbles and 
 bumps and holes of a poor street. In them lay wounded 
 soldiers wrapped in brown blankets, just as they had 
 been picked up from the field of victory. Every twenty 
 paces the carts stopped in order that the wounded 
 might rest from the terrible jolting, and then from out 
 the poor houses in the vicinity the population darted 
 and asked questions. 
 
 There was a little crowd of ragged Jews round each 
 cart, and the wounded sat up and talked, those who 
 could sit up. The Jews brought white rolls, and laid 
 them in the straw by the soldiers' sides, and they put 
 cigarettes in the soldiers' mouths and lit them — many 
 of the soldiers had no use of their arms. Poor wounded, 
 their brown blankets were soaked through, their voices 
 hoarse with cold, their faces pinched and bloodless — 
 but they tried to chuckle and laugh and tell us how they 
 had been beating the Germans ! And the crowd cried, 
 one by one, "Have you heard of ours?" "Have you 
 heard of ours?" For the Jews also have their kin in 
 the battle. 
 
 The Russians have driven the Germans back from 
 all this country of the Nieman Valley. It was difficult 
 fighting from Insterburg to the Nieman and back again, 
 but retreating or advancing the Russians showed 
 themselves superior to the Germans in courage and
 
 ON THI^ RIVER NIEMEN 6i 
 
 verve and military' resource. They had to fight against 
 a better equipped army, an army a hundred times 
 better educated, against better guns and better science, 
 but won by virtue of the personal religion in the soldier, 
 and the overwhelming moral justness of the cause. 
 "Thrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just." 
 
 The Russians got as far into East Prussia as Allen- 
 stein at the beginning of the war. They won battles, 
 they ravaged the country, they sent a rumour of terror 
 before them to Berlin. But they walked into many 
 traps, lost great numbers of men, and blazed away 
 a great quantity of precious ammunition. Impetuous 
 General Ranenkampf, whose brother is a German 
 general on the other side, in fact Governor of Konigs- 
 berg, is reported to have said : " Cut my right hand off 
 if we are not in Berlin by Christmas." Berlin was a 
 long way to go, especially for the brave but simple 
 Russians. Many hard days and retreats and terrible 
 sanguinary battles were in store, and Christmas in the 
 trenches — in trenches mostly dug in Russian earth. 
 An enormous number of Russian prisoners were taken 
 at the battle of the Mazurian lakes near Oesterode. A 
 man in Konigsberg watched the Russian prisoners 
 march past for four hours and three quarters. Many 
 ofl&cers were killed, several generals, and a multitude 
 of common soldiers. The German General von Hin- 
 denburg was greatly honoured, the Germans mightily 
 elated. The Grand Duke Nicholas and his armies were
 
 62 RUSSIA AND THE WO)RLD 
 
 chased out of Germany altogether, and the hot Ger- 
 man pursuit did not cease till the Russians turned at 
 bay fifty miles to the Russian side of the frontier. 
 
 The Germans doubtless were much cheered by the 
 Russian disappearance, and it was a great thing to be 
 able to tell their public that not one of the enemy re- 
 mained on German soil. But their victory was also a 
 delusion. They in their turn underestimated the 
 strength of the enemy, and dreamed perhaps of taking 
 Vilna on the rush. 
 
 Or perhaps they sought to divert Russian attention 
 whilst they developed their forces for the attack of 
 Warsaw and of the rehef of Pshemisl. In any case, 
 their sharp defeat on the bank of the Niemen could 
 hardly have entered into their plans. They pursued 
 the Russians back to the Russian bases — keeping to 
 the high road and to the railroad, and concentrating 
 all their efforts to gain the other side of the Niemen, 
 and so pierce the centre of the defence. But the Rus- 
 sians turned and drove them back, at Simno and Sred- 
 niki and Druskenniki and Sein, villages to the north 
 of Grodo. One who watched the battle at Sredniki 
 tells thus of the struggle : 
 
 "It began to be said that the enemy were nearing 
 us in immense strength, and that they would attack us 
 at the fording of the river. At three in the afternoon 
 the firing began, and in an hour fighting became general, 
 all efforts of the Germans being concentrated on that
 
 ON THE RIVER NIEMEN 63 
 
 point of the river where it is joined by the tributary, 
 the Dubissa. On the steep diff of the right bank 
 moaned the Russian howitzers; down below on the 
 sand of the river shore the field artillery was at work, 
 and on the other side of the river, covered by the 
 artillery fire, the Russian foot heroically repulsed the 
 Germans, who for their part were making superhuman 
 efforts to break through to the shore. The battle was 
 fought all night — right till the dawn. The sounds 
 of the quick-firing guns and of the cannon and the 
 rifle shots mingled in one long, uninterrupted thunder 
 roll the whole night long. But twice above the tumult 
 was heard from afar the cheering of the Russian 
 regiments charging the enemy and driving them back. 
 The fires from burst shells lit up the field of battle, and 
 from many little hills and cliffs of the district it was 
 possible to look down on the conflict, and see it as 
 clearly as if it were being enacted on the palm of the 
 hand. 
 
 At the faint light of dawn the fighting became less 
 vigorous and gradually died down, and there succeeded 
 a strange silence, broken only by occasional rifle shots 
 and far-away shouts. The air still throbbed and 
 thrummed as with a metal voice, but the thunder of 
 battle had ceased. The Germans fled with the night, 
 leaving behind on the battlefield heaps of corpses, 
 shells, broken wagons, automobiles, motor-bicycles. 
 The sun came up brightly, and silvered with his beams
 
 64 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 the waters of the Niemen, the yellow-leaved drooping 
 forests, the gentle hills, and the extraordinary battle- 
 field. There, where dogs howled and innumerable 
 ravens croaked and fluttered, lay thousands of dead, 
 face downward, face uppermost, some as if they were 
 sleeping, others as if searching to find something in 
 the earth, in heaps, in the trenches, behind mounds, 
 mixed up with guns and swords and helmets. So the 
 sun saw what had happened between his going down 
 and his rising again. 
 
 The Tsar sets out for the front, and with the excite- 
 ment of his possible advent at any point the efforts of 
 generals and officers and men are doubled. So the 
 Germans are driven back, once more the Russian 
 troops cross the frontier. 
 
 The Militia is called out to stand in guarded occupa- 
 tion of the country whilst the eager troops go on. 
 
 The refugees return; in many cases to ruined 
 homes, burned farms, and sacked villages, but they do 
 not weep over it. ' A month ago I was a rich man,' 
 said a Pole to me. 'I had a large pension establish- 
 ment on the Nieman, and many people came to me for 
 their summer holidays. Now I have nothing but what 
 I stand in ; you see. Still, I'll build it again. If the war 
 stops, I'll borrow money and build it again.' "
 
 An Aeroplane Hunt in Warsaw 
 
 The aeroplanes sail in and out of the light clouds, 
 their stately progress Hke that of cranes passing over 
 high mountains, and down below, on all the street 
 comers of Warsaw, people stand and gaze at them all 
 day long, pointing, gesticulating, looking through field- 
 glasses. Suddenly, one of these human birds in the 
 sky stops in its steady flight and staggers and falls, 
 and a thousand people in the city below see it faUing. 
 
 All at once there is a great rush and many cries — 
 "This way is quicker, this way quicker," and every- 
 body rushes in the straightest line possible for the 
 point where it seemed the flying-machine had fallen. A 
 moment before in the street, people were merely walk- 
 ing past, or standing and staring; a moment later 
 every one was running in one direction as if possessed. 
 
 Out of the restaurants and the cafes dashed the 
 officers having their dinner and with them their ladies, 
 and jumped into waiting motor-cars and followed the 
 crowd. Every cab was taken. People crowded on to 
 every vehicle going in the right direction, and there 
 were many droshkies having as many as a dozen or 
 
 6s
 
 66 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 fifteen passengers standing on them. I was running 
 with my knapsack on my back. Street after street 
 we traversed, the further we went the denser the crowd. 
 Out of the houses came women without their hats, and 
 many children. PoHcemen left their posts, hawkers 
 their stalls, barbers came out in their aprons, Jews ran 
 in their square hats and black cloaks, students, school- 
 boys, fifty thousand of them, increasing every moment. 
 When we came to a cul-de-sac, some climbed the palings 
 and ran across unoccupied building plots ; others went 
 round and were in time to race the paling climbers at 
 the other end. It was a regular steeplechase. 
 
 Motors went coughing by, hooting with their syrens, 
 tintinabulating, trumpeting. Horsemen pranced along- 
 side. Only half the people knew what they were after. 
 A panting, breathless student ran past me carrying a T- 
 square in his hand, but having no hat on his head. He 
 relapsed, into a walk, and stopped to ask me what was 
 the matter, he for his part had not the least notion! 
 
 After about two miles, we issued from the city and 
 came on to the open plains of Poland, and there lay 
 the Russian Army encamped outside the city. Here 
 a Russian aeroplane was making a tremendous clatter 
 just overhead, and the crowd below was running this 
 way and that to avoid a possible bomb that might be 
 thrown at them. They could not be sure that it was 
 not a German aeroplane. 
 
 Here we all turned up, on foot, in wagonettes, in
 
 AN AEROPLANE HUNT IN WARSAW 67 
 
 motor-cars, on bicycles, girls, boys, men, and women — 
 and came to a standstill. 
 
 Where were the fallen aeroplane and the presumably 
 dead Germans? Nobody knew. 
 
 Some rushed this way, some that. Some said : " It's 
 over there," some others, "it's over here." There was 
 plenty of room, and we all swarmed over the plain as if 
 we had come out for a picnic. The Cossacks from the 
 encampment pranced about. The crowd did not feel 
 very disappointed. Something was going on some- 
 where. I jumped a trench full of wet mud and climbed 
 on to the rampart opposite. It was crowded with 
 people all the way along, all disputing the merits of 
 the situation. One man held that a bomb had been 
 thrown from a German aeroplane. Another held that 
 there had been a duel in the air. A third, a Jew, main- 
 tained that the Russians, not knowing their business 
 properly, had shot down one of their own aircraft. 
 
 The Russian officers looked with astonishment on 
 the crowd that had come out and invaded their terri- 
 tory. Suddenly an order was given to the Cossacks : 
 "Chase all these people back again !" Whrr-pp ! Six 
 Cossacks brought their horses round and started for- 
 ward in a gallop together. 
 
 The mob screamed and bolted. Never have I seen 
 such a rush. They went like blown leaves. It was 
 difficult, however, to get down quickly from the ram- 
 part. A Polish girl near me tripped, and dived head
 
 68 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 foremost into the mud in the trench and lay there 
 a minute as in a comic picture. When she crawled 
 up the bank the people stopped in their flight to laugh 
 at her, for her face was covered with yellow mud and 
 wet mud was dripping from her nose. 
 
 But it was not a pogrom. The Cossacks were kind, 
 and the crowd of skedaddling black figures laughed as 
 well as screamed. Then more Cossacks came up and 
 started driving us back in earnest. Those who had 
 come in cabs jumped back and ordered the drivers to 
 take them home again, and the motors swung round 
 and bore their would-be sightseers away. Those on 
 foot followed, the whole 50,000 of them and more, 
 flocking, rushing, still asking questions — " What was 
 it? Have the Germans come? Only an aeroplane? 
 Whose? No, never?" and so on. As we went back 
 we met hundreds and thousands on their way to the 
 fields. They also asked — " What is it ? Where is it ? " 
 And we cried — "Back! back!" And some said — 
 "The Cossacks are coming !" and others said — "The 
 Germans ! the Germans !" 
 
 Still fatuous crowds gathered round, simple people 
 who were asking one another what was the matter, and 
 those on the outside pushed and punched and strained 
 to see the corpses they thought were in the centre. 
 Even the police were befooled into cutting their way 
 through these onion-Hke masses to see what was in the 
 centre. But they were onion right through.
 
 AN AEROPLANE HUNT IN WARSAW 69 
 
 I got back to the place I started from. But all the 
 rest of the evening in Warsaw crowds kept forming 
 round people supposed to be "in the know." And 
 still you heard the question — "What was it happened 
 this afternoon?" 
 
 The true answer was that a German aeroplane had 
 been shot down by the Russians, and came to earth 
 ten miles away. 
 
 That evening all trains going south or west were 
 cancelled. The Vienna station was shut up. The 
 Governor issued a notice asking the people to remain 
 calm, since the troops would defend Warsaw to the 
 last drop of blood. The newspapers held that Warsaw 
 was calm and confident. Next day, Sunday, the faint 
 soimds of distant firing were heard. Crowds went out- 
 side the city and heard the sounds more distinctly. 
 They also saw the wounded being brought in. 
 
 On Monday we listened to the desultory thunder of 
 cannon. Going to the city to post my daily letters, I 
 found every post-office was closed and was informed 
 that the post had retired to Moscow. I went across 
 the Vistula and out to the suburb of Praga. There 
 was a post there, but everything had to be written in 
 Russian and the Censor must initial it. Letters could 
 be handed in at 11 p.m. I got nothing through. 
 
 On Tuesday, the British, French, and Belgian Con- 
 sulates closed their doors, the banks shut, scarcely any- 
 one would give change for paper money. There was no
 
 70 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 bread in the bakers' shops, scarcely any milk to be ob- 
 tained at the dairies — at the cafes only black coffee. 
 The cannon sounded much louder. The papers held 
 there was no cause for alarm. All the same, removing 
 vans began to appear in the streets. Many shops 
 remained padlocked all day ; other shops started sales. 
 
 On Wednesday the fighting was more continuous and 
 insistent. It lasted all night, and it was difficult to 
 sleep for the sound of the cannon. The schools were 
 dismissed. The Government theatres closed. The 
 people left the city in great numbers and swarmed 
 literally on to the roofs of trains going to Moscow and 
 Vilna. The Governor issued a notice, posted on all the 
 walls — "Anyone injuring the telephonic or telegraphic 
 connections will be shot without trial. ^' Enormous 
 crowds waited at the Viensky Station and listened to 
 the battle going on beyond the city. 
 
 I went to a little Polish theatre and saw an amusing 
 political comic opera, in which figured Wilhelm as Alex- 
 ander of Macedon and two twin German generals, both 
 as Napoleon ; the other characters were Miss Warsaw, 
 Moses, a Jew, a French soldier, a Highlander in kilts, 
 a Russian bogateer, and Austria, a scantily dressed 
 woman, with brass cases over her breasts and a black 
 eagle painted between ; on her head was a brass casque 
 and she danced the tango with the Kaiser. One of 
 the funniest things of the evening was a Pogrom Dance 
 performed by the Kaiser. First a girl came in and
 
 AN AEROPLANE HUNT IN WARSAW 71 
 
 danced a Polish dance. Then the Kaiser jumped up 
 and roared, "Away with that; accept our German 
 culture." Then four marionette babies were fixed on 
 the stage and the Kaiser did a War Dance round them, 
 threatening with his sword and roaring. When it 
 was all over the AlHes marched past singing the Pohsh 
 Marseillaise. The audience stood up and cheered and 
 cheered again, calling back the dancers and actors to 
 repeat the rarely sung anthem. As a background to 
 the cheering and singing was the never-silent rumble 
 of the cannon. 
 
 All night and all next day the cannon sounded more 
 and more threatening, and we began to ask ourselves 
 when would shells begin to drop in the city. Our 
 thoughts were turned in a different direction, however. 
 On Thursday night an aeroplane sailed over the city 
 and dropped a bomb which fell in Wolf-street, destroyed 
 the top storey of a tobacconist's shop, and shattered 
 sixty or seventy windows. On Friday morning crowds 
 turned up here to look at the torn roof and ruined walls 
 and windows. A policeman arrested me as a suspicious 
 character, and I had to go to the police station and 
 satisfy the preestaf. This was the third time. Ni- 
 tchevo! 
 
 In the afternoon, after dinner, I went into my hotel 
 room and lay down and read the papers. Presently I 
 began to consider the cannonade and ask myself the 
 significance of the increasingly loud reports, when
 
 72 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 suddenly there was an overwhelming splashing explo- 
 sion just by. I rushed out again. People were running 
 hither and thither, and overhead was a German aero- 
 plane. Soldiers fired volleys at it; the public, in 
 fright, tried to avoid being directly under the machine. 
 No one could say where the bomb had fallen. We 
 watched the aeroplane fly away unhurt. I went at 
 once to the Vienna station, and was within one hundred 
 yards of it when another explosion occurred, and the 
 crowd of sightseers came running towards me. This 
 time four soldiers and four horses had been killed, 
 just at the station. The mob was panic-stricken, 
 howling and shrieking. As I stood by a telegraph 
 pole, a girl in hysterics clutched my overcoat, and 
 yelled. "There's not the slightest danger," said I. 
 But as some hundreds of soldiers started firing into the 
 air, she broke into sobs and threw her arms about. 
 
 The aeroplane kept fairly low and went along Mar- 
 shalkovsky, the Piccadilly of Warsaw, and as it went it 
 seemed to drive all manner of traffic along with it. A 
 general in a motor-car came up and shouted to the 
 people, "Home! Home! Don't wait upon the order 
 of your going ..." It was a mauvais quart d'heure 
 for Marshalkovsky. But presently the aviators, after 
 daringly returning and circling over the station, turned 
 away westward and got back to the German camp. 
 The crowds returned to their old standing places, and 
 there began a murmur of conversation that filled whole
 
 AN AEROPLANE HUNT IN WARSAW 73 
 
 streets. Warsaw is certainly a city that can be terror- 
 ised. On the whole, there was more to fear from the 
 running crowd than from the German "bombists." 
 The roll of the cannon goes on. If the Germans came 
 in there would be a bad state of affairs, but in order 
 to come in they have to defeat an immense, brave 
 Russian army. It is also a matter of the effectiveness 
 of the big German guns. When the weather turns wet, 
 it is difficult to get these guns along. If it remains dry 
 and clear, as to-day, there is bound to be more trouble. 
 As I revised these lines, there was quiet again. The 
 Germans had been defeated. The bombs were their 
 parting shots.
 
 XI 
 
 The First Battle of Warsaw 
 
 On the Sunday after the aeroplane hunt in Warsaw 
 I saw the cHmax of the great battle that foiled the first 
 German attempt on the city. 
 
 The German force that ran the Russians back from 
 East Prussia to the River Niemen, and which was in 
 turn driven back by the Russians, had evidently not 
 been a strong one, and its operation on Russian soil 
 was only a diversion. Whilst Russian attention was 
 fixed on North- West Poland a really important develop- 
 ment was taking place in South- West Poland. Here 
 the German and Austrian armies were accumulating 
 and rolling out like a rising thunderstorm on the horizon 
 of Warsaw. Of course, directly the Germans were 
 driven back in the north one looked to the angle where 
 lie Cracow and Breslau for the next big fight, but it 
 only needed two days to show that the Germans and 
 Austrians were coming forward from their own terri- 
 tory with great celerity. 
 
 The whole of South- West Poland had been overrun 
 — Chenstokhof, Petrokov, Radom, Ivangorod, and 
 Lodz had all been taken. But for the fact that it is 
 
 74
 
 THE FIRST BATTLE OF WARSAW 75 
 
 necessary to keep this great nervous mixed population 
 of Warsaw calm, considerable mention of these facts 
 must have been made in dispatches. The German 
 advance on Warsaw nullified for the time being the 
 Russian successes on the road to Cracow. It caused 
 a general retirement of the Russians in Austria. Even 
 Lemberg was in danger for a while. A glance at the 
 railway map will show how important is Warsaw, 
 holding as it does all the network of lines in its grasp. 
 The successive attempts of the Germans to take it show 
 how highly they would prize the capture. 
 
 On the final Sunday of the first great battle I 
 wandered outside Warsaw and came to a deserted hut, 
 on the roof of which I sat till nightfall watching the 
 fight. 
 
 It is a dull Sunday and the battle thunder is incessant, 
 like a sort of persistent resentment. Earth is smoking 
 upward to a grey-red sky. The whole grey western 
 sky has a dull red glow in it, and from the landscape 
 rise volumes of smoke and flames from burning farms, 
 rise circles of white smoke from shells just burst. 
 Autumn is yellow, there is much mud underfoot, the 
 cabbage fields lie aU trampled and stubbed, the grey 
 wooden cottages of the PoHsh peasants are either de- 
 serted or are taken up by soldiers for their night 
 quarters. On my right is a trembling wood, on my 
 left hes the grey high road marked out by telegraph 
 poles. None of the public are allowed on it. But
 
 76 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 military motor-cars tear along it as if racing ; reinforce- 
 ments of foot march along it to the positsi; lorries of 
 wounded return slowly along it, going with their sore 
 burdens to the bandaging point at the outer city gate. 
 Anon, the road is empty and you look along the whole 
 dreary stretch of it from the foreground, where Hes 
 the way up to Warsaw, to the west, where it loses itseh 
 in dust and vapour and smoke. 
 
 From the north came clanging, metallic explosions, 
 which sound as if the cannon thunder were resounding 
 from many metal roofs. From the south come low, 
 bellowing detonations. From the centre come sharp, 
 clouting reports that beat the air like doors banged and 
 banged again — the machine-guns' chatter and rattle. 
 The battle rages towards Warsaw from the north-west, 
 the roar and murmur of battle growing and trembling 
 and raging forward. It sounds every now and then as 
 if some enormous machine on wheels were rolling for- 
 ward ponderously and irresistibly towards the city. 
 Nearer and nearer come the bursting shells. It is 
 fascinating beyond words to watch and listen. 
 
 A sentry came up and questioned me, a pleasant, 
 simple fellow, who was not afraid or absurdly suspicious. 
 I showed him my papers, told him who I was, and 
 offered him a cigarette — I keep a supply of cigarettes 
 for stray soldiers — and he was quite cheerful and 
 happy. 
 
 "Yours are fighting well," said he, "the English.
 
 THE FIRST BATTLE OF WARSAW 77 
 
 I heard how they have been chasing the Germans. 
 Even if they do give us a hot time here they won't 
 beat the Enghsh. They are a people, they are a great 
 people." 
 
 "The Russians are doing splendidly," said I. "You 
 are the only ones to have fought Germany in Germany, 
 we others, poor Belgians, French, Enghsh, have been 
 struggling all the time on our own territory." 
 
 The sentry smiled. "I was at Soldau and Leiden- 
 burg," said he. "After we got past Mlava we went 
 on and on, and found nothing in our way. We had 
 a hot time coming back though. Their artillery is so 
 fine, and they have so many telephones. We could 
 never rest with our battery. Wherever we took it 
 they found the range and the mark at once." 
 
 "What's going to happen now?" I asked. 
 
 "Don't know. We've been fighting them ten days 
 now, and we make no progress. They are very ob- 
 stinate. What do they think they are going to do 
 here? They can't take Warsaw." 
 
 "Still you retire?" 
 
 "In places. There are many spies." 
 
 "How far away are the Germans now?" - 
 
 "There, in the centre, about six versts" — he pointed 
 to the long grey spectral high road. "I was at the 
 front yesterday — that is about two versts from here — 
 and the Germans he four versts farther." 
 
 "And in the North?" I asked.
 
 78 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 "There I don't know. Nearer perhaps. There the 
 Germans are advancing. Their left wing was beaten 
 yesterday, but their right received reinforcements and 
 advanced and took possession of an important ridge." 
 
 The sentry went on, and I remained with my thoughts 
 and the battle thunder all around. The sentry reported 
 my presence, and in a while a cantankerous but smiling 
 officer of police came and questioned me and warned 
 me off. I walked with him a mile, however, and talked 
 to him. He said the Russians were winning, and yet 
 every now and then he stopped to listen to the rattle 
 of the machine-guns. I could see him trembling. 
 
 How strange ! The sound of battle drew me nearer 
 and nearer, but he evidently would have given any- 
 thing to be off duty and out of it all. Still, his orders 
 were to calm everybody he met, and he assured me 
 I should see thousands of German prisoners on the 
 morrow. 
 
 And I wandered away from him back to the city. 
 It was about five miles to the outer gate, Zastava, of 
 Warsaw, and long before I reached it I saw the black 
 masses of the curious and anxious crowd held back 
 there by the mounted police. These were tremulous 
 days for Warsaw. 
 
 It was five miles more to the centre of the city and a 
 restaurant. At last I reached the centre, and there, 
 as ever at night time, all was gaiety and frivolity, the 
 caf^s full to the doorways, the cinema shows glaring
 
 THE FIRST BATTLE OF WARSAW 79 
 
 as in Tottenham Court Road, the broad pavements 
 crowded with PoHsh dandies, with elegantly dressed 
 women and ogHng girls, with gossiping Jewesses and 
 black-cloaked Abrahams, with hundreds of newspaper 
 hawkers selling, not only Polish sheets, but also The 
 Times and Le Matin. There are not many English 
 here, but the Poles read EngHsh gladly. 
 
 I had my dinner and my coffee Hstening to a selection 
 of ragtimes.
 
 XII 
 
 The Day of Victory 
 
 A DAY of victory or an armistice. Rumour has it 
 that the German left flank has found itself outnumbered 
 at Ivangorod, and the right flank has had to retire. 
 No cannon thunder in the night, none in the morning, 
 but instead the brightest, warmest day of autumn, 
 an unspent summer day found by the thrifty year and 
 offered us in the gloom of Russian October. The sun 
 shone brilliantly to-day, and from all the trees, and in 
 the open spaces from nothing at all, hung long gossamer 
 threads. All Warsaw was waving in gentle gossamer. 
 Violence and war were far from Nature's thoughts. 
 
 It is the Monday after my day out in the country 
 listening to the great battle. I have been down to the 
 Brest station, where the trains go out to Moscow. It 
 is blocked up with fugitives and their hurriedly packed 
 household effects. The more thunder of war and the 
 more bombs thrown from the air, the more people 
 resolve to flee. It is not, however, easy to flee; a 
 special permit has to be obtained and then a ticket. 
 You may wait all day and still fail to get a place on the 
 train. The authorities close the booking office directly 
 they have sold the places on the two outgoing trains. 
 
 80
 
 THE DAY OF VICTORY 8i 
 
 On my way back I had a passage of words with a 
 pohceman m black and red and his officer in buff. 
 They wanted me to go to the pohce station and be 
 verified again. That was because I am tall and have 
 my tramping boots on, and look unusual. They 
 ought to know that spies are short and inconspicuous. 
 There is, however, said to be an enormous amount 
 of spying being done and a day does not pass but some 
 are hung or shot. 
 
 About three o'clock in the afternooi^I got back to 
 the great high street of Warsaw — Marshalkovsky — 
 and, as chance would have it, saw another bomb come 
 down and explode. As I walked down the street I 
 suddenly noticed that passers-by began to shade their 
 eyes with their hands, and look up into the sunny sky, 
 and I looked with them. 
 
 A great bird was hastening forward over the city — 
 the shape of a German eagle breasting the air. It 
 approached with great rapidity and was soon over our 
 heads. The people began to run, now to this side of 
 the road and now to that — and I myself crossed over. 
 Two moments later there was a flash of smoky fire and 
 a deafening report. Lumps of roof flew into the 
 roadway three doors up from where I was standing; 
 a bomb had fallen on the top of my favourite cafe, the 
 place where I had so often sipped my coffee and written 
 my articles. 
 
 Having discharged the bomb, the unpausing aero-
 
 82 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 plane went straight on across the vault of the sky and 
 disappeared. 
 
 An enormous crowd gathered round the cafe and 
 talked and questioned. But presently out of the 
 horizon into which he had disappeared came the 
 Prussian eagle once more and approached with similar 
 velocity. There was a great panic in the street, an 
 astonishingly tremulous moment. Even soldiers darted 
 into imaginary shelters, the tram-drivers were afraid to 
 go forward with their cars, cabs with their passengers 
 went whither the drivers fancied. Every one had an 
 intimate notion of what it would be like to be blown 
 to bits. Still, we might as well have stood still. The 
 Germans aim the bombs at the crowds or at important 
 buildings, but they do not hit their marks. The bombs 
 fall on the just and unjust with cheerful impartiality. 
 The one we now feared fell two streets off with a hollow 
 boom, and killed and injured six people who did not 
 even realise there was one of the enemy overhead. 
 
 It is difficult to see what the Germans hope to gain 
 by these isolated adventures. Bomb-throwing will not 
 help them either to take the city or to keep it when 
 taken. The Russians know how to keep the nervous 
 population under control in time of excitement, but the 
 Germans, if put in possession of the city, would not be 
 able to restrain the dangerous element, always rather 
 strong in submerged Warsaw. 
 
 These single exploits are merely thrill-producers.
 
 THE DAY OF VICTORY 83 
 
 The "bombists" killed and injured fifty-four people one 
 day last week ; according to latest accounts they killed 
 and injured twenty to-day. At the Vienna station 
 one bomb explosion broke £1,000 worth of plate-glass. 
 I have no wish to minimise what they did, but what 
 earthly effect did the outrages have on the result of 
 the battle outside the city? Directly the danger had 
 passed the people came out again, and were chattering 
 and laughing and picking and choosing fragments of 
 plate-glass to keep as mementoes — like children who, 
 on the night of the fifth of November, were a little 
 frightened by the explosions, but who immensely enjoy 
 gathering the squib cases and rocket sticks on the 
 morning after. 
 
 On the Tuesday we knew definitely that there was 
 victory. It was a day of the clashing of bells and of 
 hymns of praise. Warsaw had been saved. Yet such 
 a wet and dreary day. The silence that succeeded 
 after the days and nights of cannon, thunder, and sus- 
 pense was strange by comparison. It was a pleasure 
 to realize that the post oflSces were opening again, that 
 the banks would give out money, that telegrams would 
 be passed more easily, that the Consuls were coming 
 back and the jeweller's shops opening, and yet somehow 
 there was a shade of regret as if Destiny and adventure 
 had passed us by. 
 
 This melancholy, however, vanished when in the 
 evening great numbers of troops returned to Warsaw
 
 84 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 from the battlefield. In the soaking rain along the 
 dark, wide streets the Siberian Cossacks, my friends 
 of the Altai among them probably, and with them the 
 Caucasian regiments, returned at a quick measure. It 
 lasted for hours, but it was not a procession. Every 
 horse was trotting, the miUtary carts jogged along 
 quickly. The men were woebegone, grimy, bearded, 
 soaked. They seemed too tired even to tend their 
 horses properly, too tired to take from the extended 
 hands of the Poles the offerings they made of cigarettes 
 and sweet cakes and bread. They had fought day and 
 night for days, taking the chance of death, and then 
 the chance of death again, and then again, seeing their 
 nearest comrades blasted by shells, stricken by bullets, 
 yet not having time to reflect even on what it meant 
 to lose so dear a friend ; subconsciously aware even in 
 the rush of their valorous deeds that at any moment 
 fruitful chance might strike them down from the ranks 
 of the striving and living to the heaps of the dead. 
 They were all lucky ones, though perhaps in their 
 philosophy happiest of all were those who perished in 
 the love and service of Russia in the war agamst an 
 evil foe.
 
 XIII 
 
 Suffering Poland : A Belgium of the East 
 
 So the first battle of Warsaw was won by the Rus- 
 sians and the Germans were driven back, and nearly 
 all the exchanges and minor engagements following 
 that battle were in the Russian favour. By all ac- 
 counts, it was the enthusiasm and daring of the peasant 
 soldiers that saved Warsaw from bombardment and 
 German occupation. 
 
 The struggle over, the body of Poland will rage back- 
 wards and forwards for a long time, and the sufferings 
 of the soldiers on both sides and of the non-combatants 
 will be something unparalleled. War is raged with a 
 more elemental brutality on this side of Europe, for 
 the reason that the land was a poverty-stricken one to 
 start with, and because the Russian troops are more 
 used to cold and hunger, more humanly persistent, 
 more unsparing of themselves. Already Russia must 
 have lost heavily, but the losses mean httle to her. 
 She is the men-millionaire who never feels poorer, 
 however many men she may spend. The peasants 
 themselves are deeply calm regarding the spectacle 
 of suffering and death. Death does not horrify them ; 
 
 8s
 
 86 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 on the contrary, the idea of glorious death is spiritual 
 meat and drink to them. They love their brother 
 soldier alive, but when he is dead he becomes something 
 holy. This makes the Russian almost invincible. 
 The only thing that could disturb the enthusiasm of 
 the Russian troops would be the idea that they were 
 fighting for a wrong cause. Cannon is not their 
 ultima ratio. The technical superiority of the Germans, 
 who were ready for war at all points, is opposed and 
 held in check by the religious bravery of the Russian 
 peasants, and by the spirit that prompts them to think 
 that every battle can be won at the point of the bayonet. 
 
 But to turn a moment from the struggle of Slavs and 
 Teutons, there is another spectacle that claims atten- 
 tion, and that is the sufferings of the body of Poland, 
 over which these terrible struggles are taking place. 
 The condition of the peoples of Poland is almost as bad 
 as that of the Belgians. There is only the difference 
 that Belgium was a prosperous and happy country to 
 start with, and Poland for the most part was miserable 
 and poverty-stricken. 
 
 When the Germans first invaded Poland they gasped 
 at the filth and poverty of the ghettoes, at the little 
 shops where there was nothing worth stealing, at the 
 wretched houses crammed with humanity but devoid 
 of wealth and luxury. They surveyed the ragged, 
 shivering Jews with horror, and rather than loot their 
 houses they set them afire. In the first month of the
 
 SUFFERING POLAND 87 
 
 war Poland suffered more from fire and lead than from 
 robbery. Indeed, even the border frays ceased for 
 a while, and all German attention was given to the 
 Russian invasion of Eastern Prussia. 
 
 It was only after the retirement of the Russians that 
 Poland began to suffer seriously. Every one had been 
 lulled to confidence by the Russian advance towards 
 Konigsberg, and when the great retreat began the 
 pursuing Germans came upon many Polish towns at the 
 most unexpected moment. The people, wakened up 
 in the night by the fire and tumult and thunder of war, 
 rushed from their beds into the streets, got into the 
 line of fire and were killed and injured in great numbers. 
 The panic was terrible. Many thousands of people 
 left their homes and fled, without plan, without counsel, 
 into the wild country. There at this moment are starv- 
 ing Poles and Jews in great numbers wandering about, 
 lost, shot at, accused of being spies, arrested, liable to 
 execution. Some have managed to get into trains and 
 have gone to the cities of the interior. Warsaw alone 
 has 50,000 homeless refugees, and probably every city 
 of Russia has at least Poles, if not Jews, in its hospi- 
 table care, besides a number of wounded soldiers. 
 
 When the Germans pursued the Russian Army back 
 to the River Nieman and advanced and occupied 
 South-West Poland, they were bent on revenge. They 
 looked no longer disdainfully on the filth and poverty 
 of Poland . Orders had evidently been given that every-
 
 88 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 thing serviceable was to be removed from the country 
 — that no rag that might give warmth to the German 
 soldiers in the winter campaign was to be left untaken. 
 Following the German Army came an innumerable 
 train of light wagons, at first almost empty, but at last 
 filled — by the process of taking from her who had 
 naught even that which she had. At the retreat of 
 the Germans from the Nieman, the Russian airmen 
 remarked on the hundreds and thousands of wagons 
 full of stolen goods traversing the country towards 
 Germany, like a sort of dark cloud moving over the 
 surface of the land. Germans, dead on the battlefield 
 below Warsaw, were found to be wearing the clothing 
 of PoKsh peasants under their uniforms. Some were 
 found wearing Russian boots, and many carried 
 women's cotton shawls and flannel petticoats. 
 
 In many of the villages in Poland the people have 
 buried their boots and spare clothes, with their money, 
 and you are astonished to see the Pohsh peasants 
 going about with bare feet or in straw slippers. They 
 say that the German soldiers come and pull the boots 
 off their feet to put into their forage sacks. Alas! 
 the Germans are as keen as terriers at finding things 
 that have been buried, and the peasants when they 
 return to villages forsaken a week before, find that their 
 things have all been dug up and taken away. Neces- 
 sarily, scarcely anyone is earning any wages. The 
 factories are all closed owing to the lack of coal. Even
 
 SUFFERING POLAND 89 
 
 in Warsaw you rarely see a chimney stack with smoke 
 issuing from it. And time has been spared by the 
 Germans to ransack the warehouses of the industrial 
 cities. An onlooker at a large sugar factory saw 
 almost a thousand tons of sugar removed in one-horse 
 wagons, for instance. At the town of Bzhedin, a 
 sweated labour settlement where man, woman, and child 
 work all day at the sewing of ready-made overcoats, 
 trousers, and so forth, the Germans took off the whole 
 stock, and were as pleased as if they had won a battle. 
 It is robbery, but the sagacious Germans disguise it 
 as purchase, giving in exchange for the requisitioned 
 clothing cheques printed in the Russian language and 
 payable by the Russian Government. It is hoped that 
 the Jews especially will worry the Russians by trying to 
 get some recognition of the losses they have sustained. 
 But the Jews, much as they abhor the Russian rule, are 
 true to the Government on the whole, and start no 
 propaganda likely to favour Germany. The Germans 
 inspire them with terror. A touching story is told 
 of the Jews of Avgustof . The Germans came towards 
 Avgustof on a Saturday, and the poor Jews there are of 
 the most pious type, who do not light their fires on 
 the Sabbath, do no work, and certainly do not travel. 
 All the Christians fled — the Jews in consternation 
 appealed to their Rabbi for a reading of Holy Writ 
 on the point. The Rabbi not only sanctioned their 
 departure, but showed them an example by going first.
 
 90 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD . 
 
 So, last of all, the poor Jews crept out with little 
 bundles containing what they felt they must take with 
 them — each Jewish family has something valuable in 
 the shape of the metal candlesticks which they light on 
 Friday night. Then the Germans came into the town. 
 The saddest sights in Warsaw and Wilna and Kief are 
 the clusters of poor, homeless Jews just come into the 
 city with all that remains to them in their hands. 
 
 Of those who have remained behind or who have 
 been overtaken by the German invasion many have 
 been killed, many maimed by the bursting of shells. 
 Many have had their houses burned over them. Many 
 have been executed by the Germans as spies. Many 
 have died or have become crazed through fright. In 
 several towns the Germans fixed up at the street 
 corners corpses of well-known citizens, in order to warn 
 those who remained behind against betrayal. At 
 Chenstokhof the soldiers cut out the famous picture 
 of the Virgin from the ikon-frame and replaced it with 
 a portrait of the Emperor Wilhelm. This is an exam- 
 ple of grim German pleasantry. They have hanged 
 alleged spies on the roadside crosses and peasant 
 shrines of the highway. And they have also scattered 
 from aeroplanes proclamations to the Poles to the effect 
 that the Poles should trust them. But the Poles having 
 fallen among thieves have little difficulty in deciding 
 who is truly their neighbour. Russia is doing all she 
 can to help this poor, stricken people.
 
 XIV 
 
 The Censorship 
 
 If there is one city more than another that has had 
 plentiful topics of conversation it is Warsaw. Rumours 
 have fled along her streets every day. Not once or 
 twice panic has possessed her utterly. Three times > 
 at least before the end of the year it has been threatened 
 with German occupation — three times the Germans 
 have been beaten and hope has again danced in the 
 breasts of the Poles. 
 
 I think perhaps it would have been better to let the 
 people of Warsaw know, daily, the facts of the Russian 
 retreats. Surprises are bad for the nerves, especially 
 the surprise of waking up one morning and hearing the 
 cannonade of the enemy at the gates of the city — of 
 the enemy you thought were at least a hundred miles 
 away. 
 
 Not only do the Warsaw newspapers omit the facts 
 about their city, but the newspapers of Moscow give 
 daily more details of the state of Warsaw than the 
 actual Warsaw papers themselves. The post may be 
 closed for days, all telegrams may be refused, and yet, 
 daily, Moscow has intelligence and prints it. 
 
 91
 
 92 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 This is effected by a simple device. The Warsaw 
 correspondents write out their articles and paragraphs, 
 make up a packet, take it down to the Brest station, 
 and bribe one of the guards of outgoing Moscow trains 
 to take it to the old capital and either post it or deliver 
 it there. 
 
 Necessarily, the Censor in Warsaw under martial 
 law is much more strict than the Censor in Moscow. 
 Still, when the Moscow papers arrive two or three days 
 after their publication in Moscow and begin to be sold 
 in the Warsaw streets, the Censor begins to pass the 
 reprint of news from its columns. 
 
 The morning sheets of the city are kept up with tit- 
 bits such as, " Since the outbreak of the war many more 
 male children than female are being born. The ratio 
 in Warsaw hospitals is about ten to three of boys to 
 girls. This is thought to be Nature's effort to put 
 right the great waste of male lives." 
 
 I read: "The events of the last few days have 
 awakened the curiosity of the local population, and 
 everyone is trying to learn the freshest news from outside 
 Warsaw. So, behold the appearance of 'walking news- 
 papers' ! Frequenters of the cafes know the type, who 
 give much information just obtained from the most 
 reliable sources. Many people give credence to these 
 stories, and hence arise and spread all manner of 
 fables." 
 
 This was in the Warsaw Morning, a paper that gave
 
 THE CENSORSHIP 93 
 
 no facts whatever; and no matter what happened in 
 the city, what sound of fighting was heard, how many 
 dead bodies came floating down the Vistula, yet insisted 
 that nothing was happening. 
 
 During the war many things have risen in value as a 
 result of scarcity, and the chief of them is truth. The 
 censorship is used not only to keep secret military 
 operations, which is its legitimate function, but also to 
 hide from the public all pictures of failure. It degrades 
 joumahsm almost to the position of paid propaganda. 
 Not only are failures slurred over and defeats covered 
 by euphemisms, but the successes of the other side are 
 minimised and laughed at, and their ability to hold 
 out is foohshly under-estimated. Commanders invite 
 joumaHsts to lend their pen to the cause. 
 
 The best way to help the cause is by giving the truth 
 and stating doubts and fears as well as hopes and 
 vaunts. The Censor is justified in eliminating panic- 
 striking impressions, or the unredeemed horrible facts 
 of carnage. But he is not justified in suppressing the 
 quiet penetrative thoughts of those who are necessarily 
 calmer in their souls than those who are in the thick of 
 the fighting. The suppression in Russia of the Russkoe 
 Bogatstvo and Zaveti, radical and troublesome reviews 
 though they be, is, for instance, a little unfortunate. 
 Least of all is the Censor justified in permitting the 
 campaign of vulgarity by which the minds of the rabble 
 are being poisoned. The Germans are not clowns, not
 
 94 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 vermin, not stupid, not ridiculous. They are an 
 extremely well educated, intelligent, serious people. 
 Even if in the long run we overcome Germany, and 
 humiliate her, we ought to know clearly what the 
 Germans were, and how it was they were thus beaten. 
 
 The Germans are a marvellously patient race to 
 whom the English owe much of what is hardest in 
 themselves. The English are, on the whole, the justest, 
 fairest, kindest people the world has seen ; that is what 
 the Union Jack means — fair play, honour, share and 
 share alike. The Russians are a singularly noble, wild, 
 and simple people. Their soldiers, though capable of 
 excesses, are yet the purest-minded, most religious 
 people in the war. And yet Germans, English, and 
 Russians are hideously and vulgarly depicted in the 
 minds of the common people of the hostile nations. 
 War itself is stem and noble, but the low campaign of 
 those whose minds nm to slanders only brings it into 
 ugliness. So many men dead, so many dying, so many 
 suffering agonies, so many toiling forward towards 
 death, so many lost sweethearts, lost husbands, lost 
 sons, so many tears and prayers, should solemnise the 
 time, and give us, nationally, a noble and restrained 
 literature.
 
 XV 
 
 The Soldier and the Cross 
 
 When the wounded soldier is brought to the hospital 
 and laid in his bed, his first wish is that the priest 
 may hold the cross for him to kiss. The priest who 
 visits every bedside every morning carries a little 
 cross in his hand, and each poor soldier presses his lips 
 to the centre of it and kisses it vehemently. 
 
 War, to the Russian soldier, is a great religious 
 experience. "He liveth best who is always ready to 
 die," says a holy proverb of the Russians. And readi- 
 ness to die is the religious side of war. The Russian 
 soldier kills his enemy without religious qualm, yet 
 without hate. He does not feel he is doing an evil 
 thing to a fellow man — to shoot at him, to charge at 
 him with a bayonet. The great reality that confronts 
 him is not that he may kill others, but that he himself 
 may suffer terrible pain or may lose the familiar and 
 pleasant thing called life. In order to face this the 
 Russian has to dive down deep in himself and find 
 a deeper self below his ordinary self; he has to find 
 the common spirit of Man below his own ego, he has 
 to Hve in communion with the fount of life from which 
 
 95
 
 96 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 his own little stream of life is flowing. No relic of the 
 war is more precious than the little loaf of holy bread 
 which the soldier saves from his last communion before 
 going to battle or going under fire for the first time. 
 
 The Russian soldiers go to war very much in the 
 same spirit as the Russian pilgrims go towards Jerusa- 
 lem. Indeed, many a man was just about to start out 
 for Jerusalem when the war broke out and he was 
 summoned to fight against the Germans. In the fields 
 of East Prussia and of Poland he found as veritable a 
 Jerusalem as that he sought m Palestine. It is perhaps 
 a shorter way thither. 
 
 The priests serving in the army and in the hospitals 
 tell wonderful stories of religious experience, of touching 
 peasant mysticism, of holy patriotism. 
 
 A dying soldier Hes on the battlefield and the visiting 
 priest thinks him too far gone to receive the Holy Com- 
 munion. So he says the OtkJwdnaya, the prayer for 
 the departing soul. Suddenly the dying man opens 
 his dim eyes and whispers just audibly : " My country- 
 men, my dear countrymen ... no, not that, Little 
 Father ... my own one . . . thou hast come to 
 
 save me." 
 
 He tries to get up, widely crosses himself, that is, 
 from shoulder to shoulder, and from brow to chest, and 
 repeats — "Thou hast come to save me." 
 
 There is a short confession as of a child — Com- 
 munion. The soldier with a great effort crosses himself
 
 THE SOLDIER AND THE CROSS 97 
 
 once more, drops back on the wet mud of the battle- 
 field, and slips into oblivion, with glazed eyes, set lips, 
 but white, calm brow. The priest bending over him 
 lays a cross upon him, and goes on to the next suffering 
 or dying one upon the field. 
 
 The Russian religion is the religion of suffering and 
 death, the religion that helps you to meet suffering 
 calmly and to be always ready to die. Many Catholics 
 and Protestants among the Russian ranks ask the 
 Orthodox blessing. In the moment of the ordeal they 
 know that true religion is never divided against itself. 
 
 The war is the great wind that blows through our life, 
 so that the things that can be shaken may be shaken 
 down, and that the things which cannot be shaken may 
 remain. Religion is never shaken down by war. But, 
 strange to say, the logicians are shaken in their logic, 
 agnosticism is shaken, materialism is shaken, atheism is 
 shaken, positivism is shaken. The intellectual domi- 
 nance is shaken and falls, the spiritual powers are 
 allowed to take possession of men's beings. 
 
 "Many is the time," said a priest to me, "that an 
 officer has called me to his side and has said, ' I am an 
 atheist, I believe in nothing,' but I have confessed him, 
 and he has emptied his life to me — to the very dregs — 
 and I have put him in Holy Communion, and left him all 
 melted and holy." 
 
 When the war is over and we give ourselves once 
 more to safe life and comfortable life, and we believe
 
 98 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 again that nothing is more precious than human life, 
 many will no doubt lose the remembrance of that true 
 religion which was theirs in the hours when they were 
 face to face with reality. The cathedrals and the 
 churches will not be so full, the priests will relapse into 
 the routine of the revolving weeks of the revolving 
 Christian year. But still we shall not have lost the 
 fruit of the war. The war has touched us as no other 
 event could touch ; it has gone deeper, it has got below 
 the skins and surfaces which are affected by ordinary 
 events, and has stirred depths in the soul. In the 
 stress of war parts of our ordinary superficial selves 
 have got carried down into the depths of the soul. 
 Things that lay hidden in the depths have been cast 
 up to the surface. Things long hid have come to light, 
 and will continue to come to light as in life we go 
 through the gamut of ordinary spiritual experience. 
 New passions will be astir in our loves, new flowers will 
 blossom in our arts, new intentions will become ap- 
 parent in our destiny. We shall read in ourselves and 
 in Man new promises. 
 
 I dare to say that this war has been a spiritual 
 experience, not only for individual men, but for Man 
 himself; not only for man in the branch of the tree, 
 but for Man in the great trunk from which in spirit we 
 branches all proceed. 
 
 Away in the depths of Man, and from deeper depths, 
 proceeds the Almighty Will, in whose fulfilment lies
 
 THE SOLDIER AND THE CROSS 99 
 
 the destiny of Man and the destinies of men. And 
 those who live in communion know that this war is 
 no calamity, no axe at the roots, but the great storm 
 wind of autumn. They know that the wind has blown 
 before, and that it will blow again, scattering leaves 
 and branches into the Death Kingdoms, bringing after 
 it tears of rain and sleep and peace and life again — 
 new life.
 
 XVI 
 
 School Children 
 
 One of the phenomena which show how popular 
 the war is in Russia is the participation of the children 
 in the conflict. There is scarcely a town school in 
 Russia from which boys have not run away to the war. 
 Hundreds of girls have gone off in boys' clothes and 
 tried to pass themselves off as boys and enlist as volun- 
 teers, and several have got through, since the medical 
 examination is only a negligible formality required in 
 one place, forgotten in another ; the Russians are so fit 
 as a whole. So among the wounded in the battle of 
 the Nieman was a broad-shouldered, vigorous girl from 
 Zlato-Ust, only i6 years old, and nobody had dreamed 
 that she was other than the man for whom she was 
 passing herself off. But not only boys and girls of i6 
 and 17, but children of 1 1 and 12 have contrived to have 
 a hand either in the fighting or in the nursing. 
 
 Whilst I was in Wilna there was a touching case, a 
 Httle girl of 12 years, Marusia Charushina, turned up. 
 She had run away from her home in Viatka, some thou- 
 sand miles away, had got on the train as a "hare," i.e. 
 without a ticket. The conductor had smiled on her
 
 SCHOOL CHILDREN loi 
 
 and let her go on. At Wilna, in the traffic of the great 
 Polish city, she was a little bewildered, but she asked a 
 passing soldier the way to a hospital ; he took her to 
 one, and she explained to him that she had come to 
 nurse the wounded. At the hospital a Red Cross nurse 
 questioned her, and she gave the same answer. The 
 nurse telegraphed to the little girl's father, and asked 
 his permission that she should remain in the hospital 
 nursing the wounded soldiers. The father gave per- 
 mission, so little Marusia was allowed to remain. A 
 uniform was made for her, and now as the smallest 
 Sister of Mercy among them all she tends the soldiers 
 and is very popular. 
 
 There was Stefan Krafchenko, a boy of ten, who said 
 he wanted to fight the Germans, and so was taken along 
 by the indulgent soldiers. He was attached to the 
 artillery, and handed up shells out of the shell boxes 
 during three battles and came out of all unscathed, 
 and glorious and happy. Then Victor Katchalof , a boy 
 of thirteen, had his horse shot under him and was him- 
 self wounded in the leg during the fight against the 
 Austrians below Lfof. Constantin Usof, a boy of 
 thirteen, was wounded by shrapnel at Avgustof. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest schoolboy hero of Russia is a 
 boy named Orlof, from Zhitomir town school. He 
 fought in eleven battles and was eventually decorated 
 by the Tsar with the Order of St. George. Whilst 
 reconnoitring he came into collision with a great force
 
 I02 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 of the enemy. He lay in a trench with his fellows and 
 fought all day. But ammunition ran very low, and 
 Orlof saved his corps by creeping out in the dark and 
 finding his way through heaps of corpses to the main 
 Russian force. He was under gun and artillery fire 
 all the time, but he succeeded in getting across and so 
 saved his friends. 
 
 There are many stories of the children left behind 
 in the towns and provinces overrun by the Germans. 
 I give an amusing one. The Pohsh name for a certain 
 sort of common mushroom is Kozaki, and this led to a 
 misunderstanding. A party of German dragoons came 
 along the border of a forest, and, seeing several Httle 
 children walking hand-in-hand in the woods, they 
 asked : 
 
 "Are there any Cossacks (Cossachen) in the wood?" 
 
 "Not in this wood," said the children. "But in 
 that forest on the other side of the meadow there are 
 thousands and thousands." 
 
 The dragoons galloped off in a terrible fright. 
 
 These are but random instances of the active interest 
 of the school children. The Imperial Academy of 
 Science is collecting, and will probably edit and publish, 
 all manner of printed and unprinted impressions of 
 the war, diaries, minor dispatches or authenticated 
 stories of deeds of derring do. When these are issued 
 it will be seen to what an extent the children of Russia 
 have been fighting in this war. In the playgrounds
 
 SCHOOL CHILDREN 103 
 
 ten years ago war was unpopular. The war with 
 Japan did not fire the minds of the young ones — the 
 children were all agog then with the idea of revolution, 
 so precocious are the young in Russia. 
 
 Li the humbler and less romantic life of the children 
 who do not run away there is also much that is beautiful. 
 In Moscow each school has its own special hospital. 
 The children support it, visit it daily. Each child is 
 responsible for the linen underclothing of each man. 
 At the sound of the church bell which sounds inter- 
 mittently in all the cities the children stop their daily 
 tasks, pause a moment, remember the battlefields and 
 the great struggle, and cross themselves. 
 
 In this way school life is touched in England also as 
 well as in Russia. In many country places the village 
 church bell rings to remind the people to pray for the 
 soldiers. And in London also, even in the poorest 
 schools, there is true national feehng and an indi- 
 vidual tenderness. When I am in England I fre- 
 quently go down to one school and talk to the children 
 about Russia and tell them fairy stories. So I have 
 Httle friends away there, and they write to me upon 
 occasion. And I hear from little Winnie Drew and 
 Dorothy Parker, whose brother has enhsted in the 
 Royal Fusiliers, and Lily Straker, who says the war- 
 prayer in school "partly for my father as weU as for 
 all the other soldiers," and from Hilda Dunn and one 
 or two others, all knitting gloves and making warm
 
 I04 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 things for the soldiers, each writing a letter to the soldier 
 who may get the warm thing, putting little notes into 
 the thumbs of the gloves, notes beginning, Dear soldier- 
 protector and the like — receiving the tenderest letters 
 in return from the chance receivers of the gifts. Dear 
 children ! Dear soldiers ! 
 
 A nurse was wheeling a baby in a perambulator past 
 Buckingham Palace one day last December, and, as 
 it happened. Lord Kitchener's motor-car came up at 
 the same time. There was cross-traffic, and the motor 
 stopped to let it get past. And it stopped just opposite 
 the baby. 
 
 "Salute, Pat !" said the nurse. 
 
 The little one put his wee hand to his brow and 
 saluted. This caught Kitchener's eye. And he gravely 
 returned the salute.
 
 XVII 
 
 Trophies 
 
 The interest in all the little trophies of the war is 
 great. Soldiers preserve ten pfennig pieces to take 
 home to their wives as if they were gold. Buttons 
 cut off with bayonets from the German and Austrian 
 dead are prized ; also regimental facings, bullets ex- 
 tracted by the surgeon from their own or comrade's 
 wounded body, helmets, swords, pistols, and not only 
 these things, but rings and bracelets and watches. 
 Some peasants have a good eye for what is really 
 valuable. The Poles are the proud possessors of great 
 quantities of German lead picked up on the battlefields, 
 and also of fragments of plate-glass picked up on the 
 pavements of their bomb-stricken capital. The news- 
 papers of various cities exhibit many war curiosities 
 in their windows, and thus attract great crowds. 
 Such a curiosity is the following abridged German 
 diary exhibited in the window of the Russian Word 
 pubUcation offices in Moscow. It is one of the many 
 interesting journals of the war. 
 
 July 31. — War threatens. 
 
 August I and 2. — Mobihsation. Food disgusting. 
 Extra pay not received. 
 
 los
 
 io6 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 August 3. — Our detachment, commanded by Lieu- 
 tenant Zimmer, pursues three spies. 
 
 August 4. — We set out for the frontier. Alarming 
 news that a division of Cossacks is breaking through 
 towards Elbing. Everyone most upset. No Cossacks, 
 however, visible. Food impossible. 
 
 August 5. — Two squadrons of Russian lancers 
 attack us. We do not answer their fire, the distance 
 is too great and cartridges too precious. Each shot 
 should bring down one of these swine. We pass the 
 frontier. The good high road ends and we plunge 
 into a wilderness of sand and stones. ObUged to dis- 
 mount from bicycle and walk. At Zelun we confiscated 
 seven wagons. I thought to die of laughter. One 
 wagoner absolutely wouldn't give up his wagon and had 
 to be convinced with the butt end of a rifle. 
 
 Lieutenant Zimmer ordered me to share with him 
 my last hard-boiled egg. We put our bicycles in the 
 wagons and got on to Lautenburg, where at the Hotel 
 de Rome we had a decent supper. 
 
 August 6. — We occupied a village near Lautenburg. 
 There was a service going on in the church. Suspect- 
 ing that explosives were hidden there, ten men, in- 
 cluding myself, were told off to break up the floor in 
 front of the altar and search. We had dug down to 
 the vaults when alarm was given and we had to return 
 to the main body. 
 
 August 7. — We came to Stary Zelun. Destroyed
 
 TROPHIES 107 
 
 the post office. Threw the telegraph apparatus into 
 the water. Local population quite polite to us. 
 
 Two pretty girls here . . . fearfully afraid of us . . . 
 Could not make them understand we intended no harm. 
 
 August 8. — Information received that a division of 
 Russian cavalry has invaded Prussia towards Neiden- 
 burg. We move on towards Ilovo. 
 
 August 9. — Sunday. We advanced towards Mlava. 
 South from Ilovo we came under fire . We were in a valley 
 and they shot at us from all sides, shot continuously. 
 
 The first to be wounded was Lieutenant Makketanz. 
 Wounded in the brow. The second to be wounded 
 was Sergeant Derke. Wounded in the stomach. 
 The third, Lieutenant Zander. Two wounds in the 
 chest. I wonder if he is alive still. The fourth to be 
 wounded was myself. ... I was on my bicycle and 
 the bullet struck me in the forearm, apparently breaking 
 an artery, for the blood flowed from the wound. I 
 rushed to Sergeant Kaiser, holding the wound tightly 
 with my right hand. Kaiser tied it up. I ran back 
 to shelter. Found Ramsdorf lying in his blood in 
 great pain. I gave him drink. 
 
 Sergeant-Major Zink is a great coward. . . . It's 
 not surprising, therefore, that he hid himself. He was 
 afraid of receiving a bullet. Our detachment hurriedly 
 retired. We wounded were left. 
 
 In fifteen minutes the enemy appeared. Cossacks. 
 Filthy, but very kind. They carried us away. One of
 
 io8 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 them took possession of my gun. I had, however, 
 taken care to break it before they came. 
 
 We were taken to Mlava and treated much better 
 
 than we expected. Dr. K operated on me and 
 
 was most attentive and poHte. I suffered a good deal, 
 not being chloroformed. I was looked after by a very 
 sympathetic volunteer nurse who spoke German ex- 
 tremely well, though she was Russian, the sister of an 
 officer at the war. 
 
 To my immense astonishment we Germans were 
 allowed to be together in the hospital and talk as much 
 as we liked. 
 
 August lo. — Re-bandaged to-day, since my wound 
 has been giving me great pain. I retain my conscious- 
 ness. As I lay on the operating table I suddenly 
 wanted beer. I asked for it. Everybody laughed, and 
 I also, because I did not say "bier" in German, but 
 
 used the Russian word pivo. Dr. K promised 
 
 it me, and in an hour I had it. 
 
 August II. — Wakened by noise of shooting. A 
 German aeroplane was circling over the town and the 
 Russians were shooting at it. The aeroplane got away. 
 Thank God ! 
 
 Learned to-day the name of my beautiful, kind nurse. 
 I shall remember it all my life. We are to be sent to 
 Warsaw. She has promised to let our relatives know. 
 
 August 12. — Taken in wagons to the train. The 
 railway carriages are very comfortable.
 
 TROPHIES 109 
 
 Next to me lay a Cossack. He was wounded in 
 the chest and moaned all day and all night. When he 
 drank, water ran out at the wound. Our bullets are 
 more vicious than the Russian ones. 
 
 At Novo-Georgievsk we changed trains. Crowds of 
 people stared at us, some pitying, some reviling us. 
 
 We received clean underclothing to-day. Glory be 
 to God ! 
 
 August 13. — Food good and plentiful, but life is a bore. 
 
 August 14. — Food is good. 
 
 August 15. — Re-bandaged. 
 
 August 16. — Officers come in and talk to us for a 
 whole hour. It is very gay. We hope that our good 
 sword will win where diplomacy failed. Food good. 
 
 August 17. — We still stand at a wayside station. 
 Prussian officer brought in. He has been convicted 
 as a spy. He has an estate in Russia and had enter- 
 tained German soldiers there. He is to be shot. He 
 charges me to give messages to his sweetheart and his 
 brother. 
 
 He was calm and determined. 
 
 August 18. — Brought in Lieutenant Riboldt, cap- 
 tured. We are all being sent to Warsaw. The 
 wounded Cossack is dead ; we watched his funeral. 
 
 August 19. — They say we shall be in Warsaw to- 
 morrow. We shall see ! The food is good, especially 
 the supper. We had Kletsky last night. 
 
 At this point the diary ended.
 
 XVIII 
 The Evergreens Remain 
 
 What days I had at Wilna tramping in the rain ! 
 I found myseK so much nearer to the war than I had 
 been before. The war became more intimate, it 
 created and released a musical flood of thoughts and 
 impressions, so that all the time I walked I was like 
 Abt Vogler at the organ. The tramp of thousands to 
 conflict and death, the battle music, the passion of war 
 and the dance of the orgy, the colours and the flags, 
 the emblems and signs, the victories and the terrible 
 slaughters, the conquest of kingdoms, the abasing of old 
 gods, and the building of new States, blends in the soul 
 in one great passionate and appalling music. 
 
 It seemed I scarcely slept an hour any night of my 
 month in Poland. I lived two or three festival days 
 into each ordinary day, and yet I never grew tired or 
 duU. I often said to myself: This cannot go on; I 
 shall have a reaction against this life, and flee away to 
 some quiet corner in the Crimea or the Caucasus. But 
 the tired moment never came. As Loosha said to me 
 one day when I reproached her for spending whole 
 nights smoking or talking — "Life has become too 
 interesting."
 
 THE EVERGREENS REMAIN iii 
 
 I read one book over and over again whilst I was in 
 Poland, and that was Shakespeare's "Richard III." 
 I had it in my pocket. That is the use of pocket 
 editions. What matter if pockets do bulge ; they were 
 meant to bulge with good things. It is a splendid gain 
 for any man to have for a considerable stretch of time 
 the same book in his pocket, and to read it over and 
 over again and so penetrate it, wed it to his life, asso- 
 ciate it in memory with the facts of a time. Walk 
 with Shakespeare or St. John or Robert Browning, or 
 whom you will — only walk with one of them. They 
 are not dead : they are lonely ones, they are would-be 
 living companions. 
 
 "Richard III." is a play all about conscience, about 
 the thoughts and ghosts which rise out of the depth of 
 the soul and show themselves in our waking or dreaming 
 hours. It is like Dostoieffsky's "Crime and Punish- 
 ment" in Russian literature, and is as charitably 
 written. It gives the full story of Richard as the other 
 does of Raskolnikof , it does not merely dismiss him as 
 a bad man. In thinking of the Kaiser whom so many 
 hate, it is well to have in mind "Richard III." What 
 is more poignant than that speech of Richard on his last 
 night when he starts from an evil dream — 
 
 " Give me another horse, bind up my wounds ; 
 Have mercy, Jesu ! Soft ! I did but dream. 
 O coward conscience, how dost thou aflSict me ! 
 The Ughts burn blue. It is now dead midnight.
 
 112 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. 
 
 What do I fear ? Myself ? There's none else by : 
 
 Richard loves Richard ; that is, I am I. 
 
 Is there a murderer here ? No ; Yes, I am : 
 
 Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why, 
 
 Lest I revenge myself upon myself. 
 
 Alack, I love myself ! Wherefore ? for any good 
 
 That I myself have done unto myself ? 
 
 O, no ! alas, I rather hate myself 
 
 For hateful deeds committed by myself ! 
 
 I am a villain ; yet I lie, I am not. 
 
 Fool, of thyself speak well ; fool, do not flatter. 
 
 My conscience hath a thousand several tongues. 
 
 And every tongue brings in a several tale. 
 
 And every tale condemns me for a villain. 
 
 Perjury, perjury, in the high'st degree ; 
 
 Murder, stern murder, in the dir'st degree ; 
 
 All several sins, all used in each degree, 
 
 Throng to the bar, crying all, ' Guilty ! guilty ! ' 
 
 I shall despair. There is no creature loves me ; 
 
 And if I die, no soul shall pity me ; 
 
 Nay, wherefore should they, since that I myself 
 
 Find in myself no pity to myself ? 
 
 Methought the souls of all that I had murdered 
 Came to my tent, and every one did threat 
 To-morrow's vengeance on the head of Richard. 
 
 By the Apostle Paul, shadows to-night 
 Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard 
 Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers 
 Armed in proof,"
 
 THE EVERGREENS REMAIN 113 
 
 Is anything of its kind more wonderful than the speech 
 
 of Clarence in the Tower, the telling of the vision that 
 
 his soul sees — 
 
 " then came wandering by 
 
 A shadow like an angel, with bright hair 
 
 Dabbled in blood ; and he shrieked out aloud, 
 
 ' Clarence is come ' — false, fleeting, perjured Clarence ; 
 
 That stabbed me in the field by Tewksbury." 
 
 How apt to the occasion of the war are a hundred little 
 phrases in "Richard III." — 
 
 " So now prosperity begins to mellow 
 And drop into the rotten mouth of death." 
 
 or Richard's war speech defaming the enemy — 
 
 " Remember whom you are to cope withal ; 
 A sort of vagabonds, rascals, runaways." 
 
 Shakespeare and Dostoieffsky remain, and we are glad 
 of them. We love them, though we love also many of 
 the gentler and nearer who, with the coming of war, 
 have become dumb for us. 
 
 Some of the best lines in Hardy's "Dynasts" are 
 those wherein he sings of the flowers and butterflies of 
 the field of Waterloo, how they are stamped into blood 
 and mud and destroyed unnoticed in the great human 
 struggle. How many beautiful flowers and winged 
 fancies perish in the hour of lustful and coarse conflict ! 
 Not only the flowers and winged beauties of the field, 
 but the more dehcate things all the world over. The
 
 114 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 playing of the lute and the guitar give way to the drum 
 and the cymbal as in turn these give way to violin and 
 organ. The sweet lyrics of peace give way to battle 
 marches and satires, and these give way in turn to odes 
 of victory and hymns to the dead, 
 
 A great change takes place in the conditions of 
 culture. The sudden chilly autumn strikes down 
 upon our luxuriant summer and withers it at a breath. 
 
 " We anxious ask, will spring return 
 And birds and flowers again be gay?" 
 
 But for the hour and the month there is winter and 
 sleep. Only the evergreens keep awake and rustle or 
 dream in the winter wind or peace. So in our culture 
 the evergreens remain. 
 
 How dead is modern Russian literature at this mo- 
 ment ! English publishing houses, like the quern at 
 the bottom of the sea which I have already told you 
 is grinding out herrings and soup, are still grinding 
 out novels and travel books ; but in Russia, owing to 
 lack of paper, the strictness of the Censor, and the 
 fact that people have no ears but for the war and 
 Russia, Russian publication has almost ceased. Some 
 of the best magazines, such as Zaveti and Russkoe 
 Bogatstvo have been stopped for the reason of the war. 
 The theatres are putting on only old favourites, or else 
 tinsel and war-paint dramas of the type of Leonid 
 Andreef 's play about Belgium, and its King. The poets
 
 THE EVERGREENS REMAIN 115 
 
 have paused. The great ecclesiastical and rehgious 
 discussions that occupied last year have lost interest. 
 The ugly novels and plays which feed the bourgeoisie 
 have ceased to appear. 
 
 In England and Scotland also, it is noticeable that 
 the war has given us a truer perspective and cleared 
 away the Lilliputian obstructions of modern life. We 
 see Shakespeare great and wonderful again, and our 
 mockers of Shakespeare shrink to figures like those 
 men made of matches that used to appear on Bryant 
 and May's match-boxes. 
 
 I suppose, all over Europe, with the beautiful flowers 
 have perished also the rank weeds and fungi of autunm. 
 The great tree Shakespeare remains, but the tall, 
 jealous, prickly nettle that grew beside the tree has 
 withered away. The evil toadstools, scarlet with 
 poisonous lure, have disappeared, and the whiteness 
 of the snow has covered them, as it were, with God's 
 mercy. The trampled mud has hardened, and with 
 the season we are glad. 
 
 In England and Scotland we are with Shakespeare 
 and Milton and Campbell once more; in Russia, 
 instead of the futurist Severanin or the sex-noveUst 
 Artsibashef, they are back with Dostoieffsky and 
 Tolstoy. The rot of autumn has disappeared from 
 both countries, and there is nothing left but to remember 
 the summer and hope for spring — hope for the first 
 flowers after the war.
 
 II 
 
 NATIONS
 
 II. NATIONS 
 
 Russians 
 
 The Russian peasant soldier regards the enemy as 
 vermin that must be destroyed. He has no doubt 
 but that he is clearing away something ugly and full of 
 evil. He is fighting something pestilential like the 
 cholera or the plague. 
 
 The bodies of the Germans and the Austrians lie 
 rotting on the fields of Poland this autumn and early 
 winter and infecting the air with odours. It was with 
 difficulty that the Russian soldier could be made to 
 understand that he must bury them. 
 
 "Bury these corpses," says a general to one of his 
 servant soldiers. 
 
 "No, your Excellency," says the latter, "let them 
 lie there like dogs, they are not fit to be buried in the 
 good earth." 
 
 When I told some soldiers of the sinking of the 
 Emden and the capture of von MuUer they could 
 not understand our leniency towards the German 
 admiral. 
 
 119
 
 I20 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 " Such people ought to be destroyed directly they are 
 caught," said one of the soldiers. "He ought to have 
 been executed at once." 
 
 In this spirit, of course, the peasant soldier goes 
 forth for the Tsar, to any of the Tsar's work, and whether 
 it be war against Japan, or suppression of the Trans- 
 Caucasian cut- throats in North Persia, or a pogrom of 
 a distasteful race, he has much the same outlook. He is 
 so unswervingly loyal to the word of the Tsar, or what is 
 told him is the word of the Tsar. 
 
 There has been no bandying of wit between German 
 and Russian soldiers as there is said to have been be- 
 tween German and British. For one thing, the Ger- 
 mans do not understand Russian. For another, the 
 Russian soldiers are carefully trained not to enter into 
 any sort of converse or familiarity with their enemies. 
 During the time of the revolutionary outburst in Russia, 
 it was indeed rather difficult for ordinary Russian 
 civilians to joke or talk with Russian soldiers. You 
 /could, however, offer them cigarettes. 
 
 This necessarily adds value to the peasantry as 
 reliable fighting material. 
 
 Then the reHgion of the peasant helps him to be 
 brave. The Russian army on the offensive is some- 
 thing hke an elemental destructive force. There is no 
 hesitation about the Russians, Httle giving of quarter, 
 Httle seeing of white flags, no malice, no lust, not much 
 deUght in cruelty, but, on the other hand, no squeamish-
 
 RUSSIANS 121 
 
 ness. The blood flowing does not turn the Russian 
 sick, the sight of the dead does not make him pale. He 
 is striking with the sword of the Lord. 
 
 True, the principal function and purpose of war is 
 going to kill. And therein lies not only a denial of 
 Christianity, but of the primitive Judaic law. "Thou 
 shalt not kill." But the function of Russian war that 
 has struck me most was that of going to be killed. 
 
 When in the Altai Mountains in the middle of the 
 consecration service I learned that it was Germany who 
 had declared war upon Russia, I felt that the consecra- 
 tion was consecration unto death, the strapping of the 
 knapsack on the back was like the tying on of the cross. 
 
 The religion of Russia is the religion of death. As I 
 wrote in my book on the Russian peasant-pilgrims 
 journeying toward the Sepulchre at Jerusalem : — 
 
 " All pilgrimages are pilgrimages to the Altar, to the place of 
 death. Protestantism reveals itself as the religion of the mystery 
 of life ; Orthodoxy as the religion of death." 
 
 The Russians march to battle as they tramp to 
 shrines. Death is no calamity for them. It is the 
 thrice beautiful and thrice holy culmination of the 
 life pilgrimage. Watch the Russian soldiers at one of 
 the many funerals of fallen comrades. They are 
 calm and reverent, but it is the calm and reverence 
 that are the accompaniment of an exaltation of spirit. 
 
 But the Cossacks are different in their religious tern-
 
 122 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 perament. They are the descendants of robber tribes 
 and mercenary bands. To reaHsewhat the Cossacks 
 have been you must read Gogol's "Tarass Bulba," and 
 when you have reahsed what they were you have a 
 notion of what they are. There is much Russian blood 
 in them, but there is also much of the Tartar and the 
 Mongol. They have not much in common with the 
 gentle Slav. Their conception of Christianity is very 
 different from that which animates the moujiks. 
 
 The Cossack is always a soldier. In Cossack villages 
 every man has to serve in the army — only-sons have 
 no privileges. It is rarely that a Cossack is rejected on 
 medical grounds, and rarer still his acceptance of rejec- 
 tion. By his passport he is a soldier. When he is 
 farming he is said to be "on leave." The village is 
 not called a village but a station, a stanitsa. Almost 
 every man in the station works in trousers that have a 
 broad military stripe. By that stripe you may tell 
 the Cossacks and the Cossack stations in the country. 
 
 As I tramped through several hundred miles of Cos- 
 sack country last summer I have a very bright im- 
 pression of the people. They have considerable pos- 
 sessions of land. The Government pursues a set 
 policy of giving the Cossacks land, space wherein to 
 live well and multiply. The whole of Central Asia 
 and Turkestan is preferably settled by Cossacks. The 
 Russian Government trains the men for two or three 
 years, and when the time of training has been run
 
 RUSSIANS 123 
 
 through the authorities propose to them that they 
 settle down near the place where they have been en- 
 camped. Land will be given them free. They can 
 bring their sweethearts and their wives. The docile 
 Kirghiz and Chinese and other aborigines can be 
 practically forced to build houses for them and dig out 
 irrigation canals and plant poplars and willows. A 
 company of Cossacks accepts the Government pro- 
 posal and so a new station is marked on the map. A 
 church is built. A horizontal bar and a wooden horse 
 and a greasy pole are put up. A vodka shop is sup- 
 plied. And that constitutes Cossack civilisation. The 
 vodka shops are now all closed and there is talk of re- 
 opening them as schools. 
 
 The talk and the songs and the life of the station are 
 all military. The talks are of battles lately and battles 
 long ago, and the battles of the future ; the songs are 
 recruiting songs and war songs ; the life is ever with 
 the gun and on horseback. 
 
 Children ride on horseback as soon as they can walk 
 and jump. Little boys get their elder brothers' uni- 
 forms cut down to wear, the trousers be they ever so 
 ragged have still the broad coloured stripe that marks 
 the Cossacks. Siberian Cossacks have red stripes, 
 Don Cossacks have blue stripes. Marching songs 
 are on the children's lips, and one of the most frequent 
 sights is that of a company of Cossacks riding up the 
 main street of the stanitza carrying long black pikes
 
 124 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 in their hands and singing choruses as they go. The 
 pike is another distinction of the Cossack ; it is a long 
 black wooden lance which is steel-pointed like a spear. 
 
 No woman grudges her children to the war. War 
 is the element in which they all live, and the official 
 manoeuvres are so wild and fierce that many get killed 
 in them, kill one another even, forgetting that they are 
 only playing at war. The Cossacks even in remote 
 Asia take themselves seriously as the personal body- 
 guards of the Tsar ; formerly robbers and border riders 
 of the wildest type, they are now, thaiiiks to tactful 
 handling, the most loyal subjects of the Tsar, and are 
 bred out on the Seven-Rivers-Land and the Altai 
 Mountains, for instance, much as one might breed a 
 type of horse, for sterling qualities. They are called 
 Orthodox Christians, but have seldom a mystical sense 
 of Christianity. They are much more superstitious 
 than the moujiks. They hand down their ikons and 
 their battle charms from generation to generation and 
 worship them almost idolatrously. 
 
 Their homes are neither comfortable nor clean, the 
 homes of eagles rather than of men. The women are 
 less tidy than ordinary Russian peasant women, and 
 eat more and sleep more. 
 
 As a fair companion of the road explained to me : — 
 
 ''It's the women must be blamed for the disorder in 
 their cottages. After dinner the women always lie 
 down and fall asleep, and they leave all the dirty dishes
 
 RUSSIANS 125 
 
 on the table and let the pigs and the chickens come in 
 and hunt for food." 
 
 You enter the little room that is all in all of a home, 
 and you find fifty thousand flies flustering over every- 
 thing. Often of an afternoon I have entered a cottage 
 in order to get milk and have found everyone asleep, 
 even the dog, who but opens one eye at the noise of 
 my step. The baby Hes in the swing cradle and tosses 
 now and then, and cries a little. He would be almost 
 naked were he not black with flies. The chickens 
 keep pecking flies off his body and hurting him — that 
 is why he cries. None the less, the baby will grow up 
 to be h sturdy Cossack. The children are none the 
 worse for dirt and disorder, to judge from the fine young 
 men we see, tall, agile, hawk-faced, the rising generation 
 no weaker than the fathers. ^ 
 
 They are hospitable, but because of the biting 
 flies I have found it more comfortable to sleep out of 
 doors, even in bad weather, even when mosquitoes were 
 thick. They always give you full measure and running 
 over when you buy from them. But they are alto- 
 gether left behind in hospitaHty by their neighbours 
 the ELirghiz or the Mongohans. 
 
 The Cossack has settled where of old the Kirghiz 
 had his best pastures. He has harried the gentle 
 Eastern into the bare lands and wildernesses and over 
 the border to China. The winter pastures that the 
 Kirghiz has discovered for himself and marked out
 
 126 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 with stones the Cossack has pitilessly mown for hay. 
 Even his houses, the long village street of them, the 
 Cossack makes the Kirghiz build, whilst he stands by 
 like a barin or a master. The Kirghiz will take lower 
 wages for his labour than even the Chinee ; he can be 
 persuaded on occasion to work for nothing. 
 
 "You are entering Kirghiz country now; there are 
 no Russian villages, no Cossack stations," said one to 
 me. "No matter, you can always spend the night in a 
 Kirghiz tent and you will always get food from them, as 
 much as you want. Don't ever pay them anything. 
 They don't expect it. They will give you the best they 
 have, but don't pay. You needn't. They are that 
 sort of people, glupovaty, stupid-like. It is established 
 so with them." 
 
 The favourite adjective applied by Russians to 
 Cossack is otchainy, which is supposed to mean "des- 
 perate," but certainly does not mean it in the ordinary 
 sense of hopeless. It means past-praying-for, wild- 
 beyond-all-hopes. 
 
 "The Siberian Cossacks, they are the wildest of all," 
 you'll hear. 
 
 They are spoken of by ordinary Russians much as 
 the Highlanders are spoken of by us, and in some re- 
 spects they resemble the clansmen. They are brave 
 beyond any qualification. They are all expert horse- 
 men, and ride like the wind. Their favourite exploit 
 is to charge to meet the enemy lying close to their horses'
 
 RUSSIANS 127 
 
 sides, even to their horses' beUies, so that it looks to 
 the enemy as if a drove of riderless horses was plunging 
 towards them. And when the Cossacks arrive at the 
 object of their charge Heaven help the poor Uhlans or 
 ordinary European cavalry and infantry who happen 
 to be in the way. The Cossacks dehght in the cutting 
 off of heads. 
 
 It was the Siberian Cossacks who turned the scale 
 at the first battle of Warsaw, and with them, as 
 brothers-in-arms, the Caucasian Cavalry. The Cauca- 
 sian tribesmen are, if anything, more warlike than the 
 Cossacks, stronger physically, always wearing arms and 
 understanding Hfe as military gallantry, having much 
 less regard for the value of life, and much more given 
 to fighting in time of peace. Murder has no moral 
 stigma in the Caucasus ; the man who has killed another 
 man is not troubled about his crime, not troubled in his 
 mind, not obliged to return and look at the corpse, not 
 obliged to confess at the last. Indeed, many of the 
 pleasantest and most courteous men you may meet in 
 the mountains have several what we should call 
 "murders" to their charge. Their success in fighting 
 gives them more confidence and more politeness. 
 
 They are not quite so brave as the Cossacks, being 
 considerably more intelligent and a very calculating 
 people. They consider themselves Liberals, and are 
 not so loyal to the Tsar. They are corruptible, and the 
 Russian system of bribery has been much improved by
 
 128 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 them. They are more cruel than the Cossacks, less 
 Christian. A fine body of people, however, the hand- 
 somest men in Europe, the hardest. 
 
 War for them is also the most interesting thing in 
 life, and conversation over the endless stoops of red 
 wine always turns to battles. By the way, the pro- 
 hibition of the sale of vodka and beer leaves the Cau- 
 casus just as drunken as before. The Government 
 had no monopoly there in the sale of spirits. Every- 
 one could sell who wanted to. Vodka, however, was 
 never much drunk owing to the fact that the Caucasus 
 has its own good vintage and the natives despise the 
 use of spirits as a sign of lower caste. It is noble to 
 drink wine, base to drink spirits. 
 
 They are a poor people as money goes. It is mar- 
 vellous that they retain their physique considering the 
 poorness of the food they eat and the quantity of wine 
 they drink. Many villages subsist on black bread and 
 wine. They are always hungry. They could live 
 much better than they do. They love clothes, love 
 rich carpets and elegant ornaments. They would put 
 jewels on their wives, would be princes not only in 
 title but in estate, and would hold Court and go out 
 hunting or to battle with retainers in the good old way. 
 
 The Finns are another people under the Russian 
 rule, and Finland one more of all the Russias. Their 
 fighting qualities do not call for comment; they are 
 brave men, stubborn, obedient, mostly foot soldiers.
 
 RUSSIANS 129 
 
 Their sympathies are not really with Russia in any- 
 thing, and when left to themselves the people develop 
 a peculiarly Teutonic type of civilisation. They are 
 clean, orderly, thrifty. In a hard cHmate they have 
 the grace to make the means to live well. They seem 
 to me to be a distinct nation, and might well be trusted 
 to look after themselves. They have aheady their own 
 Finnish money, their own Finnish postal stamps, the 
 Finnish language is spoken freely, and, indeed, in the 
 villages and small towns it is extremely difficult to 
 make oneseK understood in Russian. These are the 
 outward signs, therefore, of a separate nationahty. 
 
 Russia feels that there is danger in Finnish freedom, 
 owing to the sympathy between the Finns and the 
 Swedes. And the Swedes have been pronouncing 
 very bellicose manifestos against Russia in the time 
 previous to this great war between Russia and Germany. 
 War between Sweden and Russia has been a political 
 card for some time. 
 
 Still, Finland, despite rumours at the commence- 
 ment of hostihties, has remained faithful to the Rus- 
 sian Emperor, and has recognised that it would sooner 
 be a Russian than a German province. 
 
 Russia is pulling all together. No one would have 
 thought it likely that Russians, Cossacks, Georgians, 
 Finns, Poles, and Jews would at any time be fighting 
 together in unanimity. But there it is. 
 
 The war has proved a wonderful touchstone for
 
 I30 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 virtue, a divining rod for hidden gold. It has brought 
 out and revealed the hidden quaHties in nations and 
 individuals. Many people have held that the Russians 
 were a noble nation, generous, brave and pious. The 
 war brought their quaHties out in such a way that even 
 the accustomed doubter of Russia has been obliged to 
 confess that he may have been wrong. 
 
 The war has given faith. Despite the previous 
 horror of war, it is now almost a platitude to praise 
 the war. Even in peace-loving England the war is 
 recognised as a national blessing, certainly in no sense 
 as a national calamity. It has reduced our cranks 
 and celebrities to their true dimensions ; it has calmed 
 the noisy Ulster squabble ; it has taken our attention 
 off our national ill-health and turned it on our splendid 
 but neglected youth. It has given us a duty to a 
 fatherland and to ourselves beyond the duty to busi- 
 ness and position. It has showed us the necessity of 
 drilling and holding ourselves up straight, of being 
 hard, of prizing discomfort and danger. It has made 
 the Empire greater and cleaner, and has given the go- 
 by to the cult of go-as-you-please and get-along-some- 
 how. 
 
 Unfortunately among those in England who have 
 no personal stake in the war, no one fighting in the 
 trenches, no one drilling, no one serving on special 
 duty, there is a certain amount of apathy and pessim- 
 ism. But in Russia there is no apathy. The whole
 
 RUSSIANS 131 
 
 atmosphere is one of eagerness and optimism. They 
 are full of thankfulness for the things the war has 
 brought to Russia — national enthusiasm, national 
 tenderness, national temperance, and moral unanimity. 
 The war has closed the vodka shop ; it has healed the 
 age-long fratricidal strife with Poland; it has shown 
 to the world and to themselves the simple strength and 
 bravery of the Russian soldiers, and the new sobriety 
 and efficiency of their officers. It has, in fact, given a 
 real future to Russia to think about; it has shed, as 
 from a great lamp, light on the great road of Russian 
 destiny. Russians have always dimly divined that 
 they were a young nation of genius, they have held 
 faith in themselves despite dark hours ; but now they 
 feel confirmed and certain of their destiny, of their 
 progress from being an ill-cemented patchwork of 
 countries to being a single body, feeling in all limbs the 
 beat of a single heart ; of their progress from quietness 
 and vast ilKteracy to being confident possessors of a 
 great strong voice in the counsels of nations ; of their 
 progress from denial and anarchism and individual 
 obstinacy to affirmation, co-operation, and readiness 
 to serve. As nations go, Britain is like a man of forty- 
 five, Germany like a man of thirty, but Russia like a 
 genius who is just eighteen. It is the young man that 
 you find in Russia, virginal, full of mystery, looking 
 out at the world full of colour and holiness and passion 
 and sordidness.
 
 132 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Despite the beauty and seK-sufficiency of the old 
 Hfe, Russia is definitely committing herself to the new. 
 She is going to have a puritan intolerance for sin, she 
 is beginning to manifest that passion for solid educa- 
 tion that has marked puritan Scotland, America, Ger- 
 many. More and more people are going to take up 
 with materialism and ethics and agnosticism. Not 
 that Russian pilgrimaging or asceticism or religious 
 observance can ever cease, or that the mystical out- 
 look will be lost; but that Westernism and success 
 and national facetiousness and lightheartedness will 
 be so much more clamorous. 
 
 I am a great admirer of the popular saint. Father 
 ^Seraphim. He is the Russian St. Francis — he tamed 
 the bears and the wolves and the birds of the forest of 
 Sarof . He was so holy that bears, so far from hurting 
 him, actually inconvenienced him a little by their 
 ofl&cious helpfulness. But his chief claim to holiness 
 Hes in his mystical denial of life. He lived alone in 
 the forest, wore a heavy cross on his back, prayed a 
 thousand days and a thousand nights still kneeling 
 on the same stone, he made a vow of silence and did 
 not open his mouth to speak for twenty-five years, 
 and when the end of the twenty-five years came he 
 remained silent for ten years more. Such an act of 
 denial is called a podvig. 
 
 I spoke of the podvig this autumn to Loosha, a 
 woman friend of mine of whom I wrote in " Changing
 
 RUSSIANS 133 
 
 Russia." I was working out the essential idea of 
 Russia's religion. 
 
 "I like to think that even now, in all this noise of 
 the war, you have in the background of Russia men 
 and women who have taken, like Father Seraphim, 
 this oath of silence, who will never utter- a word whether 
 Russia wins or seems to be in danger. It is an astonish- 
 ing fact that St. Seraphim was silent throughout the 
 whole time of the great Napoleonic campaigns, and did 
 not utter a word even in the culminating distress of 
 the capture of Moscow in 181 2." 
 
 So said I to Loosha. 
 
 Loosha replied : 
 
 " That is old-fashioned. Seraphim's greater feat, and 
 that which did indeed make him a holy man, was when 
 at last he renounced silence, and after thirty-five years 
 opened his mouth once more to converse, not oracu- 
 larly, but kindly and cheerfully and wisely with his 
 fellow beings. I think spring is a greater victory than 
 autumn. It is a victory over death, whereas autumn 
 is a victory over life." 
 
 To this. Western minds will readily give assent. It 
 is a purely Western idea. But it is a new feeling in 
 Russia. A few years ago Loosha was of opinion that 
 she herself was really dead, and that the woman who 
 spoke to me was but a shadow, a ghost, something 
 without warmth, without heart, without hope. She 
 was glad to have conquered life. Now she wants to 
 conquer death and win again.
 
 134 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Russia the silent one, silent for twenty-five years, 
 and then silent for ten years more, is either speaking 
 now or is about to speak. The spirit moves mysteri- 
 ously in her. She begins to know that a new time is at 
 hand.
 
 II 
 
 The Germans 
 
 At Bielostock I met a peasant soldier from Ossovets, 
 a dispatch-bearer. "How are you getting on out 
 there?" I asked. 
 
 "They run," said he. 
 
 "That's an important victory, isn't it?" I replied. 
 
 "Their Emperor was there, somewhere about Osso- 
 vets," said the soldier. "If we'd only known in time 
 we'd a taken him." 
 
 "But he would have been in a very safe position," I 
 urged. 
 
 "Oh, we'd a had him, even if we had lost thousands. 
 If they'd told us, we would have done anything to take 
 him. He's more than a flag — he's their Tsar." 
 
 This is the spirit of the Russian soldiers just now. If 
 their officers ask them to take a hill they will take it, or 
 storm a fort against terrible artillery fire, they will 
 storm it. They have got going, they are on the wave 
 of a tremendous national enthusiasm. They fight with 
 cries and shouts, with songs. They have to be con- 
 stantly reproved for marching too fast, and for treading 
 on one another's heels at the fording of the rivers. 
 
 135
 
 136 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 They need no band, no banjo to "spur the rearguard 
 to a walk." They are very heavily clad, clumsily 
 shod, burdened with a heavy kit, from which dangle 
 pots and kettles. They live on the most frugal diet, 
 and do not grumble when they starve. They sleep 
 under the open sky these wet, cold nights of autumn. 
 They have the longest patience in the world, and yet 
 they have also an extraordinary verve and eagerness. 
 This is a wonderful combination, emotion on a founda- 
 tion of patience. 
 
 The Germans are stubborn, they are persistent and 
 determined. They are condemnatory and angry, and 
 are capable of a fine rage. They are self-confident and 
 plucky. They are what we English call "nasty." As 
 brutes they have most in common with the wild boar, 
 most vicious and dangerous of animals. On the whole, 
 one would back the Germans against anyone in the 
 world for sheer devilry. One would also back them 
 for their mastery and assimilation of the results of 
 scientific invention and material progress. They are 
 the most accurate and best-equipped people. 
 
 But it is not the devil in man that wins in the long 
 run. The devil in man is terrible, but it is the God 
 in man that gives victory and happiness. Nietzsche 
 wrote frequently of the "God, devil, and worm in 
 man," and mistaken Nietzscheanism always tends to 
 the development of the devil in man, exclusive of the 
 other two. The Russian, as Dostoieffsky wrote, is
 
 THE GERMANS 137 
 
 the God-carrier. You must appeal to the religious in 
 him ; you must appeal to his emotions. But you have 
 to appeal to the bad temper of the Germans to make 
 them go. 
 
 Russians versus Germans is Imagination versus 
 Will. Both will and imagination will carry men far, 
 but imagination will carry farther. For the imagina- 
 tive soldier has his eyes set on an unearthly prize, and 
 he forgets his body and all the limitations of his body, 
 and goes forward in a state of rapture. 
 
 One of the features of the present life of Russia is 
 the going over of a considerable number of Lutherans 
 to the Orthodox Russian Church. I was present at 
 the receiving at the font of two such converts — a most 
 impressive service. They were two women, Russian 
 subjects, but German by extraction. It was evidently 
 a very great event in their lives — their faces were a 
 picture of emotional excitement and childish happiness. 
 I suppose many of us who do not formally enter or fall 
 away from Churches have in spirit made that transfer- 
 ence from Puritanism to orthodoxy. It is always a 
 tremendous personal event, the transference of religion 
 from the intellect to the emotions, the melting of the 
 ice of personality, the change from a rigid setting of 
 the Hps to the filming of the eyes. 
 
 Nietzsche, of whom many random things are being 
 said in this the time of our indignation and sorrow, 
 detested the modern German puritans. "When they
 
 138 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 say I am just, it soundeth as if they had said I am 
 just — revenged. Thus spake Zarathustra." Nietz- 
 sche understood that Germany's self-righteousness 
 sprang from a sort of hatred of Hfe and of men. 
 
 I am sorry words are being said against Nietzsche. 
 He was one of my teachers ; I learned much of him. I 
 am sure many British who have rifles on their shoulders 
 to-day have learned of Nietzsche, and have a warm 
 place in their hearts for him. They have taken his 
 works with them, and Zarathustra in some man's 
 breast pocket must have saved him from an evil ounce 
 of lead. 
 
 Nietzsche was of Polish origin, and consequently 
 nearer to the Russian spirit than to the German. 
 Although he seems anti-Christian, he was on the road 
 to transcendent Christianity, He was a great admirer 
 of Dostoieffsky, whose work he introduced to Germany. 
 Nietzsche, always half-mad, alternately possessed by 
 devils and angels, might have been a character in one 
 of Dostoievsky's novels. For the rest, Nietzsche was 
 very fond of the French people, and preferred to read 
 his own works in the French translation rather than in 
 the original. He greatly admired Stendhal and he 
 abhorred Kant. The spectacle of the genius of Napo- 
 leon made life worth living for him; the success of 
 Wagner so mortified him that it must have hastened 
 his madness by ten years at least. He disliked the 
 English, it is true, but that was because it was in Eng-
 
 THE GERMANS 139 
 
 land chiefly that the nineteenth century slept and 
 would not wake up. Nietzsche, despite the fact that 
 he was a little, nervous man of great physical weak- 
 ness, is yet far the most powerful force of his age. He 
 seems anti- Christian, he was mistaken in his fundamen- 
 tal notion of the coming of the Superman, but his work 
 is full of a new poetry. It is insisted that he was 
 brutal in what he said about women. That is some- 
 thing personal in Nietzsche. Women wounded him. 
 With his terrible physical suffering and his marvellous 
 vision and passion he was in need of the love and faith 
 of a real woman. But it was not his lot to find such a 
 woman. He needed a harbour and an anchor, but it 
 was his lot to toss ever on the shelterless sea. 
 
 Not a word is breathed against Nietzsche in Russia ; 
 too many lovers there have whispered the poetry of 
 Zarathustra to one another. There is mistaken Nietz- 
 scheanism there, and talk of "all is permitted," but 
 that is merely the vulgarisation of the age. Almost 
 all the noble spirits of modern Russia have drunk deep 
 of the wells of Nietzsche. As I said, the Nietzsche 
 family sprang originally from Poland. He was really 
 a Pole, a Slav — the German spirit is merely the dross 
 in his writing. It is the Slavic that is the gold. As 
 the great Russian tale-writer Kouprin writes in an open 
 letter to Arthur Schnitzler : "Perhaps you think 
 Nietzsche was one with you in your thoughts. No! 
 Even we, your present enemies, could not gather in
 
 I40 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 our souls so much hatred and contempt for you Prus- 
 sians as Nietzsche poured forth in his works." 
 
 The true admirer of the Germans was our own 
 Carlyle, whom Nietzsche cheerfully dismisses as "a 
 muddlehead." Recent visitors to Ecclefechan, Car- 
 lyle's birthplace, will probably have seen the scarcely 
 faded wreaths sent by the Kaiser to the memory of 
 the Briton whom Germany honours most. Carlyle's 
 belief in the Germans and in their ways was colossal. 
 Did he not waste the ripeness of his life poring over 
 the musty records of German military exploits? In 
 the history of this war, and our re-estimate of the 
 Germans, we shall have to reconsider Carlyle and the 
 "marching song of the Teutonic nations." 
 
 Maurice Maeterlinck's contribution to the question 
 of the destiny of the Germans was one much considered 
 in Russia, Maeterlinck holding an extremely high place 
 in the esteem of the intelligentia. It was translated at 
 once into Russian and much commented upon. It was 
 hailed with enthusiasm as giving a strong lead, and 
 showing how the West had made up its mind to carry 
 the war through to a terrible end. I must say I felt 
 somewhat aghast at the hatred of Germany. 
 
 "They will say to us afterwards that the unfor- 
 tunate German peoples were only the victims of their 
 monarch and their system. That on the Germany we 
 know, so cordial and so kind, no blame should fall — 
 but only on Prussia — impatient, hateful, aggressive
 
 THE GERMANS 141 
 
 Prussia. The domestic, peace-loving Bavarians, the 
 kind, hospitable dwellers on the shores of the Rhine, 
 the Silesians, Saxons, and I know not who else, will 
 become at once as white as snow, less offending than 
 the sheep on the pasture land. 
 
 "But now, whilst we stand face to face with reahty, 
 let us pronounce sentence : 'The German Empire must 
 be destroyed as a wasp's nest. The Germans must be 
 destroyed as we destroy a wasp's nest, since we know 
 the wasp's nest can never become a bee's nest.' 
 
 " If eighty million innocent people support a monster- 
 Kaiser, it shows simply the superficiality of their in- 
 nocence and the inner falsehood of their nature. 
 Should even a thousand years of civihsation pass in 
 peace, the subconscious spirit of the Germans will still 
 be as it is to-day. It will still be ready to show itself." 
 
 These are significant passages in the Russian ver- 
 sion. Its tone is in strange contrast to the contribu- 
 tion of our J. M. Barrie, where the spirit of culture 
 comforts the stricken Kaiser with the words: "If 
 God is with the Alhes, Germany will not be destroyed." 
 
 We British have a considerable amount of affection 
 for our foe. The soldiers especially are on very good 
 terms with the soldiers they are fighting — despite 
 white flag incidents, bad German tricks, atrocities, 
 cathedral-shelling, cutting out the eyes of the wounded, 
 and the Hke. There is a weakness towards Germany 
 latent in our people, even an unfortunate weakness.
 
 142 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 When Germany is clearly beaten a great many people 
 will raise their voice in her behalf. As yet, though, 
 Germany has to be beaten. 
 
 Maeterlinck says, "Only from the depths of the 
 most fearful and cruel injustice can we see what Jus- 
 tice is." That is an astonishingly wrong utterance, 
 but it explains the fury of Maeterlinck's condemnation 
 of the Germans, and it is a noble explanation. Maeter- 
 linck is a Belgian. How much more angry, how much 
 more eager for German blood are the Belgians and the 
 French, those who have suffered, than we are ! If the 
 fortune of war goes rapidly against the foe, and Bel- 
 gians and French get the Germans on the run, there is 
 likely to be such revenge and plunder and ravaging 
 that those in England who would spare Germany wiU 
 find they have to witness the clearing off of a hate of 
 which as yet they have but a sentimental notion. 
 Iron has entered the souls of Belgian and French. The 
 French have a long score to clear off and they at least 
 will not be inclined to make peace till Germany is in 
 the dust, till they have exacted to the uttermost 
 farthing and the last drop, the treasure and blood 
 exacted by the Germans in 1870. In weighing up the 
 chances of the later stages of the war let us not under- 
 estimate the driving power of French and Belgian 
 hate. Later on we shall stand and watch the French 
 taking vengeance. We do not perhaps hate sufficiently 
 bitterly to do all that they will do.
 
 Ill 
 
 The Future of the Poles 
 
 A POLISH peasant woman and a Russian baba were 
 talking in the train. "What dreadful things the Ger- 
 mans are doing!" says the Russian woman, a heavily 
 clothed old wife who has come i,ooo versts by train 
 in order to find and nurse her son who is seriously 
 wounded. "What things they are doing to women, 
 to the churches. They've ruined a great Cathedral 
 somewhere, I've read." 
 
 "Yes," says the Polish woman, "and our Pope has 
 written against them." 
 
 "A new one isn't he, surely?" 
 
 "Yes, the old Pope died at the beginning of the war ; 
 it broke his heart." 
 
 "Trying to make peace among his children, eh? 
 Clearly the Austrians are his, aren't they?" 
 
 "Yes, they are ours, too." 
 
 "Ah, how they oppress the poor Slavs, the Czechs, 
 the Serbs, the others. Barbarians, that's what they 
 are." 
 
 "Yes, barbarians." 
 
 This word all the Russian peasants have got hold of. 
 
 143
 
 144 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Ask the peasant what he thinks of the Germans. 
 "Barbarians," he answers. 
 
 But it is an interesting opposition that of Pole and 
 Austrian, both Roman Cathohcs. It is rather sur- 
 prising that the Poles, extremely pious Roman Catho- 
 hcs as they are, have no particular sympathy with 
 their co-religionists in Austria, and that the Pope 
 throws the balance of his power rather into the scale 
 against Germany and Austria. The fact is^ Rome 
 stands to gain far more from the success of the Alhes 
 than from German domination. German success 
 means a stronger Protestant influence in the world 
 generally — it means certainly a stronger influence in 
 Austria; even the unification of the German and 
 Austrian empires is possible. On the other hand, 
 the success of Russia means, or ought to mean, I 
 presume, the establishment of the Poles as a nation 
 once more, though under the protection of the Tsar. 
 What Rome has lost in France she can make up in 
 autonomous Poland (and autonomous Ireland) when 
 once the war has ended in the dispersal of the German 
 dream of empire. 
 
 Poland, if restored, would be a great Roman Catholic 
 country. Of that there can be no doubt. The Poles 
 are a passionately national people. Nationalism is 
 the biggest thing with them, and in their nationalism is 
 included necessarily their religious faith. The Russians 
 have tried in vain to Russify Poland ; Poland remains
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE POLES 145 
 
 crazily Polish. The Poles have emigrated to America 
 in enormous numbers, but in America they do not 
 tend to enter the choir dance of the races. They live 
 together, as I have seen them in the mining villages 
 of Pennsylvania, and have their political clubs, and talk 
 their own old language, and read their own books, 
 and write poems about Poland. They are a very 
 poetical people ; every third Pole writes verses. They 
 are not in such numbers as the Irish in America, and 
 since they are not English-speaking they have not the 
 power of the Irish, but by virtue of their political 
 organisation they are more like the Irish than other 
 races. 
 
 And despite the fact that Poles and Russians are 
 equally Slavonic and are psychologically akin, yet how 
 the Poles have hated the Russians ! It would be im- 
 possible to hate more. The hate of brothers, when 
 they do hate, is worse than the hate of those who are 
 unrelated. It used to be almost equivalent to an 
 insult to speak Russian in a Polish shop, or order your 
 dinner in Russian at the restaurant. Now, however, 
 things have changed. 
 
 I have just been staying in the fine old city of Vilna, 
 a city of courtly Poles, the home of many of the old 
 noble famihes of Poland. It is now thronged with 
 Russian officers and soldiers. Along the main street 
 is an incessant procession of troops, and as you look 
 down you see vistas of bayonet spikes waving like
 
 146 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 reeds in a wind. As you lie in bed at night you listen 
 to the tramp, tramp, tramp of soldiers. Or you look 
 out at the window and see wagons and guns passing 
 for twenty minutes on end, or you see prancing over the 
 cobbles and the mud the Cossacks of the Don, of the 
 Volga, of Seven Rivers. In the days of the revolution- 
 ary outburst the Poles bit their lips in hate at the 
 sight of the Russian soldiers, they cursed under their 
 breath, darted out with revolvers and shot, aimed 
 bombs. To-day they smile, tears run down their cheeks ; 
 they even cheer. Whoever would have thought to see 
 the day when the Poles would cheer the Russian troops 
 marching through the streets of their own cities ! 
 
 The Russians are forgiven. They come now to 
 deliver the Slavs, not, as formerly, to trample on them. 
 Go into a restaurant and order your dinner in Russian 
 and you are smiled at and treated specially. To be a 
 Russian is to be a friend. The Russians, also, with 
 that complete turn-round of feeling of which the Sla- 
 vonic peoples are so capable, are quite affectionate 
 towards the Poles. It is said that since the proclama- 
 tion of the Grand Duke Nicholas there has been quite 
 a demand for Polish grammars and dictionaries on the 
 part of Russians wishing to learn Polish. I, for my 
 part, directly I read that proclamation, decided to 
 learn some Polish, for I understood that Poland had 
 suddenly begun to count. 
 
 A very touching spectacle may be seen every day
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE POLES 147 
 
 just now at the Sacred Gate of Vilna. Above the 
 gateway is a chapel with wide-open doors showing a 
 richly gilded and flower-decked image of the Virgin. 
 At one side stands a row of leaden organ pipes, at the 
 other stands a priest. Music is wafted through the 
 air with incense and the sound of prayers. Down 
 below in the narrow, muddy roadway kneel many poor 
 men and women with prayer books in their hands. 
 They are Poles. But through the gateway come 
 incessantly, all day and all night, Russian troops going 
 to the front. And as he approaches, every soldier, 
 be he officer or private, lifts his hat and passes through 
 the praying throng uncovered. This is beautiful. 
 Let Russia always be so in the presence of the Mother 
 of Poland. 
 
 No nation in modern history has been treated the 
 way Poland has been treated, divided up Hke spoil and 
 given to the three Emperors of Europe — living spoil. 
 The history of Poland previous to partition is one of 
 splendour and gallantry. A Dumas would have found 
 in that history stories as gay and brave as in the his- 
 tory of France. The Poles were a bright and interest- 
 ing contrast to their neighbours, the laborious Germans 
 and the frozen Russians. They were an energetic, 
 tireless people; also they would have made out of 
 Poland something distinctive. But Fate came across 
 them. The wonderful nineteenth century came on 
 and Poland was not. Poland was denied the opportu-
 
 148 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 nities of other powers. England built up her mighty 
 civilisation; Germany grew into form and was con- 
 scious of itself, and learned to speak with a strong, 
 national voice ; even Russia emerged out of the forests 
 and the vast distances and built up a nineteenth- 
 century civilisation. But Poland lay under the feet 
 of conquerors. 
 
 To such a poignancy did Polish sorrow come, to 
 such a degree of historical melancholy, that the PoHsh 
 poets of the seventies came to write of Poland as the 
 Messianic nation, the nation and the country that must 
 be ■ crucified and divided up, that must die and be 
 buried. They formed a prophecy that through the 
 sufferings of Poland the world would find regeneration. 
 The- Poles, many of them, learned to participate in a 
 ♦S^reHgious sorrow and find the accompanying religious 
 consolation. Poland had to die that the world through 
 Poland might be saved ; Poland will rise again as a sign 
 that every nationahty has an immortality. 
 
 So now in this great struggle wherein the heavens 
 are rent over the agony of Teutons and Slavs the Poles 
 see a dove descending with the promise of peace. 
 Poland is about to rise again. 
 
 The promises of poetry and religion, however, seem 
 much more certain than the promises of politicians and 
 of monarchs. If we turn from the melancholy beauty 
 of this Polish idea to the sharp-edged actualities of 
 poHtics, it is possible to feel that the restoration of the
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE POLES 149 
 
 Polish nation is not so certain, not so likely that the 
 providence of the Tsar will look God-dispensed as man- 
 dispensed. 
 
 I believe that if Germany is thoroughly beaten in 
 the field, and granted not honourable but humiliating 
 terms of peace, it will be possible to take German 
 Poland from her, and from Austria Austrian Poland, 
 though it means tearing them from the living flesh of 
 Germany* and Austria respectively, and these maybe 
 added to Russian Poland and given a constitution 
 under the protectorate of the Tsar. No new monarch 
 is likely to be found for Poland, for the simple reason 
 that monarchs of small states cause much trouble and 
 that the jealousy of the courts of Servia, Bulgaria, 
 Rumania, and Greece have caused so much trouble 
 and misunderstanding that the Tsar is not likely to 
 institute another court. Collective Poland is likely to 
 be given a qualified home rule, she will have consider- 
 able control over her own finances and expenditure, 
 the Polish language will become current at such univer- 
 sities as she may prefer to make pecuHarly Polish, she 
 will have power to organise the education of her people 
 and to make herself a strong and loyal nation. What 
 Mother Russia wants to see in Poland is an eldest son 
 at her side. 
 
 Of course, when the war is over, and if the fabric of 
 
 * German Poland takes in Dantzig and Posen and extends to within fifty 
 miles of Berlin. Konigsberg, however, does not belong to ancient Poland.
 
 I50 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 civilisation holds together, Russia has a great, a difficult 
 task. It would be much easier to evade her obligations 
 than to fulfil them. But she is not likely to evade them. 
 There is every indication that she has entered on a new 
 era as far as the government of Poland is concerned. 
 Pan Slavism is going to progress positively by way of 
 encouraging what is truly Slavonic, rather than nega- 
 tively, as of old, by the repression of what was not 
 Slavonic. 
 
 When once the war is over, Poland will be one of the 
 most interesting countries in the world. All eyes will 
 be turned on Russia to see how she will work out the 
 great problem of giving Poland restitution. It is a 
 problem that will task the genius of Russia, and test 
 her patience and gentleness. 
 
 Just to touch on one or two of the difficulties, there 
 is the jealousy of the Churches, of the ecclesiastics of 
 the churches. The Eastern Orthodox Church has very 
 little in common with the Roman Cathohc Church. 
 It is indeed nearer to the Church of England than to 
 Rome. But it will have to tolerate a fervently Roman 
 Catholic Poland, and trust Polish nationalism to give 
 Roman Catholicism what may be called an Eastern 
 tinge or complexion. 
 
 The peasantry of Poland are most simple and pious. 
 Of the Roman Catholics who arrive at Jerusalem on 
 pilgrimage, some of the most humble and sincere are 
 the Poles. There is a redeeming touch of mysticism
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE POLES 151 
 
 in Polish religion. Though the Church accepts the 
 responsibility for all dogma, and would relieve the 
 lay person of discovering anything for himself, or of 
 learning anything individually in his heart, yet by 
 nature the Pole has visions, sees the mystic side of 
 things, and has gleams of natural religion. Of course, 
 the political influence of Rome will be greatly suspected 
 by the Russian authorities. But everything is to be 
 gained by trusting the Poles, rather than by mis- 
 trusting them. 
 
 The Government of Russia will fear that under the 
 cover and protection of autonomy the Poles will be 
 able to conspire effectively for complete independence. 
 Conspiracy is congenial to the minds of the Poles — 
 they have been great conspirators and plotters — 
 though necessarily Polish plots have up to now, thanks 
 to the vigilance of Russian police and the power of 
 Russian armies, had very Uttle success. It is difficult 
 to believe that when the Poles have extra chances they 
 will not work together for a complete national independ- 
 ence, for an army of their own, frontiers and tariff- 
 barriers between them and Russia, foreign alliances 
 and the rest. This fear may easily lessen the amount of 
 freedom granted to Poland. 
 
 One stumbling block is the mutual jealousies of the 
 Churches, another is Polish ambition, a third that I 
 may mention is the presence in Poland of almost all 
 the Jews in the Russian Empire. There is no love
 
 152 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 lost between the Jews and the Poles. They have been 
 fellow-sufferers and have merged their personal dishke 
 of one another in their common hatred of the Russian 
 autocracy. But that is all: the estabHshment of 
 several million Jews in Poland has been one of the 
 injustices towards Poland. There are considerably 
 more Jews than Russians in Poland — the country 
 has rather been Judaised than Russianised. Jewry 
 has given to Poland its characteristic complexion. In 
 many districts the Jews outnumber the Poles. 
 
 The Jews will hope to profit by Polish emancipation, 
 and reaUse themselves as a nation in Poland. That 
 is a danger. It would mean the continuous persecu- 
 tion of Poland by the Russians, who, as long as they 
 remain Christian in the Byzantine sense, will always 
 be in opposition to Judaism and that materialism for 
 which in their eyes Judaism stands. Jewry must keep 
 only a second or third place in Poland. To the estab- 
 lishment of that end greater facilities for emigration 
 to the United States will probably be afforded the 
 Jews. There the Jews are greatly in the ascendant, 
 and are indeed reaHsing themselves as a nation as never 
 before. Western Christianity, with its insistence on 
 ethics rather than on religious sense, finds nothing in- 
 compatible in Judaism. America is for Russian Jews, 
 as Mary Antin pointed out, the true promised land. 
 
 The Jews, with that sweet reasonableness, kindness, 
 and common sense which distinguish their life when
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE POLES 153 
 
 they are not too embittered by persecution, will perhaps 
 see that no good end is served by fanning malice against 
 Russia, and they will turn their eyes rather towards the 
 West than towards the East. So Poland will escape 
 Jewish predomination, and also political deprivations 
 on account of Jewish conditions. 
 
 But this statement of the case is all on the assump- 
 tion that German and Austrian Poland will be added 
 to Russian Poland. We leave out of account the 
 possibility that Germany may not be so utterly beaten 
 that she will be forced to part with a great stretch of 
 thoroughly Germanised territory. If the war leaves 
 the old Eastern frontier line untouched, Russia will not 
 feel that she is in a position to resurrect Poland. For 
 she would only have charge of a third of the old Polish 
 land. One thing, however, is certain, even under these 
 conditions, and that is PoHsh and Russian friendship. 
 Russia will do what she can for her Polish subjects. 
 As we all hope for complete victory in the strife, so we 
 look beyond the struggle to one of the first fruits of 
 peace, the reconstitution of the ancient land of Poland, 
 the sewing together of the mantle that the Emperors 
 divided between them. 
 
 For the time being, however, the hurly-burly rages. 
 The Russians are noble in war, and Poland waits, 
 gently hoping, and fearing also, like a woman who is 
 to be married if her soldier comes home safe from the 
 war.
 
 IV 
 
 The Future of the Jews 
 
 Russia's great instinctive struggle is against Western- 
 ism. She has a great treasure in her national life, but 
 she does not know how she came by it and does not 
 know how to keep it. But she continually notices how 
 she is losing that treasure, how it tends to slip away 
 from her, and she makes great clumsy efforts to save 
 herself and it. Hence much that is unnecessarily 
 barbarous, much that is unjust and even stupid in the 
 regime of Russia. Hence, for instance, the great ritual 
 murder trial at Kief. Nothing could have been more 
 clumsy and impoHtic than this trial, and from a Western 
 point of view nothing more unjust than its intention. 
 The prosecution was an act of hostility against the 
 Jews in Russia, an attempt to hasten the exodus of the 
 Jews to America, and to put in a worse position those 
 who remained behind. For the Russian patriot cannot 
 tolerate the Jew — he sees in him the whole instinct of 
 materialism and Westernism and commercialism. 
 
 The Jews, especially in their new awakening, are a 
 Western nation. They find their natural home in 
 America. Zionism, despite the sincerity of Jewish 
 Zionists, is a sentimentalism with many Jews, bluff 
 
 154
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE JEWS 155 
 
 with others. The Jews can never settle in great 
 numbers in Palestine. But in America they already 
 tend to be a dominant factor in the population of that 
 country. Our British blood-relationship with the 
 Americans, it may be said in passing, is something 
 decidedly on the wane. The Jews to-day are on the 
 up-grade. They are not being persecuted so much as 
 of yore; indeed, on the contrary, as employers of 
 labour they begin themselves to persecute others. Be 
 that as it may, they are avaiUng themselves of all the 
 opportunities of civilisation, and going forward to be 
 masters. They are not so earnest in their rehgious 
 rites, not so exclusive of the Gentile, incHned to marry 
 into Christian families — even in Russia they are 
 accepting baptism in considerable numbers. All good 
 Russians must wish the Jews Godspeed when they see 
 them embarking for America at Libau, not because they 
 are an evil people or accursed, but because with their 
 genius and their assumed humiUty they have ever been 
 a great danger to the Russians. It is a truism to say 
 that if the revolution succeeded, or if freedom were 
 granted to all the peoples, the Jews would overrun 
 Russia, and all the secular power would fall into their 
 hands. 
 
 As Christians denying the world it is difficult to see 
 on what ground Russians trouble themselves so much 
 about worldly conditions. They are positively afraid 
 of the Jews.
 
 156 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 One said to me : "How your country is falling into 
 the hands of the Jews: your Lord Chief Justice is a 
 Jew." 
 
 "Isn't it splendid," said I, "the head of the Law is 
 a Jew. Now, if a Jew had been appointed Archbishop 
 of Canterbury we might have had cause to complain." 
 
 What has a true Christian got to do with law ? When 
 he goes to law, he ceases for the time being to be a 
 Christian from the Eastern or Byzantine point of view. 
 Now, the Jews understand law and the judgment by 
 a code, and law is one of the professions best suited to 
 their temperament. The Jews are good lawyers, good 
 bankers, brokers, commercial travellers, shipping 
 agents, chess-players, mathematicians, and also good 
 musicians. The weak spot in their materialistic 
 armour is music. Through music they find access 
 sometimes to the things of the spirit. We should not 
 feel their success at law — like goes to like. 
 
 "A scandal, however," said my friend. "What 
 justice can there be between Jews and Christians? 
 Their Talmud tells them that any means against the 
 Christian are justifiable" — and so on, the whole 
 anti-Semitic diatribe now stale by repetition. 
 
 But to revert to the case of the ritual murder trial. 
 A Christian boy had been found done to death in a 
 horrible fashion, his veins cut in a special way with 
 knives, forty wounds in his body — the position of the 
 wounds having evidently some sort of mystic signifi-
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE JEWS 157 
 
 cance. Beiliss was innocent ; but someone was guilty, 
 a madman or a Jew, and indeed the probability is 
 that a Jew did actually commit the crime. Whether 
 it was for ritual purposes or not is another matter. 
 
 Most people would agree that it was a great mistake 
 on the part of the Russian Government to fight the 
 Jews on the count of the murder of a Christian child. 
 If among the illiterate and savage Jews that dwell in 
 the remoter parts of the Pale there should exist dark 
 sects in whose rites child-sacrifice, Moloch worship, 
 and the like, are practised — it is merely a curiosity 
 among religions of contemporary Europe. But the 
 great quarrel of Russians with Jews is not on that 
 ground. They would willingly spare the Jews an 
 accidental Christian child now and then. No, it is 
 with the Jewish business spirit and Jewish enmity 
 towards Christianity and towards the "unprofitable" 
 Christian life, that the Russian has his quarrel. 
 
 The main result of the trial was that it brought the 
 question of anti-Semitism to the touchstone of common 
 sense. Up till now Jews have been hated or protected 
 emotionally, but throughout the world there has 
 naturally set in an intellectual inquiry into the merits 
 or demerits of the anti-Semitic case. The most 
 significant thing about the Beiliss trial was that the 
 Jewish people had the power to obtain from a court 
 set on injustice the verdict of "Not Guilty." It 
 proved that for the time being the argument of physical
 
 158 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 force was not available against the Jews. It turned 
 the question into the channels of the Press, the pam- 
 phlet, the ordinary conversation. Henceforth there was 
 much less chance of pogroms. 
 
 Russia has to decide why she hates the Jews. Obvi- 
 ously she does not hate them because they occasionally 
 murder a Christian child — that is an absurdly Western 
 reason, even if the fact were true — that is only the 
 red flag of the massacre, the pretext, the inevitable lie 
 in whose name murder is committed. There is some- 
 thing much deeper in this great national animosity, 
 something which logic and common sense cannot get 
 over. 
 
 There are two parties in Russia; an enormous one 
 that distrusts the Jew and believes evil of him, a small 
 one which protects him. But as regards "ritual 
 murder" it is, of course, a comparatively small number 
 that believes the Jews are guilty of the practice. 
 
 One of the most interesting phenomena of the time 
 has been the persecution of the brilliant anti-Semitic 
 pamphleteer Rozanof, one of the contributors of the 
 Novoe Vremya, and a writer recognised by everyone as 
 being in the foremost rank in Russia. His primary 
 feeling about the Jews may be summarised from a book 
 of his confessions. Fallen Leaves. 
 
 "The Jew always begins with service and serviceableness 
 and ends with power and mastership. In the first stage he is 
 difiicult to grapple with. What are you to do with a man who
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE JEWS 159 
 
 simply stands and puts himself at your service? But in the 
 second stage no one can get equal with him. Countries and 
 nations perish — 
 
 "The services of the Jews are like nails in my hands, the 
 * caressingness ' of the Jews burns me like a flame. For profiting 
 by the one my nation perishes, and blown upon by the other my 
 nation rots and dies. We are all running to the Jews for help. 
 And in a hundred years all will be with the JewsJ" 
 
 This was written long before the Beiliss case. During 
 the trial Rozanof came forward and contributed to 
 the Novoe Vremya and other papers a most substantial 
 account of the ritual practices of the Jews. Credit 
 must be given him for extraordinary research. He had 
 gone into the depths of black magic as propounded in 
 almost inaccessible volumes on occultism, and had 
 come back with a circumstantial case against secret 
 sects of the Jews. He explained the hieroglyphics of 
 the wounds of Yushinsky. He insisted that the great 
 agitation made by the Jews was due to their fear that 
 their secrets were about to be unveiled, and bringing a 
 wide culture and incisive journalistic wit to bear on 
 the subjects he certainly convinced many who wished 
 to be convinced, and, on the other hand, set a most 
 influential band of Russian writers and thinkers against 
 him. 
 
 Merezhkovsky and Struve and several other members 
 of the Religious and Philosophical Society of St. Peters- 
 burg, one of the most important literary societies in
 
 i6o RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Russia, protested against the membership of Rozanof, 
 making a motion to expel him, enforcing the motion by 
 threatening to withdraw themselves if he were still 
 allowed to be a member. They could not continue 
 to work with a man who held such opinions. The 
 motion was defeated, but Rozanof on his own account 
 resigned. Jew-lovers are also ready to persecute ; pro- 
 Semitism has its victims, as well as anti-Semitism. 
 Rozanof has lately collected his articles into a book, 
 "The Relation of the Jews to Blood," and several 
 Liberal newspapers have refused advertisements of it. 
 It is a very powerful, interesting, and curious volume. 
 It is rather difficult for a Russian to read it without 
 being shaken. But then the practice of drinking blood 
 and the existence of secret rites is a commonplace to 
 the Russian, and his mind is prepared for a serious 
 consideration of ideas which in the West have no 
 countenance. The Jews have never been found sac- 
 rificing Christian children in England or America, and 
 that necessarily binds the Anglo-Saxon race in the 
 behef that ritual murder is a myth. 
 
 The question remains: Why are the Russians so 
 antagonistic to the Jews ? All Russians know a Jew at 
 once by his face and his manners, so intense is the dis- 
 like of the type. There is something more in it than 
 the arguments of this curious cause celebre. 1 think it 
 is due to the fundamental opposition of the Jewish 
 character to that which is most precious in the Slav.
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE JEWS i6i 
 
 The Tartar in the Russian is a similar type to the Jew — 
 and indeed many hold that the Russian Jews are not 
 Hebraic, but simply the descendants of Tartar converts 
 to Judaism. The Tartar gets on happily with the Jew, 
 but the fundamentally Slavonic, the mystical, the care- 
 less, that part of the soul of the Russians which makes 
 them Hke the Celts in temperament, cannot agree with 
 the Jew. To him the Jew is poison. Russia considers 
 its Tartar nature the lower nature. All love of Russia 
 and pride in Russia is love of the other and pride in 
 the other. All that is precious in Russian life, art, 
 literature, music, religion, springs from the other — the 
 gay carelessness, the despising of material possessions, 
 the love of the neighbour, the mystical. 
 
 The Jews, with their grasp of trade, their sympathy 
 with Westernism and contempt of Easternism, en- 
 danger the Russian ideal. They have an immense 
 power in the Press ; the Russian Government there- 
 fore keeps a strict censorship over the Press, flinging 
 editors into prison right and left, confiscating numbers 
 of journals, inflicting huge fines. The Jews are strongly 
 entrenched in the legal profession, and are credited 
 with making immense fortunes by dubious means — 
 and Russians revenge themselves weakly by exacting 
 heavy blackmail when they can. The Jews in the 
 secret poHce bought and sold the revolution ; witness 
 the cases of Azef and Bogrof. The Jews are the main 
 manipulators of emigration to America and elsewhere.
 
 1 62 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 having a regular business of procuring passengers for 
 the transatlantic shipping companies, conducting the 
 passportless across the Russian frontier, obtaining 
 premiums from South American trust companies for 
 providing gangs of workers. They are too clever for 
 the Russians, or Russians are too easily corrupted. 
 The consequence is that no broad legal measure is 
 ever carried out in such a way as to stop the practices. 
 The result of this Russian impotency is irritation and 
 petulancy on the part of the clean-handed, and inflamed 
 maHce on the part of the bribe-takers. Because of 
 this which cannot be tracked down and settled between 
 the Jew and the Russian, the latter has recourse to 
 wanton massacre, to trial for ritual murder and the 
 like. The proscription of Rozanof marked an inter- 
 esting development in this hostihty. Liberal Russia 
 will perhaps make up her mind to protect the Hebrews, 
 and the Duma of the future will perhaps free them and 
 put in their hands what is their due — business and the 
 law. But how will the Church and the aristocracy 
 and the poor religious mystical peasant put a bridle 
 on the power that money and the law would eventually 
 give the Jew in idle Russia? 
 
 The war raises the question of the rights of Jewry 
 in another form It has come about that the Russian 
 and British Governments are in alliance. The Jews 
 have been working against the possibility of such an 
 aUiance for many years. They have used every
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE JEWS 163 
 
 opportunity to cultivate the British and American 
 peoples in the abhorrence of Russian Government. 
 But behold, thanks to Germany's hate of England and 
 the maturing of that hate to war — we are all friendly 
 towards Russia. The campaign of the Jews and those 
 whom they had converted to hatred of Russia is badly 
 left. If it could have been possible for England to 
 remain neutral in this conflict, there would undoubtedly 
 have been a great campaign of defamation of Russia. 
 
 England, however, has great sympathy with the 
 Jews. If the Russian authorities allow massacres, or 
 if such mistaken prosecutions are insisted on as that 
 of Beiliss, England will be cold towards Russia and 
 Russia will feel her coldness. Russia should know 
 this. 
 
 The great question is : Is Russia going to do any- 
 thing for the Jews when the war is over ? Many think 
 that Russia has promised emancipation, but, of course, 
 she has not. The Jews are conducting a ver}^ effective 
 propaganda in the Press, watching, criticising, correcting 
 all the statements made about the Jews by journahsts 
 and authors. Unfortunately, of those who write about 
 Russia very few have any clear idea either of Russia 
 herself or of the Jewish Pale; they either depict 
 unrelieved horror, or they talk of their personal dislike 
 of the Jewish type, Jewish ways, Jewish clothes, and 
 so on. Consequently, the correcting of joumaKsm is 
 a very useful way of propagandising.
 
 i64 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 The Jewish difficulty is that the Poles have been 
 promised something as Poles, but the Jews have been 
 promised nothing. The Belgians, the French and the 
 British promise themselves certain rewards on the day 
 of victory, but the Jews as Jews have been promised 
 nothing at all, and cannot promise themselves any- 
 thing. Jewry has made up its mind that though it 
 has not been promised anything, it intends to get 
 something out of it all. 
 
 With that end in view the Jews lay emphasis on the 
 loyalty of Jews and on the exploits of Jewish soldiers. 
 They are entitled to do so. There are thousands of 
 Jews fighting in the Enghsh, French and Belgian 
 armies, not, of course, as Jews but as British, French 
 or Belgian subjects respectively. There are tens of 
 thousands serving in the Russian army. There they 
 are serving as Jews rather than as Russians — for a 
 Jew is denied many privileges of Russian nationality. 
 But of course the Jew is compelled to serve — he has 
 no say in the matter. 
 
 An Enghsh correspondent writes to me that we must 
 remember that the Russian Jews could have remained 
 neutral if they had chosen. This shows the sort of 
 notion that gets abroad through partisan propaganda. 
 The Jews had no choice in the matter. They might 
 have rebelled and so been shot down under martial 
 law — in that sense only had they a choice. 
 
 The pro- Jewish propaganda insists on the heroism
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE JEWS 165 
 
 of Osnas, whom the Tsar decorated, and on the valorous 
 deeds of the Jews serving in the Russian army. They 
 point to the suffering and death of many Jewish soldiers, 
 and also to the privations of Jewish families in the dis- 
 tricts ravaged by the Germans, and they say : Does all 
 this go for naught? Every true EngHshman's answer 
 is, It ought not to go for naught; the Jews should 
 be shown exceptional kindness when the war is over. 
 
 But there is another side of the argument which is 
 not indicated in the propaganda. It is that there are 
 also thousands of German Jews fighting in the German 
 army, and fighting as well, suffering as much. There 
 is also a great number of Jews in England and America 
 who in season and out of season pursue a propaganda 
 against Russia, chilling the friendly spirit which at pres- 
 ent exists between Russia and the other alHes. The 
 Russians have been staunch and loyal friends of the 
 English and French, and have withstood all manner of 
 seductive proposals made to them by the Germans 
 with the object of detaching them. The Jews cannot 
 at present claim that they are helping our cause very 
 much. Still, that is no reason why the Jews should be 
 done injustice or rendered liable to further persecution 
 in Poland. It is to be hoped that within the Jewish 
 Pale they will be granted certain privileges of education 
 and emigration, and that they be better safeguarded 
 from the individual malice of Jew-baiters. 
 
 The question of what Russia is going to do for the
 
 i66 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Jews was put to me lately by one of our most distin- 
 guished British Jews, the Lord Chief Justice. I give 
 the conversation. Imagine the glittering, clear-cut 
 features of one who has been eminent in law, politics, 
 and finance. I find myseK sitting next to him one 
 night, at dinner. 
 
 We talked of the prospects of Poland's autonomy, 
 and then at last . . . "There is one question I should 
 like to ask you specially," said my neighbour, ''that 
 is, what do you think is likely to be the position of the 
 Jews at the end of the war? Do you think anything 
 will be done for them?" 
 
 "Not very much," I answered. "They will not 
 obtain freedom to go where they wish in the Russian 
 Empire. The Russian Church without wavering is 
 against the Jews, and, as you know, the Court itself 
 not only has no tolerance for the Jews, but is ready to 
 believe anything against them, anything like the ritual 
 murder, for instance. One thing I gather : they are 
 likely to be excused military service." 
 
 "As a privilege?" he asked. 
 
 "Yes, of course as a privilege, not as a new depri- 
 vation. The Jews are strongly against mihtary 
 service." 
 
 Then the conversation dropped for a few minutes, to 
 be taken up later. 
 
 I turned to my neighbour and asked : 
 
 "Is the Government hkely to ask for special clauses
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE JEWS 167 
 
 in the treaty of peace safeguarding Russia's treatment 
 of the Jews?" 
 
 "We shall not have to conclude peace with Russia, 
 who is our ally, but with Germany," was the answer. 
 
 "But the Jews are making a great deal of propaganda 
 just now. They are showing a great deal of distrust of 
 Russia, and they evidently intend raising the question 
 in a very formidable fashion when once peace is in 
 sight." 
 
 "I think perhaps America may put forward some 
 proposition." 
 
 " What do you think can be done ? " I asked. " The 
 Jews cannot reahse themselves as a nation in Christian 
 Russia, they don't seem very much pleased with what I 
 wrote in The Times about their realising themselves as a 
 nation in America. Have you any personal belief in 
 Zionism ? " 
 
 He did not seem to think it likely that the Children 
 would return to Palestine. 
 
 Nevertheless, the air just now is full of prophecy about 
 the return of the Jews. The Jews themselves are 
 whispering much about the fulfilment of the old proph- 
 ecies, and though it is not likely that the Rothschilds 
 and the great financiers will go to Jerusalem, I believe 
 there may be something in the possibility of the re- 
 establishment of the Jews in Palestine as a nation. 
 
 One of the possibilities of the war is the fall of the 
 Turkish Empire and the liberation of Syria from the
 
 i68 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Mohammedan yoke. Palestine becomes vacant, or at 
 least eligible for a new Government. It seems to me 
 that something might be done for the establishment of 
 the Jews in Palestine. 
 
 The Jews won't go there aU at once. That is evident. 
 But a Jewish Government might be formed there of 
 financiers and representative Jews. Once a Govern- 
 ment has been formed, it could be made optional for 
 the Jews to give up their various European national 
 papers and become Jewish subjects. Russian Jews 
 could then cease to be Russian subjects and become 
 Jewish subjects; German Jews could become Jewish 
 subjects, and so on. They would have the financial 
 and moral protection of their own Government. They 
 could in time form a democracy in Palestine if they 
 wished it ; they could have their own army and navy 
 if necessary. 
 
 This would be a great blessing to the world. Already 
 the chief reason that the Russian peasant has for calling 
 the Jew accursed is that he has no land of his own. For 
 instance, when the Russians were retreating in Poland 
 I asked a common soldier the reason. His answer was 
 — " The Jews betray us. That's what comes of having 
 an accursed people without any land of their own; they 
 dog our steps and sell us at every turn. If we are 
 winning they come round us and praise us and try to 
 help us ; if we begin to lose they run to the enemy and 
 say, ' Don't you ill-treat us ; we are your friends : we
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE JEW 169 
 
 can help you; we have valuable information.'" The 
 Jews ought to have a place of their own and a Govern- 
 ment of their own. They ought not to be always 
 fighting for their separate interests in the life of foreign 
 nations. They are a great people, and are now, as 
 never before, on the up-grade in civiHsation. They 
 ought to be officially united. The world of Gentiles 
 also is interested to see them as a nation, and would 
 welcome any steps the Jews would take towards the 
 realisation of themselves as such. 
 
 The brevities of the Jewish situation may be stated 
 thus: 
 
 (i) Russia has promised little to the Jews and 
 will give Httle. 
 
 (ii) England has sympathy with the Jews, 
 (iii) America will help the Jews if she can. 
 (iv) The Jews are working hard for themselves, 
 (v) I suggest that if the Turkish Empire falls a 
 Jewish Government should be established in Pales- 
 tine, and Jews all the world over should have the 
 option of becoming Jewish subjects.
 
 V 
 
 Turks 
 
 The covet ousness of Turkey has overcome fear of 
 consequences, and her perennial enmity has matured 
 once more to war. Behold, in addition to the wild 
 strife of Europe, another Turkish war. Belgium has 
 been overrun and ruined, Poland has been overrun, and 
 the Caucasus and Crimea are to have equal ruin with 
 these unfortunate countries — massacre, devastation, 
 robbery. Not only the Caucasus and Crimea, but also 
 S3n-ia and Palestine, where are large colonies of Russians 
 and English, and many French and Belgians with com- 
 mercial interests. The wealth of Beirut, Smyrna and 
 Jaffa is to a great extent European wealth. The 
 powerful Russian settlement in Jerusalem is in danger, 
 and also the lives of the gentle and cultured British 
 who are attached to the English mission. 
 
 The war is a continuous calamity for non-combatants 
 — a campaign of organised plunder and loot. It will 
 hardly be Turkey's policy to fight pitched battles, and 
 so be beaten in the field. She will rather avoid the 
 Russian troops, seek out unprotected districts, and make 
 inroads. The great Russian army mobilised in Trans- 
 
 170
 
 TURKS 171 
 
 Caucasia is bound to have victories but they will not 
 cause much anxiety to the Turks ; the natural difficul- 
 ties in the way of conquering Asia Minor are almost 
 insuperable. A small force of irregulars and Turkish 
 brigands could keep a great army employed for a long 
 time. The native Turkish population is very hostile 
 and warhke, and there is the prospect of protracted 
 guerilla warfare. I do not see Russia getting to Con- 
 stantinople by way of these mountains and deserts. 
 It's a long, long way. The first phase of the Russian- 
 Turkish conflict depends on the success or failure of 
 the Black Sea Fleet. If the Turks and Germans sink 
 the Russian warships, such as they are, they can choose 
 what points they like on the long line of seashore, and 
 bring up their barbarous troops and make inroads and 
 pillage. Many such inroads have already been made — 
 to judge from private correspondence I have seen — 
 but the Russian Censor suppresses all details. But if 
 the Russian fleet disposes of the Turkish and German 
 warships, Russia can land troops much nearer to 
 Constantinople and the heart of Turkey. Unfortu- 
 nately, owing to the security of the Bosphorus, the 
 Turks have a retiring place as good as the Kiel Canal 
 in the other theatre of war. If the Turkish fleet is 
 cautious it can prolong the struggle indefinitely. 
 
 Should the Turks obtain ascendancy in the Black 
 Sea, the chief towns to suffer would be Odessa, Batum, 
 Novorossisk, Poti, and Theodosia. The town of
 
 172 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Sebastopol is probably impregnable; Kherson and 
 Nikolaieff are somewhat difficult of access. The ports 
 of the Azof Sea, the most important of which is Rostof- 
 on-the-Don, have been saved by the shallowness of 
 the sea and the early date of freezing. Rostof is the 
 railway key of the Caucasus and a wealthy and im- 
 portant place. 
 
 All has changed since the days of the Crimean War. 
 The Black Sea offers many targets, and Russia is 
 much more vulnerable here. I have walked almost the 
 whole of the Black Sea shore, from Sebastopol to Batum, 
 a thousand miles and more, and so know it with unusual 
 intimacy. It is poor country, but there are many prizes 
 for pirates. There is a whole chain of watering-places ; 
 there is the Tsar's favourite estate of Livadia, where 
 the happiest hours of the Tsarevitch have been spent ; 
 there is Yalta, the favourite winter haunt of the aristoc- 
 racy; there is the great monastery of New Athos, 
 destroyed by the Turks in 1870, but built again over 
 the ruins of the old building, and now one of the great- 
 est institutions of its kind; there is wonderful little 
 Gagri, with its rich villas, all ready to the hand of the 
 spoiler, like bunches of wild grapes. There are no 
 fortifications, no soldiers. Already even the inhabi- 
 tants of the seashore villages have fled; the Turkish 
 knife is known and feared. 
 
 But it is not only the Turks who are feared, but 
 the Mohammedan tribesmen of the Caucasus, very
 
 TURKS 173 
 
 dangerous people even in time of peace ; the Abkhastsi, 
 the Mohammedan Ossetini, the Ingooshi, and a score 
 more races, all armed and prone to murder and brigand- 
 age. The whole coast from Gagri to beyond Batum is 
 necessarily sympathetic to the enemy. And in the 
 interior of the Caucasus and in Transcaucasia there 
 are bound to be risings. Russia will either have to 
 allow her territory to fall under terrible ravage, or send 
 a great quantity of troops to guard the various vital 
 points of the shore. Tuapse, for instance, the oil port 
 of Maikop, is now an important point, since the railway 
 runs thither from Arma\ir through somewhat dis- 
 affected country. At Batum, Theodosia, Novorossisk, 
 Sebastopol, and Odessa, distinct railway hnes from 
 Russia terminate; these are most important. There 
 is as yet no coast railway. 
 
 But we wait for the success of the Russian Black Sea 
 Fleet. The best vessels are the Johann Zlato-Ust and 
 the Efstafiy, both built in 1906, and having a displace- 
 ment of 13,000 tons. Then follows the Pantalemon, 
 built 1900, and the Rostislaf, built 1896, and after these 
 a tail of old and little vessels. Against this force sails 
 the even more miserable Turkish Fleet, whose best 
 vessels are the Barharossa Haireden and the Forgiid 
 Reis, both built in Germany in 1891, and displacing 
 10,060 tons. But Turkey has also the German light 
 cruiser Breslau and the great, powerful modern Dread- 
 nought Goeben, of 23,000 tonnage and 2S knots speed.
 
 174 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 If the modern warship is as superior in power as experts 
 hold, then the Goeben should itself be able to sink the 
 whole Russian Black Sea Fleet. The calamities of 
 that vessel, however, lead one to hope that it has 
 considerable defects or is inefficiently manned. Twice 
 it has been forced back to Constantinople for repairs. 
 It is now at large, and it recently shelled Batum. But 
 it is steaming at a greatly reduced speed, owing to 
 bad Turkish coal. It seems very possible that the bad 
 luck that has attended its adventures in the Black Sea 
 will continue, and that once more it will be disabled, 
 and this time finally. 
 
 Many have asked, Why did not Russia declare war 
 on Turkey and fall upon her in the midst of her prep- 
 arations? But Russia, having her hands full with 
 Austria and Germany, would rather not solve the prob- 
 lem of Turkey at present, much as she would like a 
 crusade against the Saracen under ordinary conditions. 
 The presence of two modern German warships in the 
 Turkish fleet greatly increases the difficulty. Russia, 
 thanks to her treaty obhgations with Turkey, has 
 never been able to bring any warships through the 
 Dardanelles and the Bosphorus into the Black Sea, 
 otherwise she would not be to-day in the position of a 
 third-rate naval Power there. Probably the Goeben is 
 the first great modern warship that has yet dipped into 
 the waters of the Euxine. Turkey has not even per- 
 mitted guns to be taken through the Straits, and every
 
 TURKS 175 
 
 vessel passing from Russia to the iEgean or back 
 again has had to submit to being searched at the north- 
 ern or southern entrances to the narrow waters. As 
 long as the Goehen and the Breslau are on the sea, the 
 Russians are obHged to keep great numbers of soldiers 
 waiting at the points of possible invasion. It is worth 
 Germany's while to keep Turkey fighting. Turkey's 
 quarrel is worth 200,000 Russians less on the fields of 
 Poland. 
 
 One of the surprises of the war has been that Turkey 
 has been ready to squander our friendship. The Turks, 
 as a people, have a great deal of respect and admiration 
 for the British people. They regard us as their tradi- 
 tional friends. They are proud of the bits of English 
 they know, and the sailors and dock labourers of 
 Constantinople and Smyrna have even adopted some 
 EngHsh into their speech, and you may frequently hear 
 such expressions as "All right" and " Go-ahead" if you 
 listen in the harbours. And the Enghsh have an 
 esteem for the Turks. Many of our dear Pagan fellow- 
 countrymen down in the City have a soft spot in their 
 hearts for the Turk. This was abundantly apparent at 
 the time of the first Balkan War, when London was at 
 the outset almost entirely in sympathy with Turkey. 
 Of course, the Turks are very picturesque, rather simple 
 in their national ways, and they observe the rites of 
 their rehgion in good taste. They have the manners of 
 gentlemen — some of them. But then there is every-
 
 176 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 thing in the Turkish Empire — Caucasian brigands, 
 Asiatic Bazouks, Dervishes, Arabs. One rather won- 
 ders how Pierre Loti, with his great sentimental attach- 
 ment to Turkey, views the present conflict. How will 
 he view the split up of the Empire and the Christianis- 
 ing of so many parts of it? 
 
 If Russia beats Turkey thoroughly there should be 
 little trouble in pacifying the Holy Land ; if she takes 
 Constantinople the Turkish Empire will be likely to fall 
 to bits. That will be some consolation for the extra 
 trouble to which the Allies have been put. Russia will 
 hold a protectorate over Armenia, Constantinople and 
 the access to the Mediterranean. Syria and Palestine 
 may receive some measure of independence. 
 
 The Turkish hold on Syria is very light. Only 
 about one-fifth of the population is Mohammedan ; the 
 remaining four-fifths is quite out of sympathy with 
 Turkish rule, and would much rather govern itself or 
 entrust its destinies to the French or English. 
 
 What will become of Palestine is rather an interesting 
 problem. We hear little of home Syrian politics, and 
 yet there is a strong national sentiment among Syrians 
 the world over. If Syria were re-established as a 
 State, a great number of rich Syrians would return to 
 their native land — especially from America. The 
 Syrians are mostly Christians, though they are Eastern 
 in habits and keep their wives and domestic life much 
 veiled.
 
 TURKS 177 
 
 Stronger claimants to rights in Palestine are the Jews. 
 Ancient prophecy, the approval of the Gentile world 
 and contemporary Jewish sentiment are all in favour 
 of the re-establishment of the Jews in Syria. Zionism 
 promises to settle the problem of the treatment of the 
 Jews in the various countries of the world. If the 
 peace that follows this war is founded on the principle 
 that each nationality is entitled to govern itself on its 
 own representative land, then it will be a case of Poland 
 to the Poles, Alsace to the French, Ireland to the 
 Irish, Jerusalem to the Jews, and so on. 
 
 There are, however, great difficulties. Jerusalem is 
 a great Christian See. The Roman Catholics, the 
 Orthodox Greeks and the Orthodox Russians, the 
 Armenians, the Copts, all regard Jerusalem not as a 
 place made holy by the Old, but by the New Testa- 
 ment, not by Jewish history, but by the holiest events 
 in the founding of Christianity. Strange to say, there 
 is not half the ill-feeling against the Turks as against 
 the Jews. The old wall where the Jews beat their 
 heads on the stones and wail is not the holiest shrine 
 in Jerusalem, but rather the sepulchre of Jesus; not 
 the promise that there the Jews shall be gathered to- 
 gether again, but the symbolic fact of the life of the 
 first great Pilgrim. Russian peasants, for instance, 
 would be very averse from the idea of Bethlehem and 
 Calvary belonging to the Jews. 
 
 Still, I suppose whatever happens, the pilgrimaging
 
 178 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 to Jerusalem will be resumed by the Russian peasants 
 when the war is over and the Straits are open again. 
 Whatever happens, the same sweet pastoral Hfe of Syrian 
 shepherdesses and Bedouin Arabs with their tents will 
 still go on. The Syrians are, of course, Turkish con- 
 scripts, but so many of them have deserted that the 
 nation is more like a nation of non-combatants. The 
 Russians have been arrested. Many monks and priests 
 have been molested. There has been a considerable 
 amount of pillaging of Christian shrines. The Greeks 
 have to manage everything, but they are looked upon 
 with hostility. There are continual alarms of massacre 
 and outrage and many insurrectionary Arab gatherings. 
 The Christian solemnisation of the baptism at Jordan 
 and of Easter at Jerusalem will be without the chorus 
 of pilgrim praise and the curious gaze of the tourist. 
 The first Easter after the war should be a wonderful 
 time.
 
 VI 
 
 Americans 
 
 Feeling in America is now more pro-British than it 
 was at the beginning of the war. But the fact that it 
 was confessedly anti-British at the commencement of 
 the war should make the Allies very wary in their 
 judgment. Anglo-American sentiment though showy 
 is none the less sincere. We can accept it heartily. 
 But it is a mistake to fix our eyes on it to the exclusion 
 of other things in America. It is put in the foreground 
 by American and British journalists, but from one 
 point of view that is a mistake. It is much more im- 
 portant that we keep our eyes on the hostihty that exists 
 in the United States, and that we gauge its power. 
 A number of Anglo-Americans are in the habit of think- 
 ing and talking and writing slightingly of Britain; 
 most of the German and Dutch Americans sympathise 
 with the Germans; and the Jews, of whom there are 
 1,000,000 in New York alone, are, on the whole, pro- 
 German, and are certainly anti-Russian ; the Irish are 
 many of them anti-British also. We are too much in 
 the habit of assuming that America is peopled by 
 British people who merely Kve under a President of 
 
 179
 
 i8o RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 their own instead of under our King. We forget the 
 flow of foreign immigration into the States, we forget 
 the trusts, the undue influence of money, the corruption 
 in the administration. American reahty is not our 
 reality. American ideals are not our ideals. I hope 
 America will not be called upon to interfere in the 
 struggle, either as a belligerent or as a peace-maker. 
 But in case it should happen that America comes in, 
 it would be well for the British to keep a true picture of 
 America and American ideals before them. 
 
 First of all, America is a commercial country. Busi- 
 ness is her chief function. She has no landed gentry, 
 no old peasant life with peasant customs. 
 
 America believes in universal peace. She sees no 
 reason for such an unprofitable thing as war. She, for 
 her part, desires to keep out of warfare. She has to 
 that end made many arbitration treaties with other 
 nations, and she thinks that she has at least removed 
 the danger of being attacked. All the same, up to the 
 outbreak of this great European War she lived in a cer- 
 tain amount of dread of a war with Germany, and 
 many of her citizens, as, for instance, the late Price 
 Collier, held that, with time, such a war was even 
 probable. America as a pure democracy would vote 
 against war every time. The power of government is 
 not, however, in the hands of the democracy. Finan- 
 ciers have the power to sway the councils of the 
 Government to their private ends, and so little wars are
 
 AMERICANS i8i 
 
 still possible. A war against Mexico, or against Spain, 
 or some other third-rate power is always a possibility, 
 and though it is against the American ideal it would be 
 tolerated, inasmuch as America stands to lose little by 
 such a course. But a war with Japan, though possible 
 and even probable from some points of view, would 
 cause a great outcry in the States. For the Americans 
 believe in universal peace. 
 
 America believes in health and success and prosperity. 
 ''America has no use for a sick man" — to quote a com- 
 mon saying. She has little sympathy with failure. 
 What is beauty in the life of the old world means noth- 
 ing to her. She admires ruins and curiosities and curios, 
 but in the spirit of the collector. She has a contempt, 
 born of ignorance, for ranks, for ceremonies, rituals, 
 liturgies. For her, Russian, German, Norwegian, 
 Englishman, Frenchman, are, except for a difference in 
 language which can be overcome, one and the same. 
 They are, roughly speaking, of the same capabilities. 
 If she recognises differences in national individuality 
 or personal individuaHty, she does not love the differ- 
 ences, does not prize the differences. Her own notions 
 of success and goodness she considers to be the real 
 notions, her own justice and fairness to be the true 
 criterion of justice and fairness. The characteristics 
 of her own destiny must, she thinks, show the charac- 
 teristics of the destiny of other countries. If other 
 countries are not like her they are simply backward.
 
 i82 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Though there is a great deal of Liberal sentiment in 
 America, the Americans are not Liberal. In "Chang- 
 ing Russia" I defined Liberalism as "NationaKsm as 
 opposed to Imperialism; respect for the rights of in- 
 dividuals as opposed to Collectivism ; a belief in little 
 nations rather than in large empires. Liberalism 
 encourages national characteristics, distinctive lan- 
 guage, dress, custom, the barriers which keep people 
 apart." America, by the very fact of its conglomera- 
 tive formation, is opposed to these national character- 
 istics, has a contempt for these characteristics. She 
 cannot, therefore, bring much light to the settlement of 
 the European struggle on the desired Liberal and na- 
 tional lines of recognition of the rights of small peoples 
 not to be Prussianised or Russianised or AngliJ&ed. 
 America's quite natural desire is to Americanise every- 
 one who comes to her.
 
 Ill 
 
 INDIVIDUALS
 
 III. INDIVIDUALS 
 
 I 
 
 The Great White Tsar 
 
 The cannon speak louder than the voices of men in 
 this war. Never were men so thrown into insignifi- 
 cance ; never was there such a disparity between men 
 and guns. Battles are won by guns rather than by men. 
 It often seems as if the issimus tacked on to the word 
 general were a diminutive, not a superlative, and that 
 Generalissimus Joffre must be some sort of wonderful 
 little ivory model or toy and not a man. We have only 
 to read one of our fine old war-dramas, such as Richard 
 III., to realise how much more did personal character 
 and nobility count in the old days than now. When 
 the history of this vast war is written, it will be almost 
 impossible to take the personal history of some individ- 
 ual man and say, ''There, in one man's hfe and passion 
 lies the whole story of this European strife." The 
 only figure that does stand out at present is that of 
 the Kaiser, and possibly a Shakespeare of our age 
 would find in the Kaiser's story the epic of the war. 
 Unfortunately, we dishke the Kaiser too much to con- 
 
 i8s
 
 i86 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 sider him calmly as Milton did Satan, or Shakespeare 
 Richard III. It will be years before we can regard 
 the Kaiser with clear eyes. But, meanwhile, there 
 is one other figure in this war that stands out on the 
 popular vision very remarkably, and that is the Tsar 
 Nicholas II., once called the Great White Tsar. 
 
 When the Tsar came to the throne he showed himself 
 \ to be an idealist, even a Utopian ideahst, by his pas- 
 sionate efforts for the establishment of universal peace. 
 The cause of peace was chiefly associated with the 
 name of the Tsar. It was strange that this great 
 absolute monarch should associate himself with the 
 cause dearest of all to democrats and Liberals, strange 
 that he should be the colleague of men like W. T. Stead 
 and Andrew Carnegie. Many said that the Tsar was 
 not sincere. The sarcastic and cynical found Nicholas 
 delivered wholly to their untender mercy when at last 
 owing to non-acceptance of Japanese demands war 
 broke out between Russia and Japan. But a worse 
 denial of ideals was to follow when the great revo- 
 lutionary outburst was put down ruthlessly by military 
 force. The Tsar became "the man of blood." People 
 associated the ghastly carnage of the war with the 
 dreadful loss of life at the Coronation crush in Moscow, 
 and with the firing on the workmen of Father Gapon's 
 procession, and with many another incident in which 
 the Tsar's name was connected with the injury and 
 death of his subjects. Perhaps no one has been more
 
 THE GREAT WHITE TSAR 187 
 
 hated in his time than the Tsar. No one has been 
 more cursed. 
 
 And yet despite all that seemed against him, many- 
 people quietly kept their faith in him. The most 
 touching example is perhaps that of W. T. Stead. 
 Stead and many others saw in the Tsar the granter of 
 the Duma, a new Peter the Great, a God-chosen 
 monarch leading his nation through the most difficult 
 and hazardous ways of national evolution. They held 
 that it was comparatively easy for Alexander II. to give 
 Hberty to the serfs, but that it needed a stupendous 
 genius to cope with the difi&culties that that liberation 
 would lead to. It must always be remembered that 
 no Russian monarch previous to Nicholas II. has had 
 to face 100,000,000 free peasants and working men. 
 It must always have been said of him, even if he had 
 been stricken in the revolution, that he was confronted 
 by problems that only genius or sacred simplicity 
 could solve. 
 
 He survived his passion for peace, his unfortunate 
 war with Japan, his wild and bloody revolutionary era 
 — to be laughed at. Attention was drawn to the fact 
 that tens of thousands of soldiers Hned the railway 
 track whenever he made a journey to a city in his 
 dominion, and that he dare not stir from his palace 
 without an army to guard him, that before he went to 
 the third city of the Empire he had several thousand 
 people arrested as suspicious characters, that in many
 
 i88 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 parts of Russia he dare not show himself even with 
 these precautions. The precautions did cause one 
 to pause and reflect, and yet we remember how at 
 Kieff the Jewish poHce agent Bogroff managed to get 
 into the theatre in spite of all care, and only at the 
 last moment changed his mind and shot Stolypin 
 instead of His Majesty. The precautions seemed 
 necessary. 
 
 The revolutionaries said the Tsar was safe, he did 
 not count, he was stupid, and his survival helped their 
 cause more than could his death. They meant this in a 
 sinister way. They meant : the Tsar by his wickedness 
 and folly shows more clearly than we could show by 
 propaganda that the day of Tsars is over and that it is 
 better for mankind to dispense with Tsars altogether. 
 The revolutionaries were wholly mistaken. 
 
 The Tsar's life and personal character are a mystery. 
 He is beyond definite comment in his own country. 
 Unless he shows himself, no one can say what he is. It 
 remains till now to make a fair estimate of his ideals 
 and his passion. The Tsar to-day has outlived the ac- 
 cusation of insincerity, has outlived all his unpopularity, 
 and has given the lie to all that has been said against 
 him. He has no doubt gone through great spiritual 
 evolution in these parlous and suffering times. His 
 mind has been working all the time, and to-day he 
 emerges as a great serious monarch whose entire 
 thought and continuous anxiety have been, ''What
 
 THE GREAT WHITE TSAR 189 
 
 must be done to save my people from their dangers, 
 and to put them on the high road of a great destiny ? " 
 
 The personal work of the Tsar shows itself in the 
 courageous attack which he made on the great corrupt 
 police system which had sold itself in part to the 
 revolutionary party. The police system in Russia is 
 in some respects more powerful than the Tsardom it- 
 self, and it can almost always procure the assassination 
 of its persecutors. The Tsar very seriously endangered 
 his life by his efforts. Next was the more peaceful 
 but less easy problem of giving more land to the 
 peasants and settling them on small holdings. Next 
 was the extraordinary manifesto against drunkenness 
 made in the spring of this year, when the Imperial 
 sanction was given to a campaign for local veto and 
 several hundred thousand vodka shops were closed. 
 In passing, let us remember the amnesty given to revo- 
 lutionary exiles, permitting Gorky, among others, to 
 return to Russia unharmed. Then there was the Tsar 
 and the war, the noble proclamations and brother's 
 hand extended towards Poland, the religious pilgrimage 
 to the famous Russian shrines to pray for Russia, and 
 the complete abolition by Imperial Ukase of the sale of 
 vodka, first for a month, then for the space of the dura- 
 tion of the war, and now — by promise — for ever. 
 
 So on the day of the commencement of hostilities by 
 Turkey, the great street-mobs of Moscow and Petro- 
 grad carry the Tsar's portrait through the capitals,
 
 190 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 singing ''God save the Tsar" and cheering and shout- 
 ing with indescribable enthusiasm. To-day, the Tsar 
 goes about his kingdom unguarded and without pre- 
 cautions. He goes without hesitation to the front, to 
 the inspiriting of his soldiers at Ossovetz. He visits 
 Roman Catholic and Polish Vilna and salutes there 
 the emblems of Catholicism and Polish nationaHsm. 
 When some years ago I wrote in the middle of "Un- 
 discovered Russia" — "God save the Tsar!" it was 
 taken as a paradox and even quoted against the book by 
 one formidable Radical journal. To-day, "God save 
 the Tsar!" is a clamorous sentiment of the Russian 
 streets. 
 
 Before the Tsar passed the uniform for the common 
 soldier in the war he asked that a complete suit be 
 sent to him, and with it boots and rifle and full kit. 
 And he himself took off his royal clothes and put on 
 the soldier's uniform and shouldered the kit and the 
 gun and walked in them on his estate in Livadia some 
 two hours. He was photographed so, and has allowed 
 the photograph to be reproduced for common sale and 
 for distribution among the soldiers. 
 
 He is a simple man. He inherits the awful power 
 of his ancestors but he would Hke to spend a day as a 
 common soldier in the trenches. Such an action would 
 resound throughout history and win the hearts of 
 the whole non- German world. But necessarily the 
 Tsar is to the peasants someone unearthly, a giant, a
 
 THE GREAT WHITE TSAR 191 
 
 demi-god. They would not really be well influenced 
 by such an action, probably would not understand it. 
 Still, who knows? Noble deeds take care of them- 
 selves. 
 
 At the war goes on, the sincerity and the nobihty 
 of the Tsar mil be a great factor in the giving of vic- 
 tory. The sacred simphcity, kindness, and earnestness 
 of the Tsar emerge as a guarantee of the ultimate issue 
 of this struggle, but also of the marvellous and healthful 
 future of the vast Russian Empire and of the wonderful 
 Russian people. It is good to see in the ideahst, the 
 Peace Tsar, the same personahty of to-day, but made 
 wiser, stronger, simpler by suffering and responsibility 
 — the Great White Tsar.
 
 II 
 
 M. Sazonof 
 
 Though I have never been in the capital before, I 
 have friends there, thanks to my books, which stand 
 for me to those who have not met me. It is very- 
 pleasant to meet people who have an intimate know- 
 ledge of you even before they have seen your face. At 
 Petrograd I had such a pleasant meeting with Madame 
 Sazonof and her husband the Foreign Minister, with one 
 of the ladies-in-waiting on the Empress, and with 
 Madame Novikof, so full of years and yet so energetic, 
 M.P. for Russia, as Disraeli called her. Madame 
 Novikof I had met in London; the others I met for 
 the first time. 
 
 We may call this, as in reality it is, an interview with 
 M. Sazonof. I was very glad to see the Russian 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs face to face, and to come 
 into personal contact with a man whose voice counts 
 for so much in the councils of Russia and of the Allies. 
 A hard man, yet kindly, brisk, alert, European. You 
 would not say you were in the presence of a Russian 
 except for the conversational vivacity of the Minister, 
 and a certain Slavonic impulsiveness which lurks only 
 
 192
 
 M. SAZONOF 193 
 
 half suppressed, half masked in the eyes of this strong 
 and determined man. He has an EngHsh manner, an 
 English way of living, and evidently has a strong 
 personal liking for EngHsh things and EngHsh ways. 
 He has lived eight years in England in his time, and 
 so knows us pretty well. He, as much as anyone on 
 either side, realises the value of mutual friendship, not 
 only now when we can co-operate with soldiers and 
 cannon and sailors and ships, but afterwards, for the 
 working out together of the problems of peace. 
 
 I had a pleasant hour's talk at the Minister's house in 
 the Downing Street of Petrograd, a fine old crimson 
 walled mansion on the Dvortsovy Proyezd. 
 
 You enter from a door paraUel to that which leads to 
 the department. A lackey meets you; you are put 
 into a tiny lift and slowly raised to a parquet-floored 
 gallery leading to a bright reception room warmed and 
 illumined by an open log fire. Madame Sazonof came 
 forw^ard to meet me, and with her an interesting dog, a 
 crafty Siberian laika, that walked behind me and caught 
 my instep in his mouth each time I lifted my right foot. 
 
 ''He is finding out about you," said Madame Sazonof 
 with a smile. "He always makes sure of everyone who 
 comes here. He almost frightened the Austrian Am- 
 bassador away altogether, and in the days before the 
 war the Ambassador used to send up to have the dog 
 taken away before he would make his appearance." 
 
 "He knew who was the enemy," said I.
 
 194 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 "Yes, you see, now, he quite takes to you." 
 
 I barked at him. We were soon on very friendly 
 terms and he sat on his tail all through luncheon and 
 looked up into my eyes, and I was advised to give him 
 little bits, which I did. 
 
 M. Sazonof came in and we spoke together in Russian. 
 But when we went in to luncheon, an EngUsh luncheon 
 by the way, we all spoke English. The Russians spoke 
 so well and so charmingly that you might imagine 
 you were hstening to a party of Enghsh talking in a 
 similar circle in London. 
 
 The Minister made Hght of the danger of being at- 
 tacked in London by our Russophobes. What he 
 feared in going to England was the Channel crossing, 
 no more. He thought I might have a bad time going 
 home, might get captured by the Germans, and he 
 thought I had better stay in Russia. I said I thought 
 of going by Archangel, but he assured me it was closed 
 by ice. 
 
 We talked of the Tsar. "I wonder if people in Eng- 
 land reaHse what a great thing the vodka prohibition 
 is?" said Sazonof. "We are sober from end to end. 
 We look for extraordinary results when once the war is 
 over and we have time to develop in peace." 
 
 "It is making the Tsar very popular," said I. "Even 
 in our country many of those who have felt themselves 
 out of sympathy with Russia begin to point to the Tsar 
 as to an ideal monarch."
 
 Dancing round the Rouble : Cossack shows the Tsar's head on 
 the silver coin, while the others sing the National Anthem and 
 dance round.
 
 M. SAZONOF 195 
 
 " Isn't the Tsar splendid ? " said a young Baroness who 
 was present ; and she told a story of the Tsar visiting 
 a hospital in Poland, and talking with the soldiers. 
 
 "He entered the hospital accompanied by many 
 officials and court dignitaries, and passed with them in 
 one of the great general rooms, where lay several hun- 
 dred wounded men. The chief surgeon was about to 
 show him round, when the Tsar, evidently in great 
 emotion, turned to him and the rest of the decorated 
 officials around him and said: 'Leave me here alone.' 
 They bowed and scraped, but did not, however, go 
 out. 'Leave me here alone with the soldiers,' said the 
 Tsar again; 'I wish to speak to them myself.' When 
 he had said these words the surgeon and the rest slowly, 
 and as it were unwillingly, went out, and the Tsar 
 was left alone with his poor wounded soldiers; and 
 he talked with them for a whole hour. So he got rid of 
 that terrible old background of official Russia, and was 
 himself. Don't you think it a beautiful picture of 
 the Tsar alone with his people ? " 
 
 "The Tsar has a beautiful character," said Madame 
 Sazonof. "Everyone who comes into touch with him 
 personally, feels his tenderness toward his fellow men, 
 his delicate consideration for all people with whom he 
 has to deal." 
 
 After lunch we adjourned to a beautiful old room, 
 warmed and lit by a log fire burning on a large hearth. 
 Here we had coffee, and I chatted with the Minister by
 
 196 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 the fire ; whilst the ladies sat round a table beside one of 
 the great windows and talked. Among other things 
 that Sazonof said were the following : — 
 
 "I hope you are making up your minds to have a 
 larger army, not only now, but after the war is over. 
 Your fleet is splendid. It is surpassing all expecta- 
 tions, but your army was far too weak when the war 
 broke out, and is too weak for your Imperial needs. 
 
 ''I think that, as the years go on, there will be even 
 greater scope for Russian and British friendship 
 than before. We have yet to know one another better, 
 of course. There is really no room for jealousy be- 
 tween the two Empires. 
 
 "What is the feeling in your country about the 
 settlement? How do they look now at Constantino- 
 ple? We should much prize the opinion, not only of 
 the British Government, but of the British people ; for 
 we realise that, when peace is made, it will be a peace 
 between peoples as much, and even more, than between 
 Governments." 
 
 I asked about the autonomy of Poland, and the posi- 
 tion of the Jews there. I suggested that something be 
 done to help out the Jews who wish to go to America. 
 
 ''They are not likely to go in great numbers," said he. 
 "They don't want to go. They had much rather settle 
 in Russia or in Siberia." 
 
 "Is anything likely to be done to relieve the tension 
 of the Jewish problem?"
 
 M. SAZONOF 197 
 
 M. Sazonof thought it possible that they might be 
 excused military service in future if they wished it. He 
 recognised the great difficulty of dealing with the 
 Jewish problem, but spoke enthusiastically of the 
 coming restoration of Poland. Russia ought to have 
 made up the quarrel with the suffering Poles long ago. 
 
 Finally, we spoke of the prospect of Russo-British 
 friendship, and of the mutual co-operation of the two 
 great powers in Asia. He thought that with the war 
 the old Asiatic rivalry would completely disappear. 
 Russian civilisation was a help to British civilisation. 
 The Christian churches on the North of the Himalayas 
 were brother churches of the English on the other side. 
 
 A rather amusing thing happened to me the day after 
 I had seen Sazonof. A secret agent took me apart and 
 said : 
 
 "You saw Sazonof yesterday, what did you think 
 of him, is he a strong man? " 
 
 "Yes, a strong man I should say, with plenty of com- 
 mon sense. Of course, he knows where to look to take 
 his cue." 
 
 The agent lowered his voice and said in a hushed 
 whisper : 
 
 " Where would you say he looked, to Baron ?" 
 
 and he mentioned a certain influential German Russian 
 supposed to be carrying on an intrigue in favour of peace. 
 
 " Why, no," said I, "to the Tsar I meant, of course." 
 
 And I felt lik,e a person speaking in some novel of 
 diplomatic life.
 
 IV 
 POLICIES
 
 IV. POLICIES 
 I 
 
 The Vodka Prohibition 
 
 The Russian nation spent £9,000,000 more on vodka 
 in the year 19 13-14 than in 191 2-13. It spent £50,000- 
 000 more than it did ten years ago. The population 
 increased by some thirty per cent in ten years, but the 
 sale of vodka fifty per cent. According to the estimate 
 of Count Witte, made in February, 1914, in the Gosu- 
 darstvenny Sovet, or Council of State, the nation would 
 have spent during the current financial year no less 
 than £100,000,000 on strong drink. 
 
 These figures, growing steadily more alarming year 
 by year, at last necessitated a broad national con- 
 sideration of the whole subject of temperance. For 
 some months in 19 14 Russia talked of nothing but the 
 struggle against drunkenness. 
 
 Count Witte, who was responsible for the acquire- 
 ment by the Russian Government of the monopoly — 
 i.e. of the whole business of selling vodka, an excellent 
 measure, both financially and morally, came forward 
 to defend his good name and to point out to the Govern- 
 ment that the time was ripe for their turning the liquor 
 control to the moral benefit of the nation. A great
 
 202 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 many people are ready to ascribe to Count Witte 
 the blame of the increasing Russian insobriety — even 
 Socialists, to whom one would think the idea of State 
 control would be especially pleasing, are ready to cast 
 that aspersion. But, obviously, Russia had every- 
 thing to gain by this simplification of the whole vast 
 trade of seUing spirits. At the Tsar's word, in this 
 place or in that, in this province or that district, the 
 sale of vodka could be forbidden. 
 
 "If I had now the power of approach to His Majesty 
 as a member of the Government," said Count Witte, 
 "I would advise His Majesty, without waiting for the 
 decision of the Duma or of the Council of State, to 
 publish a ukase to the effect that His Majesty now 
 finds it indispensable to lay the foundation of Russian 
 temperance by limiting the gross sale of vodka to £900,- 
 000,000." 
 
 The balance of superfluous revenue, strange to say, 
 Count Witte would have given to temperance societies 
 — £10,000,000 to Bands of Hope. No Government 
 outside a novel would part with such an immense sum 
 of money to amateur societies, though, of course, the 
 Young Men's Christian Association would do a great 
 deal for sobriety with £10,000,000. 
 
 A great number of people went much further than 
 Count Witte, and said: "Forbid the sale altogether, 
 forbid it in certain districts, forbid it in certain provinces 
 for a start, or allow local option." But the late Pre-
 
 THE VODKA PROHIBITION 203 
 
 mier, M. Kokovtsoff, generally negatived these pro- 
 posals by his fear of the outbreak of general illicit 
 trading in spirits, and his disinclination to deprive 
 those who already drink temperately. He did not 
 look for, nor indeed expect, the complete abstinence 
 of the Russian nation — did anyone ? 
 
 Russia, however, was in a position of real difficulty. 
 Her industrial villages, and those barracks of workmen 
 and workwomen that have sprung up around great 
 country factories were in such a state on Sundays and 
 festivals that it was extremely unpleasant, and some- 
 times dangerous, for a well-dressed person to pass 
 through them. They were infested with mobs of 
 hooligans ; up and down the main street a dozen men 
 and as many women might be found yelling, singing, 
 screeching like demented creatures. In almost every 
 house someone would be drunk; yet in the remoter 
 agricultural villages you would seldom come across 
 anything of the kind. It was the accompaniment of 
 better wages, lack of pleasure in factory hfe, lack of 
 the education which a peasant can do without but 
 which a factory worker must have. But it was 
 something more than mere weakness, it was a menace 
 to respectable society. No paper could ever dream of 
 recording a tenth of the assaults, murders, robberies, 
 and obscenities that occurred in the industrial cities 
 and villages and factory-barracks of Russia. They 
 were unchronicled.
 
 204 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 The Russian Government before the Tsar stepped in 
 had only an old remedy — to imprison offenders. 
 Many people thought that though imprisonment was 
 a wrong method it was indeed efficacious. But the 
 astonishing truth was dawning on the Russian people 
 that if Russia had ten times as many prisoners it could 
 not accommodate its wrongdoers. The police all over 
 the country knew that it was no use arresting drunkards 
 and assaulters. If they arrested them there was no 
 place to put them ; they could only be reprimanded 
 and released. In Vladikavkaz not so long ago there was 
 a drunken fray in the main street, stabbing, firing of 
 revolvers ; some twenty or thirty people were arrested, 
 but there was nothing to be done with them; they 
 were all released. 
 
 "Siberia is vast," said some. But already Siberia 
 claims to be a young Hving State, and notifies Russia 
 that she must no longer be treated as a penal settlement. 
 
 A great deal of money has been voted each year 
 for the encouragement of sobriety; and in the spring 
 one of the Moscow papers made a special inquiry in 
 every province of what was being done with the money, 
 and printed a most interesting report. 
 
 At Nizhni Novgorod Fair the authorities had estab- 
 lished a temperance museum, two reading rooms, two 
 tea-houses, an open-air theatre, and a home for drunk- 
 ards. Almost every province had established a whole 
 series of village reading-rooms, generally in the post
 
 THE VODKA PROHIBITION 205 
 
 office and spread on long tables many anti-alcohol 
 sheets and church papers. The literature was deeply 
 uninteresting, and I may say that I have visited many 
 such free Ubraries and have rarely found anyone reading 
 there. In many places, however, cinematograph shows 
 were arranged, and to them the population flocked, 
 amateur theatricals were planned, farces and operettas 
 were performed, the Tango was danced, and the latest 
 comic song was brought down. In some rare cases 
 evening classes were arranged. In the Jewish Pale 
 free legal help was given. 
 
 All but one of the reports sent in indicated that 
 despite large amounts of money voted for temperance 
 aid drunkenness was strongly on the increase ; and for 
 that reason there was some doubt as to the advisability 
 of giving another 10,000,000 roubles to the cause. 
 
 There were real natural forces fighting against 
 drunkenness, and winning — the lighting up of personal 
 ambition, the cinematograph, the Evangelical move- 
 ment. The Church of Russia, though it did not exclude 
 the drunkard or evildoer, stood steadily for sobriety. 
 It did not say it was a sin to drink, and, indeed, its 
 own priests drank lustily — even to excess upon occa- 
 sion — but it stood utterly against brutal drunkenness. 
 It may seem strange to English people to differentiate ; 
 but there is a difference between the drunkenness which 
 comes from melancholy or from true sociabihty and the 
 drunkenness which is just beastliness, the drunkenness
 
 2o6 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 with which are associated coarseness, lying, fighting, 
 and stealing — the difference between being "drunk as 
 a lord " and " drunk as a Kaffir." It is against the latter 
 that Russia has had to fight. It can never, without 
 racial change, get rid of its melancholy and its social 
 spirit. 
 
 Kharkov, they say, abounds in temperance brother- 
 hoods. Theosophy is on the increase, also vegetarian- 
 ism, and evangelism. All these make for sobriety. It 
 is somewhat saddening to see the rents in the Church 
 since religious freedom was granted in Russia. But 
 there is true consolation in the fact that the flocking 
 converts are earnest men and women who feel they want 
 to lead a new life. They take our Western forms 
 and ethics ; they despise the drunkard, they are puri- 
 tanical in judgment, but they are a hardening and 
 strengthening power in the nation. 
 
 A most extraordinary phenomenon, the Russian 
 nation's sudden passion for sobriety ! It seemed 
 something passing, something merely of the moment 
 when it first gave notice of itself in Press articles and 
 public speeches. But when the Tsar gave his famous 
 rescript to M. Bark asking him to hmit the sale of 
 vodka, and when what was practically a national 
 measure of local veto was adopted, the whole of Russia 
 from Tsar to peasant woman was swept with a tem- 
 perance ardour. 
 
 Long before the war thousands of spirit shops had
 
 THE VODKA PROHIBITION 207 
 
 been sealed owing to popular demand. The drunkards 
 themselves petitioned to have the vodka supply cut off. 
 For those with an eye to the future of Russia this was 
 an astonishingly significant spectacle. 
 
 Still Russia was a long way off from national sobriety. 
 We looked for something else to combat desire for drink. 
 Russia would have to survey her industrial regions 
 and drain her human marshes systematically. The 
 gold-mining villages, for instance, still remained what 
 they were. It seemed evident that something more 
 drastic would have to be done. 
 
 The drastic thing arrived. The war broke out and 
 at once, by Imperial Ukase, every vodka shop in the 
 kingdom was closed, the sale of vodka in restaurants 
 and in railway buffets was prohibited, and at a stroke 
 of the pen vodka was unobtainable. Contrary to 
 expectation, there was not even any illicit trading in 
 spirits — at least none to speak of. Russia was made 
 sober not by act of Parliament, but by something more 
 powerful than that, more ready, more simple — by 
 word of Tsar. 
 
 In the early days of the hostilities it was a common- 
 place to thank God for the German declaration of war ; 
 it had closed as if by magic every spirit shop in Russia 
 and Siberia. It had liberated town and countryside 
 from the dreariness of drink. 
 
 Great days for the Tresveniki, a Russian sect that 
 preaches nothing but temperance — it was founded by
 
 2o8 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 a simple Moscow man who gathered an enormous 
 number of adherents, Orthodox as well as Russian 
 Non-conformists. They drew up the great petition, 
 which, after ten weeks of the war and of enforced 
 sobriety, was presented to the Tsar, a petition for the^ 
 prohibition of vodka for ever. 
 
 It seemed preposterous to ask the Tsar for complete 
 prohibition in the face of Russia's tremendous war 
 debts. The Tsar had promised that no more vodka 
 should be sold until the end of the war; and that 
 promise had been greeted with great satisfaction. It 
 had been taken as a maximum. The hope was that, 
 even after the war, vodka would never be sold in the 
 old easy way, at a moderate price in small bottles, to 
 whoever asked for it. 
 
 But the impossible happened. The Tsar not only 
 received the petitioners, but answered them in the 
 following significant sentence : 
 
 "I had already decided on total prohibition before I 
 read your petition." 
 
 So Russia was rejoiced by the Tsar, by one of the 
 most amazing personal acts in the modern history of 
 civilisation. 
 
 And it is a fact the vodka shop is closed. Many 
 people in England seem inclined to doubt the reality of 
 this measure; but I can vouch for it, who have seen 
 Russia sober. Not only has the sale of vodka been 
 stopped, but the sale of beer also. It is impossible to
 
 THE VODKA PROHIBITION 209 
 
 find a drunken man on a festival, or on an ordinary day, 
 anywhere in the Russian Empire, except in the Caucasus 
 and parts of Central Asia, where the Government has 
 never held the monopoly of the sale of intoxicating 
 liquors. It is quiet in the industrial villages, in the 
 "factories," and in the mining settlements. The old 
 songs are sung; there is the old sociability, but it is 
 over tea and around the samovar. In every province 
 of Russia there has been an astonishing decrease in 
 crime, in the breaking of heads, in immorality. The 
 papers in the great cities continually have to spare 
 columns in their war-filled issues, in order to give the 
 facts of sobriety, and comment on them. Russia is 
 greatly pleased with herself as a non-drinking nation. 
 
 The great question is : Will complete prohibition be 
 feasible after the war is over? Will not the warriors 
 returning from victory demand drinks to toast the 
 Tsar and the Allies and their generals ? Will there be 
 vodka riots, or will the men who return be ready 
 to sacrifice their old habits for the national ideal? 
 I am inclined to think that it will be the latter. The 
 soldiers will almost unanimously approve the prohibi- 
 tion. I talked to several soldiers about it. One, who 
 was attached to the aviation service, attached to an 
 officer as servant, gives me an example of what the 
 peasants are thinking. He had bought a loaf and two 
 herrings, and, eating them with great gusto, exclaimed : 
 "Ah for some vodka now."
 
 2IO RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 "You'd like some, eh?" 
 
 "Lots of us are like madmen because we can't get 
 it." 
 
 "Tell me, what do you think of shutting the spirit 
 shop up? Would you like to have it open again?" 
 
 "No, I wouldn't." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Why! Because the spirit shop is our enemy. If 
 you have a quarter in your pocket and the door of the 
 shop is open, in you go. You don't want to go, but if 
 the door's open you can't help yourself. If you know 
 the door's open in a village five miles away — you go 
 there and buy the vodka. And what's the good of it 
 after all ? No, brother, we've learned something in this 
 war. I, for instance, have been flying in the air. None 
 of our village have ever flown. Who would have 
 dreamed of me going up among the clouds and the stars 
 like a Frenchman or an Englishman ? There you see 
 what noble allies we have. They don't drink, why 
 should we?" 
 
 "Didn't you feel frightened going up so high?" 
 "Yes, first time it was rather dreadful, but that was 
 only for a few minutes. It's nothing to go up now." 
 "Did you fly over the enemy?" 
 "Yes, one day at Novo-Georgievsk we set out to 
 learn what way the Germans were moving towards 
 Warsaw, and we flew over them. Lord! how little 
 those Germans looked, but they all began to fire at
 
 THE VODKA PROHIBITION 211 
 
 us, with rifles and field guns, and cannon, and, as one 
 or two bullets went through our sails, we went higher, 
 and turned away and came back home." 
 
 ''Didn't you feel afraid?" 
 
 "Not a little bit." 
 
 "What are you going to do now?" 
 
 "I am being sent to escort a new aeroplane to the 
 front." 
 
 "And you can get on without vodka?" 
 
 "Yes, long as I have my wife with me." 
 
 "What do you mean — your wife?" 
 
 "Yes, my wife goes everywhere with me now. When 
 I lie down at night she is there beside me, and when I 
 waken up in the morning there she is still." He pointed 
 to his rifle and smiled. 
 
 I might give many talks, and as far as they touched 
 on the vodka question there was always the same senti- 
 ment — though the soldiers would give anything for a 
 drink, yet they are glad that it is impossible to get it. 
 
 StiU, it is certain that, if the peasant is deprived of 
 his vodka, and that means of drowning his sorrows and 
 escaping from his ennui, something must be done to 
 make up for the loss. Especially in the industrial 
 villages, holidays without vodka will be dreary beyond 
 words. The industrial communities must be given a 
 share in the advantages of industriahsm. The people 
 must be given personal ambition, art, hterature, music. 
 Instead of the Tango, the performance of indecent
 
 212 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 farces and tinkling operettas, the foreign and thought- 
 confusing cinema, must come fundamental education, 
 good libraries, good theatres, music. From my know- 
 ledge of the Russian peasantry, I know nothing that 
 would so effectively combat drunkenness and hooligan- 
 ism as the establishment of musical societies and bands 
 in every village in the country. The Russians are 
 surely the most musical people in the world. At village 
 cinema theatres, where before or after the shadow-show 
 there has been a trio or quartet with guitars or bala- 
 laikas, I have seen drunken peasants stand up in the 
 front row and try to make long declamations to the 
 musicians, .whilst all through the pictures they have 
 sat staring into vacancy and wondering dimly where 
 they were. Music awakens the best soul of the Rus- 
 sian. When he is dead drunk he will raise his ear to a 
 song. 
 
 If Russia is going to be truly strong in this matter she 
 has got to raise a new generation who not only deny 
 vodka, but who would not enter the vodka shop even 
 if the door were open. But, whatever happens, tem- 
 perate Russia will have a great deal more driving power, 
 will be more ambitious, and more able to get what it 
 wants in the world than dear melancholy drunken 
 Russia.
 
 II 
 
 Distrust of Russia or Friendship with Russia 
 
 It is very strange, but many of those who in public 
 life stand first of all for peace and goodwill have yet an 
 inappeasable malice against Russia. When war broke 
 out a number of the Pacifists, Mr. Llewellyn Williams 
 among them, came forward honourably and said: 
 We did not see that Germany was the enemy, did not 
 see that at the last we should be bound to fight her, 
 and we were wrong. England is proud of men who have 
 the courage to come out hke Mr. WilHams ; such men 
 are the strength of England. But what of the re- 
 mainder of the Pacifist party — it was thought to be 
 dead. It became stone-silent for awhile. Russia was 
 feted : Germany was cried against. We went forward 
 in our might to shield Belgium and France from the 
 common enemy. We seemed to fail somewhat ; Paris 
 was in danger. On the other hand, the Russians began 
 to go ahead in East Prussia, they took town after town 
 and even threatened Berhn. Germany was obliged 
 to give the Russian invasion her serious attention. 
 It was the general opinion that the Russian onslaught 
 saved Paris and made possible for French and English 
 
 213
 
 214 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 the great victory of the Marne. No one in England 
 dare attack Russia, even in a veiled way. 
 
 Then Germany, realising that the three Powers, 
 England, France and Russia, were too strong for her, 
 sought by cunning to separate them. A rumour was set 
 abroad that Russia was about to make a secret peace, 
 that the Tsar when he went to Ossovets really went 
 to try to arrange a pact with the Germans. During 
 the black days of Warsaw it was whispered that Russia 
 had sold Warsaw to the Germans. When the Germans 
 were driven back to Mlava and Neidenburg and Thorn 
 it was rumoured that Germany had agreed to evacuate 
 •Poland and then discuss terms of secret peace. During 
 all the sanguinary struggle in Poland that ensued it 
 has been hinted that Russia was only playing at fight- 
 ing. Fortunately, the English Censor recognised that 
 this was German propaganda designed to bring about 
 distrust between England and Russia. Nine-tenths 
 of the journalists in Russia, not knowing the Russian 
 language or having any intimate realisation of Russian 
 character, swallowed the interesting stories and wrote 
 them to London and to New York. They put them 
 in their journalistic correspondence, they put them in 
 their letters. Some, of course, got through. And they 
 brought to speech and to life the Russophobe and 
 Pacifist party whom everyone thought to be dead. 
 
 It was said that Russia did not intend to redeem her 
 promise to Poland, that she was getting swelled head
 
 DISTRUST OF RUSSIA 215 
 
 through her victories, that she was capable of selling 
 the liberties of Europe. Most insidiously of all, it was 
 hinted that, when we had humbled Germany, we 
 should have to turn our attention to Russia. It was 
 Russia's turn next to be isolated and humbled. 
 
 A reasonable person necessarily asked : Might it not 
 possibly turn out to be England's turn to be isolated 
 and humbled? When has England shown herself so 
 capable a diplomatist, or Russia so poor a diplomatist, 
 that it should be possible to isolate Russia ? 
 
 Bernard Shaw, who for fifteen years has had more 
 than anyone else the ear of the British public, and has 
 been trying to educate the British public, and give to it 
 his own point of view, did a great deal to ferment dis- 
 trust of Russia by a pamphlet which the Censor might 
 justifiably have emended. Had a journal in Russia 
 dared to print similar animadversions upon England 
 and the Allies, it would have been confiscated, and the 
 editor brought into court and fined. According to 
 Mr. Shaw : — 
 
 "Russia has been able to set all three Western friends 
 and neighbours, Germany, France, and England, 
 shedding rivers of blood from one another's throats." 
 
 "The Russian Government is the open enemy of 
 every liberty we boast of. 
 
 "Under Russian government, people whose worst 
 crime is to find the Daily News a congenial newspaper 
 are hanged, flogged, or sent to Siberia as a matter of
 
 2i6 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 daily routine." This, Mr. Shaw, who pride yourself on 
 being normal, is an absurd lie, but a hateful lie, seeing 
 that it is intended for the ears of those who are wont not 
 to think for themselves. The Russkia Vedimosti and 
 the Retch are journals of a much more irreconcilable type 
 than the Daily News ; but who has ever been flogged 
 or hanged or even fined for reading them ? 
 
 "Russia has been welcome to flog and hang her H. G. 
 Wells's and Lloyd Georges by the dozen without a 
 word of remonstrance from our plutocratic Press." 
 Not one of Mr. H. G. Wells's books, all of which are 
 translated, has been stopped in Russia. She would 
 probably have flogged Mr. Shaw in his youth — it is 
 now too late a week. 
 
 "My heart," says G. B. S., "is with the Moscow 
 Art Theatre." I had thought it was rather with some 
 Vienna or Berlin theatre, where his works are usually 
 produced before they are produced in England. As to 
 the Art Theatre at Moscow, it produced one play of 
 Shaw's long ago as an experiment — Casar and Cleo- 
 patra. But for the last ten years he has not written a 
 play that had any interest to the Moscow Theatre of 
 Art. 
 
 "My heart is with the Russia of Tolstoy, and Turge- 
 nieff, and Dost oieff sky, and Gorky, and Tchekof." 
 How Mr. Shaw's intellect has been at variance with 
 his heart then! His heart is with Dostoieffsky. Dos- 
 toieffsky's heart was a large one — it sheltered Ras-
 
 DISTRUST OF RUSSIA 217 
 
 kolnikof and Ivan Karamazof and even Smerdyakof. 
 It sheltered, however, no Germans. 
 
 "When we fight the Tsar we are fighting not for 
 Tolstoy and Gorky (strange couple), but for the forces 
 
 that Tolstoy thundered against all his life " And 
 
 when the Tsar is fighting for us, Mr. Shaw ? 
 
 "I know all our disinterested and thoughtful sup- 
 porters of the war feel deeply uneasy about the Russian 
 alHance." The wish is father to the thought. 
 
 "Until Russia becomes a federation of several sepa- 
 rate democratic states, and the Tsar is either promoted 
 to the honourable position of hereditary President or 
 else totally abolished, the Eastern boundary of the 
 League of Peace must be the Eastern boundary of 
 Swedish, German and Italian civilisation." In other 
 words, a league of peace, i.e. an alliance, must be 
 formed between England and Germany and the rest 
 after the war, but Russia must be dropped, Russia 
 must be isolated, and, if necessary, fought by the 
 League of Peace. 
 
 "A victory unattainable without Russian aid would 
 be a defeat for Western European Liberalism." To 
 this I say — let Liberals speak for themselves. Mr. 
 Shaw is a SociaHst — the very opposite of a Liberal. 
 For the rest, I would ask those who agree with Mr. 
 Shaw, which would be the greater defeat, this so-called 
 moral defeat or the actual defeat which would have 
 taken place if the three Emperors had been in alliance
 
 2i8 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 — Germany, Russia, and Austria, against England 
 and France ? 
 
 "Our allies of to-day may be our enemies of to- 
 morrow." 
 
 Many Russians reading these opinions will think that 
 Mr. Shaw may have been bought by the Germans to 
 write them. They are wrong. These are Shaw's 
 actual thoughts, inspired by his vanity and his hate 
 of religion. On the other hand, many Russians will 
 think that Shaw's opinion is representative of British 
 opinion, and they will conclude that we are not true 
 friends of Russia, that we are ready to betray her the 
 moment our own security is achieved. The pamphlet 
 should have been stopped. Its immediate effect is to 
 strengthen the hand of the German party at the 
 Russian court and to put us in danger of having to 
 fight, not only Germany and Austria which are already 
 as much as we can manage, but Russia as well. Such 
 a pamphlet as Mr. Shaw's is a blow to Russian freedom, 
 Russian hope, in fact to the very forces in Russia with 
 whom Mr. Shaw alleges his heart is to be found. 
 
 Everything is to be gained by being generous to 
 Russia, by knowing her and loving her, and conse- 
 quently trusting her utterly. What men like Shaw 
 and the haters of Russia tried to spread is ignorance 
 of Russia. True knowledge of Russia means love 
 towards her, tenderness, generosity. The truly reli- 
 gious heart of England looks to find strength, spiritual
 
 DISTRUST OF RUSSIA 219 
 
 food, inspiration, and when it comes to Russia it finds 
 it. Socialists of the Shaw type have a great maUce 
 against rehgion. All materiahsts and humanitarians 
 see in Russia the enemy. Hence the lies about her 
 flogging her H. G. Wells's. Hence the insistence on 
 the persecution of the Jews. Some of these pacifist 
 people, so full of peace and goodwill when the cost of 
 armaments is under discussion, yet fan every little 
 flame of hate against Russia, and one might imagine 
 that if the httle flame led to a conflagration of war 
 between us and Russia they would be in the front 
 rank of rejoicers. Not they! They would slink off 
 and let the ignorant masses whom they had gulled 
 shout the cheers for war. 
 
 Thanks to the Enghsh friends of Russia and the 
 Russian friends of England we are fighting on one side 
 to-day for a common end. And Russia is our staunch 
 friend. She enables us to defeat the Germans. Those 
 who are whispering treason against Russia are those 
 who in time of peace did everything to weaken us. 
 They were poisoning our youth and spoiling our women 
 with indecent novels and plays; they were turning 
 our national attention exclusively upon the mentally 
 deficient, the aged, the slum-dwellers ; they were doing 
 their best to stop the growth of the Navy and to under- 
 mine the loyalty of the Army. They were discouraging 
 Imperial unity and Colonial friendship. They have 
 done their best to damage Anglo-Russian friendship,
 
 220 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 collecting the riff-raff of German Jews and Russian 
 subjects fled from Russian justice, some of them 
 poHtical idealists and honourable peace-loving citi- 
 zens, but many drawn from the criminal class of the 
 East end,* to protest in the name of England against 
 Russian domestic and Imperial policy. 
 
 There is room for Hberal thought about Russia. 
 True Liberals are most precious to us. We need to be 
 reminded of the rights of small nations to fulfil their 
 national destinies, and not be absorbed into large 
 empires. Behold, Liberals have the ear of Russia! 
 It is a Liberal Government that represents England 
 in the Anglo-Russian friendship. Liberals have in- 
 estimable power to help Russia — by loving her, not 
 by criticising and attacking her. I would say to 
 Liberals— Read Dostoieffsky, and Tchekof, and Kou- 
 prin, and Gorky and Sologub, read my own story of 
 the Russian pilgrims ; go to Russia, talk to Russians, 
 but do not read Shaw on Russia, or even Wells on 
 Russia, and do not go to Jews and talk to them of 
 Russia. By the negative side, even if it be a true 
 negative side, you cannot know Russia. There is 
 something stronger than nagaikas and pogroms that 
 keeps the Tsardom together — the Tsardom that 
 survived the terrible Japanese War and was still strong 
 
 * A great deal of East-end crime, such as the Tottenham outrages, the 
 Hounsditch murders, the Stinie Morrison (alias Stein) affair, have been 
 associated with Russian subjects, not with pure Russians, it is true, but 
 with members of Russia's subject races.
 
 DISTRUST OF RUSSIA 221 
 
 enough to overcome the greatest revolutionary move- 
 ment of modern times. Knowing Russia, you will 
 find a common ground. Knowing and loving Russia, 
 spiritual forces will flow into your life and your destiny. 
 Russia known and loved by you will profit by your 
 long Western experience, your trained hand and 
 practical intelHgence. All Liberals who are true 
 Liberals, and wish from their hearts the welfare of 
 small nations and of individuals, and who would always 
 safeguard to these the opportunity to fulfil their 
 national and individual destiny, should take these 
 words to heart. In the case of nations and individuals 
 affected by the government of Russia you can help 
 them most by loving and trusting Russia ; you do not 
 help them at all, on the contrary you frustrate them, 
 by remaining ignorant of mighty Russia, attacking her, 
 threatening her. 
 
 As it is among individual friends, so it is among 
 national friends. If you love Russia she will love you 
 in return ; if you are generous to her she will never be 
 outdone in generosity. 
 
 "The song is to the singer, and comes back most to him, 
 The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him, 
 The love is to the lover, and comes back most to him, 
 
 — it cannot fail."
 
 Ill 
 
 The Settlement of Peace 
 
 We are at war with Germany, and, for the time 
 being, with the German Idea. We are at war with 
 German ruthlessness, with that barbarism that does 
 not stay the German as he rushes rough-shod over 
 other nations' holy ground. We are at war with 
 Germany's disregard for other people's feehngs, with 
 Germany's wish to Germanise territory and nations 
 that have no sympathy with Germany or German 
 culture. Consequently, when the war closes with 
 victory over Germany we must hope that it will close 
 with victory over the German idea also. Peace, when 
 we make it, should be peace over the ruins of Germany ; 
 it should also be peace over the beaten and frustrated 
 German idea. Let us be on our guard lest though 
 we beat Germany the German idea gain the better 
 over us, win our sympathy and enter into alliance 
 with our thoughts. We fight Uke Enghshmen, let 
 us make peace like Englishmen. 
 
 At least, let us not make for ourselves the sort of 
 peace that Germans would have made for themselves 
 had they won.
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF PEACE 223 
 
 Our true peace as Englishmen, Frenchmen and 
 Russians should be a peace founded on a love of dif- 
 ferences and a reverence for distinguishing marks. 
 In difference we see a divine manifestation of the God 
 who makes both the daisy and the rose, and the tiger 
 and the mouse, and the eagle and the mole, each 
 perfection of its kind. Difference is God's beauty and 
 the sign of His creative fingers. It is difference that 
 thrills us towards life — similarity and monotony that 
 cause us to become dull and to die. Tacitus wrote of a 
 conqueror that he made a desert and called it peace — 
 that was a German peace. We will not make a silence 
 and call it peace, or a great collective State, or an 
 Empire over enslaved nations, but instead, we will make 
 a singing, and give land and freedom to small nations 
 and let them hve under their own little flags and speak 
 their own language and chant the poems of their own 
 song-books. Poles shall be Poles and shall not call 
 themselves Russians, Jews shall call themselves Jews 
 and not Russians or Germans or EngHsh. They can 
 call themselves Americans, but then America is a nation 
 in synthesis. America is the melting-pot where pure 
 types are lost in order that a new type may be brought 
 forth. Finns shall be Finns and shall reahse them- 
 selves in Finland. The Slavs shall escape from the 
 Austrian yoke but shall not thereby fall under the 
 yoke of the Great Russians. The Belgians shall be 
 set on their feet once more. Alsace shall be free to be
 
 224 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 French. Power to change nationaHty shall be with- 
 held. No Germans, Russians, Jews, Poles, and so 
 forth, shall be allowed to masquerade as British under 
 legal recognisance of a change of nationality. Ireland 
 and Ulster shall both be free. 
 
 International understanding is often very like matri- 
 monial understanding. It occurs that those people 
 who rush to marriage with the joy of feeling themselves 
 alike in every way, find afterwards that there are 
 many dissimilarities, and one tries to enslave the 
 other's personality, or there is an open rupture. The 
 understanding that is best founded and is hkely to 
 last longest is that which is founded on a love of the 
 differences in the two personalities. 
 
 There is a remarkable assumption in modern writers, 
 especially in Socialist writers, that all nations are in 
 themselves much of a muchness, alike in ideals, in 
 temperament, and in possibility. According to these 
 it is only the waywardness of certain Governments, 
 like the British Government or the Russian Govern- 
 ment, that stands in the path towards uniformity. 
 They see ahead one language, one State for the whole 
 of the world. That is the Sociahst ideal. Those 
 who have read ''The World Set Free" may remember 
 how every character in the story, however foreign 
 his name, is still in temperament an Englishman. 
 Little stock is taken of the wonderful differences which 
 separate as yet all the nations of Europe ; the differ-
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF PEACE 225 
 
 ences in instinct, the necessary differences in destiny 
 and in expression. The Socialist World- State is formed, 
 and there is seemingly no rebellion against its uniformi- 
 ties. All use of weapons and of war is reserved to the 
 police, who suppress at once any rebellion against 
 the service of the World-State. To quote Bernard 
 Shaw, who is one of the leaders of the Socialists in 
 England : 
 
 "You will reserve your shrapnel for the wasters 
 who shirk their share of the industrial service of their 
 country ; " or again, 
 
 "I hold no brief for small States as such. We are 
 in no way bound to knight-errantry on their behalf 
 against big ones." 
 
 Liberals live on friendly terms with Socialists. But 
 in this great hour of testing they will probably try 
 many opinions of their Socialist acquaintances and 
 find them in opposition to true Liberalism — true 
 LiberaKsm being respect for the differences in individ- 
 uals and, in nations, respect for the rights of individ- 
 uals to follow out as they wish their God-given destiny ; 
 respect for the rights of small nations to follow out as 
 they will their destiny also. 
 
 In this war, that is during the fighting of it. Con- 
 servatives and Liberals alike in Russia and in Great 
 Britain have found a common ground. That common 
 ground will avail them as advantageously in the settle- 
 ment of peace after the war is over. 
 
 Q
 
 226 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 If each individual will work out his political creed 
 and see where he stands, and how he personally would 
 like to settle the war, I feel sure that a great niunber 
 who rather lightly give their support to the ideas of the 
 hour will find that these ideas which I formulate are 
 their own ideas, they will find under their feet a solid 
 rock of personal conviction. 
 
 As regards the literal fact of the settlement of peace, 
 it is greatly more important to indicate the broad prin- 
 ciples than to give them out with detail. The redis- 
 tribution of Europe is a great and difficult task. It will 
 need much delicate intelHgence to demarcate the new 
 boundary lines, to know how "to take occasion by the 
 hand," to know what functions may be given to each 
 young State, to safeguard against immediate jealousy 
 and resumption of war on a petty scale. When the 
 war is over it will probably be better for each and all 
 of us that it be really over for a while. We British 
 at least will try to give the world a clean slate and 
 start the nations without any debts or grudges — all 
 trespasses forgiven. 
 
 The most honourable terms of peace would be per- 
 haps the following : — 
 
 Germany give to Belgium Aix-la-Chapelle and 
 
 Cologne, and also sufficient of a war indemnity 
 
 to start her on her feet again. 
 
 Britain ask no return of the money she has 
 
 given to Belgium, Russia and France, or of the 
 
 money she has herself spent on the fighting.
 
 THE SETTLEMENT OF PEACE 227 
 
 Part of German Poland — not all, for that would 
 mean coming within fifty miles of Berlin — be added 
 to the whole of Austrian and Russian Poland, and a 
 Russian protectorate or Polish independent king- 
 dom be established. 
 
 Russia's right of entry into the Mediterranean be 
 established; Constantinople be put under Russian 
 protection, and the Cathedral of St. Sophia given to 
 the Russian Orthodox Church ; St. Sophia's become 
 the St. Peter's of the Eastern Orthodox Church — one 
 arm being the Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Con- 
 stantinople, the other the Patriarchate of Moscow. 
 
 Alsace-Lorraine be given back to the French. 
 
 The Jews be put at liberty to form a Jewish Gov- 
 ernment in Palestine, and Jews all the world over 
 be given the option of becoming Jewish subjects. 
 
 The German Fleet be taken over by her present 
 foes and divided between them in lieu of war indem- 
 nity — so safeguarding German science and research 
 and culture from entire suffocation. We need Ger- 
 many shining in the new Europe. Germany extin- 
 guished would be a terrible blow. 
 
 Japan have a protectorate over Tsing-Tau and be 
 guaranteed from European molestation in China and 
 the Pacific. x^/ 
 
 German African colonies be restored to Germany.' > 
 Most of these terms can be obtained if the Allies 
 co-operate in a friendly spirit, seeing one another's
 
 228 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 difficulties and helping where they can, always remem- 
 bering that it is a big thing they are planning and 
 shaping, and not in any sense a personal or mean one. 
 
 Russia is distrusted by many — but if we know 
 Russia, understand her, love her, Russia will know 
 us and recognise our love. She will be quite easily 
 amenable. She wishes a good settlement as sincerely 
 as we do, but she is not going to be left behind if we 
 or the French are going to be selfish and seek our own 
 ends. 
 
 We ought to remember that commerce is a second- 
 ary consideration. If we get the right national peace, 
 (commerce will take care of itself. 
 • 1 And peace is not a primary consideration either. 
 War will break out again — that is in the nature of the 
 world. We must not be afraid of that. War has 
 helped us back to reahty now — it will help us or 
 others again when necessary. Be sure at least we are 
 not settHng peace on national lines in order that there 
 may never again be war. We are going to settle it 
 on national lines because we feel that it is good to do 
 so. As God made each new different Hving thing in 
 the world and saw that it was good, so we shall save or 
 resuscitate nationalities because it is fit to do so and 
 will be good, being done. In fact, war becomes more 
 likely the more little States there are. In a world 
 of thousands of small States there is always a war going 
 on somewhere — in a world composed of two or three
 
 THE S$:TTLEMENT of peace 229 
 
 vast Empires tht;re is long peace. That is perhaps a 
 debatable point, but the other point is not really 
 debatable — we will make peace on national lines 
 because it is just and fitting to do so. Our primary 
 reason is that it is just, and that reason needs no help 
 from other reasons.
 
 IV 
 
 Arbitration 
 
 The signing of the Russo-American Convention 
 was received with acclamation in the Russian Press. 
 "Henceforth there will be eternal peace between 
 America and Russia," wrote the Editor of the Russian 
 Word. "Let us hasten to conclude similar treaties 
 with other powers — especially with Sweden and 
 Norway, who feel so much in danger of our Imperial 
 arm." I read in another Russian paper a translation 
 of an article which apparently had appeared in the 
 American Outlook. It was quoted with approval : — 
 
 "The time is coming when nations will become so 
 civihsed that they will not settle their quarrels by fight- 
 ing, but will go together to an impartial international 
 court and there await a verdict. 
 
 "Then, in such a case, a nation like Servia would be 
 tried on the accusation of Austria, and the matter un- 
 ravelled and blame allotted where blame is due, and a 
 guarantee against new trouble would be obtained. 
 
 "The world will look back with astonishment on 
 the barbarism of a previous age, when Austria could 
 fall on Servia and take at once the roles of judge, prose- 
 cutor, plaintiff, jury, and executioner." 
 
 230
 
 ARBITRATION 231 
 
 "After the war," says another Liberal paper of 
 Russia, "we shall look forward to a lasting peace 
 throughout the world and the establishment even- 
 tually of the federation of Europe — the United States 
 of Europe. That is what we are fighting for now — 
 Peace and Federation, the recognition of private in- 
 terests, but also the subordinating of private interests to 
 the common weal, the recognition of nationality, but 
 the subordination of national interest to European 
 interest, to world interest. Such a trifling matter, as 
 whether Russian Jews who have gone to America and 
 have been naturalised as American citizens shall be 
 allowed free access to Orthodox Russia, would not 
 then jeopardise the lives of tens of thousands of fighting 
 men in America and Russia. The inherent rightness of 
 Russia's plea would then be made evident in court 
 and the question would be closed." 
 
 A pleasant and a broad vista was disclosed in this 
 article and one that would win a great deal of sympathy 
 in the West. The war affords, no doubt, such exalted 
 points of view. 
 
 Still, though I have stood myself and looked out over 
 the new spaces of time and possibility revealed by the 
 war, I do not see the world so smiling. I do not see 
 it so happily parcelled out, do not see so far. I see 
 mists and darkness between nations, rivers of blood 
 between them, dark clouds of resentment overhanging 
 some of them, pride and prosperity befooling others.
 
 232 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 But to consider the fair Western vision as it has been 
 described — What of diplomacy? Many aver — and 
 among them he who most of all has a passion for 
 shattering the world to bits and then remoulding it — 
 
 "nearer to the heart's desire" 
 
 that this war is going to make an end not only of war 
 itself, but of the diplomatists. But it seems to me that 
 even if it were likely that wars would cease that very- 
 fact would increase the number of diplomatists. Di- 
 plomacy is the way of arranging difficulties in time of 
 peace. Diplomacy is verbal and social strategy. One 
 might as well say that after this war we are going to get 
 rid of literary agents, lawyers, cabinet ministers, match- 
 making mothers and our capable selves. We are all 
 more or less diplomatists. Diplomacy fills the time of 
 peace, and when war comes, either national or private, 
 it is often as a relief, a release from words, poHteness, 
 flattery, deceit. 
 
 Some people speak of arbitration as if it were a blessed 
 dispensation of providence, a means of finding Divine 
 justice and equity. But as a matter of fact the process 
 of arbitration — diplomacy, is also a war of its kind, a 
 struggle between astute men with white hands and silk 
 hats, a deadly struggle for the furtherance of personal 
 ends. It is not the baaing of lambs on a hillside. 
 Nations will still win their case by arbitration, for di- 
 plomacy is also force. Some nations are strong in
 
 ARBITRATION 233 
 
 diplomatic gifts like the Jews and the Russians, others 
 are weak like the Germans and the British. The Rus- 
 sians, for instance, are so gifted that despite a superficial 
 aspect of frivolity and nervousness they may always be 
 backed to come out well from diplomatic struggles. 
 No, it is not Britain's role to trust her destiny to-7>; 
 conferences. If conferences must occasionally be, 
 let them be few and simple. Simple national demands 
 enforced by national power and national moral right 
 are what we must make, and we must make them 
 direct. If wars turn up occasionally it will be better to . 
 bleed for a cause and an ideal than to be slowly bled' 
 away by smiling foes. We shall not need to fight often 
 if we show ourselves strong and generous and kind, 
 if we assimie the good side of the world and let our flag 
 stand for fairness, honour, good sport, good life. 
 
 The verdict of arbitration can only be acceptable as 
 the light of pure reason, and it cannot be a pure verdict 
 as long as the representatives of the nations are backed 
 by immense armies and unlimited wealth. 
 
 When the fortunes of the present war are made clear, 
 the party that knows it is beaten may as well resign, 
 and, of course, pourparlers of peace will be exchanged. 
 When some basis of settlement that can be profitably 
 discussed is found, there will be a conference between 
 the representatives of Germany, Austria, and Turkey 
 on the one hand, and Britain, France, Russia, Belgium, 
 and Japan on the other. The scheme for belligerent
 
 234 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Europe and Asia will then be put forward in a direct 
 form. The broad principle of settlement will be in- 
 dicated at the outset — that is, I presume, the national 
 principle of historical territory to the nations to which 
 the territory nationally and historically belongs. 
 
 It seems to me there will be no need to ask non- 
 belligerents to vote upon the matter. America, Italy, 
 Sweden, Holland may want fingers in the pie. America 
 especially, as the only first-class power not fighting, 
 may be expected to claim the right to be a party in an 
 arbitration conference. 
 
 But, I am told, America won't be asked to meddle in 
 it. The answer to that is : — Germany will ask that 
 America's ofiices be called in. Germany has had an 
 eye to that from the beginning, and has spent an im- 
 mense amount of money in order to obtain an unfair 
 advantage through America's partiality. She has 
 not failed in her propaganda in America. It is even 
 part of German-American policy to make England think 
 that she has failed, and that the whole of America is 
 hilariously on the side of the Allies. We could not in 
 honour accept the arbitrament of a nation that claims 
 its right to arbitrate because it is on our side. We 
 cannot accept the arbitrament of a nation that gives 
 hospitality to the paid agents and propagandists of 
 the other side. 
 
 But Germany will put her up as a necessary im- 
 partial voice in the conference after the war. But let
 
 ARBITRATION 235 
 
 the Allied nations make up their minds to it now — 
 those who have fought and those only shall decide the 
 terms of peace; those who have not fought may 
 formulate recommendations and send them to the con- 
 ference, but they shall have no casting vote — no vote, 
 in fact, at all — in the deHberations.
 
 V 
 
 The Future of the Russian Empire 
 
 When the war is over and Germany is laid low, 
 two Empires will stand facing one another, a land 
 Empire and a sea Empire, two Empires and two 
 peoples, the Russian and the British. The spectre of 
 the German in' complete armour has depressed us 
 both, and caused us to think little of ourselves. But 
 with the disappearance of the spectre we look at one 
 another and see ourselves as we really are. 
 
 Even as the war goes on the greatness of Russia be- 
 comes more and more apparent, as if a mist were lifting 
 off great mountains. Russia is emerging, and she 
 looks so vast that it tires the eyes to look over her. 
 
 We see her plains and her forests and her mountains, 
 her ploughed fields, trackless woods, great hills, the 
 majestic Caucasus with its long line of everlasting 
 snow, the pretty birch-covered Urals agleam with 
 precious rocks. We follow her great and tranquil 
 rivers, the Volga flowing south, the melancholy Pet- 
 chora, Dwina, Obi, Yenisei, Lena flowing through 
 forests to the Arctic. We see the lakes and inland 
 seas that she encloses. We see the endless steppe 
 
 236
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 237 
 
 awave with boisterous prairie grass, and we look over 
 the vast Central Asian background of salt deserts 
 gleaming with crystal, of the irrigated yellow fields 
 of Turkestan and Seven Rivers away to the Mon- 
 goHan trade routes, where the wealth of China issues 
 forth in caravans of thousands of camels, away to the 
 Great White Ones, the Altai mountains, the backbone 
 of Asia, we look along the wild Chinese marches where 
 the Siberian rivers rise, where hundreds of miles are 
 common as leagues in other continents, away to the 
 far Pacific. Or northward the eye ranges over Siberia, 
 and the great Northern Empire becomes visible, fring- 
 ing in ice and snow a third of the way round the Pole. 
 
 On this wild world of the Russians live all manner of 
 tribes — Russians, Poles, Jews, Finns, Georgians, Os- 
 setines, Cherkesses, Kirghiz, Kalmouks, Shamans, 
 Dunkans, Turkomen, Sarts, Afghans, Tartars, Ostiaks, 
 Yakuts, Zirians, Samoyedes, an innumerable diversity, 
 various in rehgion and tongue and dress. And one 
 of the most remarkable and least remarked facts about 
 all these tribes is that they are distinct. They do not 
 intermarry, they preserve their own tongue and their 
 own religion. They live as they please. In Russia 
 the races are purer than in any other land in Europe. 
 The Russians themselves are a remarkably pure type. 
 Russianisation scarcely ever means the forcing of 
 tribes to take on the semblance of Russians — it means 
 occasionally the forcing of other races to obey laws
 
 238 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 they do not want, or it means, as in the case of the 
 Kirghiz and Kalmouks, the loss of traditional pasture 
 grounds given to new-come Russian settlers, but it 
 means nothing so deadly or systematic as Prussianisa- 
 tion. Under the crust of bureaucratic or absolute 
 rule there is in Russia a remarkable freedom, even a 
 spirit of Liberalism. Thus, the Tsar has several 
 millions of peaceful Mohammedan subjects, and they 
 are never interfered with even by missionaries — the 
 Government even grants them facihties for making 
 the pilgrimage to Mecca, and treats them more as if 
 they were a branch of their own Church. There is 
 freedom of religion in Russia, and Baptists and Evan- 
 gelicals are putting up new chapels in every city. 
 Even the Skoptsi, the celibate sect that believes that 
 mankind, by having no children, should come to an 
 end, are allowed to flourish, and nearly all the shops 
 in one street in Moscow are kept by them. In Russia 
 each caste is distinctive : you do not need to ask a 
 man whether he is a peasant or a workman or a Tartar 
 or a Jew or a Caucasian tribesman or a Kirghiz. It 
 is at once obvious by his distinctive dress. 
 
 But Russia's greatness lies not in her government, 
 nor in her national efficiency, nor in the army she can 
 bring forward, nor in the inexhaustible resources of 
 her country, but in her people, in her great strong 
 human family, in her deep roots, her widespread 
 national life, her big religious men and women, and the
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 239 
 
 plenty of space they have in which to live. The 
 Russian people has racial youth, nerve, and destiny; 
 nothing can effectually stand in its way. 
 
 As I have lately wandered across Russian Central 
 Asia, from the Caspian Sea to the frontiers of Siberia 
 and MongoHa, all that vast territory which is printed 
 yellow on our maps and marked with vaguely wan- 
 dering caterpillars for mountains and troubled worms 
 and millepedes for rivers, I have a very clear picture 
 of one of the youngest colonies of the Russian Empire. 
 
 It has become very real to me. It is up-to-date in 
 my mind. When I make my map of the country I shall 
 erase half the Oriental names printed on our maps and 
 substitute Russian ones, shall mark in new railways, 
 new roads, irrigation systems, lately discovered lakes 
 and mountains. 
 
 Russia does not advertise her doings, and as yet the 
 travel book is almost unknown in Russian literature. 
 For English people wanting to find information about 
 interesting parts of the Russian Empire there is nothing 
 that the translator can put his hand to and translate. 
 The educated Russians are content to live in com- 
 parative ignorance of their own country and their own 
 peoples. Of all the newspapers there is only one that 
 is well served with information regarding the Empire, 
 and that is the Novoe Vretnya, read by some himdred
 
 240 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 thousand people of the miHtary, aristocratic, and 
 official castes. Russia has not had clear sight of the 
 enormous importance in the world her Empire is. It 
 has, therefore, been difficult for us to realise it — 
 especially as half our attention was taken up by the 
 German bogey. We have surmised with some distrust 
 the miUtary and political advance of Russia in the 
 East. We have not read the homely word Colonisa- 
 tion under the bitter word Russification, nor seen 
 the peasant pioneers going before mihtary interference 
 and giving a natural plea for imperial absorption. 
 The great fact about Northern Persia, Western and 
 Northern MongoUa and the inclusive regions of Trans- 
 Caucasia, Turkestan, and Seven Rivers Land is that 
 there is an incessant stream of peasant colonisation 
 thither — Hke a river of men flowing out of the depths 
 of European Russia. What is called Russia in Asia 
 is ceasing to be part of Asia and is becoming part of 
 Europe in the political sense. 
 
 Whilst I tramped Eastward, across Russian Central 
 Asia, all the early part of summer I was scarcely 
 ever out of sight of the caravans of the Russian peasant 
 pioneers. At night they camped on the open steppe 
 as I did, sleeping under the stars; in the morning 
 when the horses or oxen were put in and the caravan 
 started once more it was with eyes and faces towards 
 the dawn. 
 
 The days were so hot that everyone was up betimes
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 241 
 
 and the road was filled with traffic, whilst only in the 
 east there was whiteness and over the rest of the sky 
 the jewelled darkness of night. I was awakened 
 regularly by the heavy lumbering of wheels, and look- 
 ing to the high road saw the little patches of grey 
 and black that were wagons moving away towards 
 the pallor of dawn, breaking the silence of night with 
 the peculiar grunting and cracking sound of heavy 
 merchandise moving slowly and ponderously on creak- 
 ing drays. 
 
 There were the carts of new settlers all going a 
 thousand versts and more; there were the carts of 
 traders who go to hawk their goods in the villages, 
 carts with consignments of goods, native carts with 
 8 ft. wheels, carts harnessed to bulls, to oxen, to camels. 
 There were strings of camels with merchandise ; camels 
 with mountains of sheepskins on their backs, and on 
 top of the mountains men. There were whole tribes 
 with their herds and their tents, the women all on 
 brilliantly caparisoned horses, the men on undulating 
 groaning camels. 
 
 We went from oasis to oasis. About every ten miles 
 there was a Russian village, not a weary, sun-stricken 
 collection of mud huts, but a real Httle Russian village, 
 with white cottages and thatched roofs, with schools 
 and churches and little shops — but how much more 
 delectable than in Russia ! First, afar, you saw a 
 clump of green trees; then as you got nearer you
 
 242 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 distinguished ranks of green poplars — young, tall, 
 regular, and lofty. Then you came to a notice-board 
 that told the date of the foundation of the village and 
 the number of souls, male and female, at the last 
 census thus : — 
 
 Krasnovodskoe, 
 
 founded 1884. 
 
 Souls 
 
 500 male, 
 
 400 female. 
 
 The ratio was generally as five is to four. Then you 
 entered a beautiful shady village where the cottages 
 had front gardens and roses abloom. 
 
 I found the villages an interesting contrast to those 
 in Russia. In Russia the villages are in the clearings, 
 and dense forest lies between ; but here the land was 
 bare of trees all the way between, and the villages 
 were in little forests of their own growing. But, of 
 course, none of the Russian trees, no pines, firs, birches, 
 maples, but poplars, willows, acacias without end. 
 Water ran along hundreds of gullies, and the ducks 
 flopped about in them, and called to one another. 
 The houses when you entered them you found to be 
 thick-walled, cool, white, and astonishingly clean. 
 The settled population was tall, strong, clear-eyed, 
 and rich as Russian peasants go — but without any 
 knowledge of what was happening in the world where 
 newspapers exist. For the rest there was an air of
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 243 
 
 smartness and newness as if all the people had new 
 hopes — something of the spirit of America rather 
 than of Russia. As the wagons all stopped at the 
 villages and the colonists and hawkers swarmed into 
 the little inns there was always a great deal of life and 
 merriment. But no one could stop long. The road 
 called relentlessly, even at midday. 
 
 How hot it was ! In order to make my siesta at 
 noon it was necessary to improvise a tent, tying my 
 green plaid to a telegraph pole and to various heavy 
 stones on the ground and getting thereby a patch of 
 shade in which I could sit and wonder what the tem- 
 perature might be. How thankful I was when a little 
 breeze began to flap and ripple in the folds of my plaid 
 thus stretched. The people on the road went on, 
 heat or no. A Sart came past in a blue cloak and with 
 a tinsel skull-cap on his head ; he looked like a represen- 
 tation of the Chinese Emperor in a comic opera. Five 
 soldiers came by in a native cart, the roof painted in 
 sky-blue blobs on dirty cream, the horses with ten 
 necklaces of blue beads round their necks and with 
 dangling swishing brooms of red strings hanging from 
 the high shafts and keeping the flies from the horses' 
 sides. A native squatted on one of the horses and 
 rested his flat brown feet on the shafts — the sun was 
 nothing to him. The soldiers had evidently been 
 discharged far away and had got to get home as best 
 they could, and had clubbed together for this con-
 
 244 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 veyance. After them came weary soldiers clumping 
 along on foot, and then people travelling in wagons 
 and post-carts, and lying fast asleep in them. Then 
 colonists once more, and the endless line of dusty, 
 worn-out, lop-sided wagons that looked like enlarged 
 pictures of old boots left in the mud. 
 
 I pulled down my tent after an hour and got on a 
 little way — to the next village. Before the village 
 was a stream and a bridge. When I came up to it I 
 found an enormous accumulation of carts all bereft 
 of their teams — for horses and oxen had been let 
 loose to graze — and under the bridge and along the 
 river such a scene of Edenic simplicity and bliss as I 
 had not witnessed since I went with the peasants to 
 the River Jordan. I also had a bathe — a river with 
 three feet of water is a rarity in these parts. Bright 
 little tumbling river that rose in the mountains and 
 went on across the high road to lose itself — not in 
 any sea, but in the cruel desert, where it finally becomes 
 nothing ! So, here for us afternoon turned to evening, 
 with refreshment, and though the setting sun was 
 still hot on our shoulders we felt night breezes fanning 
 us in front. 
 
 We passed through ancient towns — all mud huts, 
 ruins, mosques. The bazaars had been made into 
 covered bazaars by tying ropes across the busy streets 
 and spreading green willow branches across them. 
 Here sat the natives at work at their trades or lounging
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 245 
 
 in their caravanserais, or waiting for koumis customers. 
 There were falcons in cages in many of the little shops. 
 Sarts on horseback came carrying their pet falcons on 
 their wrists as they went. 
 
 One evening I chmbed up on to a green tableland 
 surrounded by rocky summits and snowy peaks, a fine 
 romantic camping ground, and there I fell in with a 
 band of rich emigrants going from Stavropol, in South 
 Russia, to beyond Kopal. They had twenty-four ox- 
 drawn carts and twelve drawn by horses, and in the 
 carts were their household goods — tables, chairs, beds 
 and bedding, agricultural implements, reaping and 
 binding machines, ploughs, grindstones, saws, axes, 
 even metal baths, barrels, guns, pots, and whatnot, 
 in such miscellaneity and promiscuity mixed with 
 mothers and babies, that it was touching to see. The 
 oxen in their wooden yokes were fine beasts and the 
 emigrants tended them on foot. Every wagon was 
 accompanied by one or two on foot, who flicked off 
 the flies and encouraged the oxen along, sang songs, 
 and shouted to one another. Every wagon had 
 buckets swinging at the side. One wagon had several 
 cages of doves fixed on to it; to another a poor old 
 dog was tied and came along unwillingly. In short, 
 everything they could bring from Mother Russia to 
 the new land the emigrants had brought. 
 
 "How long have you been on the way?" I asked. — 
 "Fourteen days in the train and twelve on the road," a
 
 246 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 boy answered me. "How many days to go?" — 
 "Thirty, perhaps." 
 
 I had been much astonished to see a drunken party 
 in one of the villages as I came along — a score of men, 
 young and old, all with their arms round one another's 
 necks and singing frantic tunes. I took it to be a 
 wedding, but was mistaken, for I afterwards found it 
 belonged to this party of emigrants. Presently a 
 cartful of drunkards came rattling past me at a furious 
 rate. They were all singing the Church service, one 
 in a red shirt was trying to keep time with his hand, 
 another was astride the side of the cart and had one 
 leg in and one out, an old greybeard was sitting with 
 his back to the horses, and a young man was sitting 
 down among the other people's feet. In the cart 
 was also a little girl — somebody's darling. They 
 went along at a terrific pace, and as they passed me, 
 despite their bawHng, I heard one man say: "No! 
 Wait a bit, you've not got it right." But no one paid 
 any attention to him, and the huUaballoo went on — 
 " Yaoh, yaoh, yaoh, yu, yu, yohihoah . . . Yu." 
 
 They caught up the main body of ox-wagons and 
 held a parley with one of the young women tending the 
 oxen, but were evidently rebuffed, for when I caught 
 up, the old man was saying, "I said we were fools, we 
 were making a mistake ; great fools." Saying which he 
 was pouring out glasses of red wine from a half-emptied 
 gallon bottle and spilling as much as he poured.
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 247 
 
 "Do these dear drunken fellows belong to your 
 party?" I asked of the boy with whom I had fallen 
 into conversation. 
 
 "Yes, ours. They are all that are left. Many have 
 fallen behind, and they will have to hire carts if they 
 want to catch up." 
 
 "Are you all going to Kopal?" 
 
 "Yes. No room to Kve in Russia. We have been 
 trickling thither from our part for a long while. Many 
 of ours out there — many." 
 
 "Have you got land out there?" 
 
 "Yes, we have taken land. We sent a man out 
 and he has found us good land, and all our people are 
 going, young and old. Nobody remains behind." 
 
 He, in turn, asked me whether I was going out to 
 work on a farm or going to buy land or what, and I 
 told him as best I could, and he told me to put my 
 pack on one of the wagons, for it must be heavy. 
 "All the same," said he, "on foot or travelling with 
 oxen, you have got to walk nearly all the time. But 
 it is not good to have a weight on your back as well." 
 
 After this for many days I was in sight of this cara- 
 van of wagons, watched their progress, and had many 
 talks, sometimes resting my pack with them, but 
 more often falling behind or going ahead of them. At 
 night I spread my plaid near them, watched their 
 fires Hght up, listened to the frequent crack of the 
 gun — for they shot any bird or beast they saw and
 
 248 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 consigned it to the evening pot, was lulled to sleep 
 by their Russian songs, and eventually wakened next 
 morning by the roll of their wheels on the road. The 
 drunken ones, I may say, gradually caught up and 
 became sober. They took their places beside the 
 straining beasts of burden, and let the others rest in 
 the canvas or bast-shaded wagons. One morning 
 when a wheel broke, behold the old greybeard, axe in 
 hand, busily at work at repairs. 
 
 One day in the heat of noon we came to a little 
 brook, and so overwhelming was the heat that the 
 whole long procession came to a standstill, and the 
 oxen were let loose on the moor. They were furious 
 with thirst, but would scarcely look at the water, so 
 shallow and muddy was it. They were loose in pairs 
 with their necks still in their wooden halters, so it 
 was very difficult for them to He down or get rest. 
 They began to try to gore one another, and to bolt, 
 and for three or four hours the emigrants tried in 
 vain to pacify them, and bring them back to the shafts. 
 On another occasion we went some fifty miles without 
 coming to a house or a stream or a bit of shelter, and 
 our sufferings were all rather heavy. Such is the way 
 of the road. Such is the way of the pioneers of the 
 Empire. 
 
 The Russian Government controls the stream of 
 emigrants and defines precisely where colonists may 
 go and where they may not go. It dams a river and
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 249 
 
 deflects the water through a stretch of countty needing 
 irrigation, and that done, lets the stream of people 
 follow the water. It marks out plots of land and plans 
 villages all in advance of the arrival of newcomers 
 who will occupy them. Even so, nothing is left hap- 
 hazard; the prospective settlements and farms are 
 booked in advance, and the colonists travelling the 
 long road with their wagons and effects have no hunt 
 for land in front of them; they are going to definite 
 places which they have agreed to occupy. We travelled 
 from valley to valley with songs and hopes as to the 
 promised land — land promised by the Tsar, and a 
 ten- or twenty-pound Government loan with it into 
 the bargain. 
 
 Alas, not seldom it is not twenty pounds, or two 
 hundred, or two thousand that would suffice to start a 
 family on the land allotted. The colonists on the road 
 nurse a happy dream — they are going to Eldorado, 
 the future lies in their minds all glimmering in rose 
 and gold. The sight of the prosperous villages they 
 pass through confirms them in the belief that they are 
 going to a land three times as rich and happy as that 
 they have left. But often at the end of the way 
 awaits them a dreary, treeless stretch of barren sand. 
 The great shady villages of Syr Daria have taken 
 twenty or thirty years to build up, and they started 
 in better country. Even on the best virgin land 
 immense labour is necessary, and, as I say, it is often
 
 250 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 a tract of desert that has been chosen, and no amount 
 of labour would suffice to make it blossom as the rose. 
 Fifteen per cent, of the emigrants return home to Russia 
 empty handed, all lost. 
 
 Legally they have only themselves to blame, though 
 indeed they are more inclined to say it is the will of 
 God than to blame anyone. The Russian Government 
 invites no one to emigrate to Central Asia or to Siberia. 
 That is the first sentence of the Government handbook 
 on emigration. But seeing that there is ''no room to 
 breathe " in some parts of Russia, and that the people 
 are always moving outward, it takes upon itself the 
 duty of regulating the movement, and providing all 
 the help and protection for the colonists that is within 
 its power. 
 
 But, needless to say, the voluntary colonisation of 
 distant parts of the Empire is extremely advantageous 
 to the Russian Government in the furtherance of its 
 political designs; the Government encourages the 
 emigration of Russians to the very frontier lines, and 
 even over the lines into Persia and China, and on the 
 pretext of defending its interests lends its military 
 power to the extension of its unnecessarily large domin- 
 ion. The Russian Empire is vast, fertile and empty, 
 but its southern and eastern limits are marked by a 
 crust of colonisation. For instance, in the whole 
 extent of Russian Central Asia it is only to the frontier 
 of China that emigration is at present allowed. There
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 251 
 
 is a long slender line of colonisation to the city of Verney, 
 just a gossamer thread of villages, and then all about 
 Jarkent and Kopal and Lepsinsk plots of land and pro- 
 spective villages in abundance. Nothing that is less than 
 800 miles from a railway station is offered to the colonists. 
 
 If a Russian family wishes to emigrate, the Russian 
 Government insists that it send first of all a messenger 
 — what is called in Russian a Khodok, one who walks. 
 The Khodok is allowed to wander about and compare 
 the plots of land offered by the Government and make 
 a choice. He is obhged to have a stamped certificate 
 from the family he represents, and he has then the 
 power to take land in the name of this family. One 
 Khodok may represent three families but no more, 
 so they generally set out in twos and threes, since the 
 Russian peasants are inclined to emigrate in numbers, 
 almost in whole villages. Needless to say, these mes- 
 sengers are sometimes stupid, sometimes adventurous 
 men, who either select an absurd portion, or who dis- 
 appear and never return. But most of them are level- 
 headed peasants who do the best they can for the 
 families who trust them. In any case, the respon- 
 sibiHty is great. 
 
 The land being taken and the messenger returned, 
 there is necessarily great excitement and hubbub in the 
 village — and no doubt some repentance here and there. 
 The families have to face the reahties of voluntary 
 exile, the parting with old faces, old scenes, the village
 
 252 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 church, the graveyard where their dead He buried, 
 Russia herself. They have to abandon their old 
 cottages and sell at a loss many things that it would 
 be folly to take with them. They have to pack their 
 goods to take away, to see their Hve-stock bestowed 
 in the cattle trucks, and get proper receipts for every- 
 thing the railway is taking for them. For twelve 
 roubles (twenty-five shiUings) the railway will carry 
 a ton 1,500 miles — a penny a hundred- weight a mile. 
 They book their goods to the railway station nearest 
 to the land they have taken, and take tickets for 
 themselves in the emigrant's train. 
 
 There are special rates for colonists that would 
 astonish the comparatively obstructionary Canadian or 
 American railways. The greatest distance you can 
 travel straight on by rail in Russia is greater — some- 
 thing Hke 7,000 miles the distance from Odessa to 
 Vladivostok. But such a journey costs only thirteen 
 roubles or twenty-seven shilhngs — say, seven dollars ; 
 and in order to reach the vast emptiness of the middle 
 West and far West of America it is necessary to pay 
 between five and twelve pounds railway fare from 
 New York. The following is the Russian rate : — 
 
 500 versts, i.e. 375 miles i rouble 40 kopecks = 3 shillings 
 
 750 " 4/6 
 
 1,500 " 7/- 
 
 3,000 " 12/- 
 
 6,000 " 24/-
 
 Hoisting the Ataman at the mobilisation. The Cossacks also 
 came to the author and said: - Pozuoltye uas raskatchat — 
 permit us to give you a swing."
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 253 
 
 So the price of a railway ticket is very little hindrance 
 to the wandering of the Russian emigrant. The land 
 they take at the end of a journey is given them free and 
 is made their property under certain conditions. Loans 
 are made according to the portion of the land and the 
 difficulty of cultivating it. A hundred roubles in 
 certain districts near Verney and Pishpek, two hundred 
 roubles in the raions of Kopal and Jarkent. A hundred 
 roubles is about ten pounds. The loan is made to the 
 family and is returnable in fifteen years. The first 
 five years nothing is paid back, but after that a tenth 
 has to be returned each year. The Government is 
 not, however, strict where a family is making a good 
 fight for existence. In poor villages the Government 
 takes upon itself the expenses of building materials 
 for school and church — the colonists are recommended 
 to give their labour free on "the work of God." Wells 
 are sunk in places and roads made — a Government 
 expense. It will be seen, therefore, that a great deal 
 is done to substantiate the dreams of the colonists, 
 and that where villages wither away and families 
 desert their holdings and go home, failure is due to a 
 mistaken original plan on the part of the Government 
 surveyors and to a foolish choice on the part of Khodoki. 
 How different is the colonisation of the Russian 
 Empire from our colonisation, and how different our 
 Empire from theirs ! What an advantage the Russian 
 has in being compact, all on land, all within the grasp
 
 254 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 of a possible railway system, and liable to one spiritual 
 and national nourishment on direct lines. Our people 
 are separated from one another by immense seas. It 
 takes much longer time and costs vastly more money 
 to make a journey from one part to another. In our 
 prosperity we tend to forget our essential unity, to 
 let loose the ties of the motherland or the children 
 lands. We tend to be just English, no more ; to hold 
 too narrow a conception of our race and function; 
 whereas Russia, even in the days of failure and weak- 
 ness, tends to be altogether, to be large but vital. 
 If all this Russian space does fill up with Russians, 
 what a collective voice Russia is going to have ! What 
 a bass ! 
 
 But to return to the colonists themselves and to my 
 impressions of them as I journey through a new colonial 
 country. I have not been very much impressed with 
 the life of the new land. The settlers are prosperous 
 and healthy, their houses are larger, cleaner, and more 
 seemly than in European Russia, but the spirit that 
 really makes Russia interesting to us Westerns is 
 lacking. Religion is on the wane and national customs 
 are forgotten. Nearly everyone can read and write, 
 but reads so little and writes so ill. The illiterate 
 man may be as wise as Solomon, but the man who 
 has learned to read has the whole long road of culture 
 in front of him. In a land where there are no squires, 
 no gentry, no intelligentsia, the colonist forgets where
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 255 
 
 he stands with regard to his fellow men and to the 
 world, and he quickly assumes that classes are divided 
 by wealth and wealth only. The motto of the colonist 
 is "get rich." There is little else in the life of Central 
 Asia but the nascent gospel of "get rich"; it is fuU 
 of cheating, swindling, harrying the Kirghiz and the 
 Sart, colonial vulgarity and "bounce." As I read in 
 the local pamphlet, "it flatters one's self-esteem to be 
 rich" — a thought almost essentially American, and 
 certainly far removed from the religion of suffering. 
 It will be interesting to see whether the cultural bar- 
 renness of Australia and America is to be repeated 
 in Siberia and Russian Central Asia. Perhaps not, 
 seeing how much literary and artistic talent has been 
 sunk in Siberia by the exile of revolutionaries, seeing 
 also that the ever-increasing railway stem supplies 
 or tends to supply the colonies with the Hterature of 
 the great European cities. Already the Httle city of 
 Verney sends some thirty matriculated students to 
 the university each year ; at least, so I was told by a 
 student whom I met at Pishpek, and with whom I 
 journeyed part of his way home from Kief. And 
 having gone through a university course is not a mark 
 of wealth or social position in Russia, it is essentially 
 an educational distinction. 
 
 When I passed into Seven Rivers Land and beyond 
 Verney along the Eastern frontier to Kopal it was 
 touching to see the plight of the new settlers just
 
 256 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 arrived on their bit of land. Whatever hard word 
 may be spoken of the estabhshed population must be 
 withdrawn from these adventurous, much-suffering, 
 much-hoping, much-believing people. All endeavour 
 is blessed ; all success is in a certain sense abhorrent, 
 and we look with smiles and tears at the labours of 
 pioneers, whereas we curse in one short word the 
 prosperity which follows twenty years after the pioneers 
 have achieved the heroic task of making a village where 
 no humans have ever dwelt before. It is our heroic 
 human way of thinking; we honour all attempting 
 and daring and sacrificing because they reflect the God 
 in man. 
 
 So along the Central Asian road human thrills are 
 in store for every educated man observant of the 
 beginnings of life. Here the 1,000-verst road journey 
 comes to an end. The oxen are unyoked and the camp 
 is pitched finally; good Russian prayers are said and 
 words of thankfulness that the long journey has come 
 to its true and successful end, there are exclamations 
 of gladness ; the colonists kiss one another and promise 
 one another new life; there are also grumblings, 
 lamentings, scolding of the messengers who have 
 chosen ill. 
 
 First of all trees are planted. How pathetic to see 
 the long rows of three-feet high poplar shoots and 
 willow twigs ! A month on this sun-beaten road 
 leaves no doubt in the emigrant's mind as to what
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 257 
 
 is the first necessity — shade, shade. Trees are planted 
 all along the main Government dyke. The colonist 
 chooses the place for his house and he digs a trench 
 all round it and lets in water from the dyke, and he 
 plants trees along the trench. Then he buys stout 
 poplar trunks and willow trunks and makes the frame- 
 work of his cottage. He interlaces Httle willow twigs 
 and makes the sort of wilted green, sHghtly shady, 
 sHghtly sunny house that children might put up in a 
 wood in England. But that is only the beginning. 
 To the willow house he slaps on mud-puddings. This 
 is the filthiest work; he makes a great quantity of 
 mud and treads it up and down with his bare feet till 
 he gets the consistency he requires, and then with his 
 hand he fetches out sloppy lumps of it and builds his 
 walls. In a few days the mud hardens, and he has a 
 shady and substantial dwelling and one that in an 
 earthquake will swing, but will not collapse. His 
 roof he makes of prairie grass, great reeds ten to fifteei\ 
 feet in length and thick and strong, or of willow twigs 
 again and turf. In his second year he has a little hay 
 harvest on his roof. He ploughs his Httle bit of desert. 
 He exchanges some of his oxen for cows. He strives 
 with all his power — as does a transplanted flower — 
 to take root. He looks forlorn. You look at his 
 poor estate and say: "It is a poor experiment; the 
 Sim is too strong for him, he will just wither off and 
 the desert will be as before." But you come another
 
 258 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 day and you see a change and exclaim : "He has taken 
 root after all; there is a shoot of young life there, 
 tender and green." Along the road I noticed villages 
 of all ages ; of this year, of last year, of four years 
 gone; of twenty years, forty years. And I took 
 shade now and then beside the deserted hovels of 
 those whom the desert and the sun had beaten. 
 
 Russia and Russian Central Asia and Siberia are in 
 much more intimate relationship than Britain and 
 South Africa, for instance. The heights of the Mon- 
 golian frontier are still Russia, and the colonists there 
 are taxed from Russia, send their annual recruits to 
 the Russian Army, are reached by land from Russia 
 and look towards the great cities of the motherland, 
 Petrograd, Moscow, Kief, as towards their own great 
 cities. Our colonies are by no means extensions of 
 Britain or of Europe. 
 
 An interesting comparison may be drawn between 
 the tasks of Russian and English statesmanship in 
 the moulding of the respective Empires. The late 
 Joseph Chamberlain saw the British Empire as a 
 great self-supporting, self-sufficient unity, able to 
 produce all the food and clothing it required, not 
 needing to import anything from non-British countries. 
 He wished a large thing — not a collection of separated 
 fourth-rate powers making laws at will one against
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 259 
 
 the other. He wanted the British subject to be always 
 conscious that he was an integral part of something 
 mighty and wonderful, wanted him to reflect in his 
 soul a large consciousness, the sense of our whole vast 
 majestical domain, and not merely the narrow con- 
 sciousness of a Httle self-despising overcrowded island 
 or young commercial settlement. The consummation 
 of such an ideal demanded a great ocean service and a 
 mighty navy. England must remain, in fact, Mistress 
 of the Sea, and the salt floods that separate should in 
 reahty join us and be our national high roads. A 
 great ideal — but it has turned out to be more difficult 
 to realise than the statesman imagined — the sea has 
 separated us and has been difficult to bridge over. 
 There has not been the cheapening of passenger rates 
 necessary for a great interchange of populations; 
 there has been no journalistic entente between any of 
 the countries of the Empire. It has been difficult to 
 "get across" to one another, in body, mind or soul. 
 Only now, perhaps, are we commencing an era in which 
 great measures wiU be taken for the unification of the 
 Empire. 
 
 How much easier the task of Russia, the only other 
 colonial Empire of to-day! Her distant populations 
 have not crossed the seas. They have never felt them- 
 selves to be separate communities with separate in- 
 terests. Fares have always been cheap and time has 
 never been valuable. No one except the political
 
 26o ' RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 exile and the convict has felt cut off from Russia, and 
 only among the political and penal population in 
 Siberia has the idea of separation found any home. 
 There, by the way, it has, and many times in the 
 backwoods of Siberia there has been mooted the idea 
 of a new "War of Independence " and of the foundation 
 of a "United States of Siberia." That was one of the 
 dangers inherent in the poHcy of making Siberia the 
 outer darkness of those who found no favour in the 
 eyes of the Tsar. Siberia is in time of peace a Radical 
 and disaffected country. 
 
 It is otherwise, however, in Russian Central Asia. 
 Here loyalty is supreme. No Radical and sectarian 
 emigrants are allowed to settle there, and, above all, 
 no one whose conscience will not allow him to bear 
 arms. The Government has pursued a poHcy of making 
 the population as miKtary as possible. In the event 
 of a Mongol or Persian inroad the Russian colonists 
 could hold their own without the help of the regular 
 army. 
 
 It is improbable that any Russian Government will 
 grant local self-government to Turkestan, Seven Rivers 
 or Siberia — unless at some time a revolution should 
 take place and a demilitarisation of the Empire. The 
 whole vast territory from the Caspian to Kamchatka 
 will.be administered as an imperial and military unity. 
 And whilst it is held together in the strong grasp of an 
 autocratic Government it is firmly bound together in
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 261 
 
 a unity of commercial interests. By a skilful manipu- 
 lation of tariffs and encouragement of industries, 
 Russia is making herself a self-sufficient Empire as 
 far as necessaries are concerned. Agricultural and 
 dairy products and meat she has, of course, in abun- 
 dance, as a natural foundation. She makes all her 
 own sugar, manufactures her own cotton goods, is 
 even on a fair way to growing in Central Asia her own 
 raw cotton, enough to supply the mills of Moscow and 
 Lodz. She begins to manufacture her own wool and 
 cloth in sufficient quantity. She has her own furs, her 
 own timber, her own building materials. She is mining 
 more coal and tapping more oil, and will certainly gain 
 in time a sufficiency of fuel for all purposes. What she 
 cannot produce for herself is machinery for her factor- 
 ies, the knick-knacks which we in the West make 
 by machinery, the luxuries of civiHsation. But even 
 as regards luxuries she is well off — having her 
 own good Crimean, Caucasian, and Central Asian 
 wines, her own Caucasian tobacco, her own vodka 
 and liqueurs, her caviare, her inexhaustible supply 
 of game. 
 
 In order to visuaHse the advantages of the Russian 
 Empire as compared with ours, it is necessary to take 
 our dominions and colonies out of their places on the 
 map and tack them together with Great Britain, and 
 imagine Canada sewed on to our western coast and 
 Liverpool on the Canadian frontier, Eastbourne on the
 
 262 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 South African frontier, Southampton on the Indian, 
 Land's End on the Austrahan frontier, trains taking 
 only twenty-four hours to Toronto, only a week to 
 Vancouver, thirty-six hours to Calcutta, sixty hours 
 to Madras, twenty hours to Capetown, twenty-six 
 hours to Brisbane, five days to Perth, Western Aus- 
 tralia, and imagine the interchange of peoples and of 
 products, the circulation of our newspapers, the 
 audiences of our books and Parliamentary speeches, 
 the enlargement of our interests and of our imperial 
 pride. How great would our Empire seem, how 
 strong — immeasurably larger and stronger than the 
 British Empire as we now visualise it, floated away 
 into the distant places of the seas. 
 
 That is the advantage of the Russian Empire, that 
 it can feel itself as Britain would feel in this imaginary 
 picture of an all-on-land Empire. Despite the dream 
 of separatists, Russia is not likely to give up this great 
 source of strength — her essential unity. 
 
 My feeling, however, is that the Russian Empire is 
 large enough — perhaps already too large. The Rus- 
 sians do not need to flood over towards Kobdo in Mon- 
 golia or towards the Persian capital. They tend to 
 lose themselves out there. Russia wants an outlet 
 to the sea, but the Japanese War has shown her that 
 she is vulnerable at places like Port Arthur, as the 
 Crimean War showed her that she was vulnerable at
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 263 
 
 Sebastopol. Only in the centre of Asia or of Europe 
 is she safe.* . . . 
 
 The new railway to Verney goes on to Kuldja in 
 China and there is talk of its progression right across 
 Mongolia to Kharbin. Undoubtedly it will cross 
 China some time or other and tap a great deal of 
 Chinese trade. Already the Russians are strong on 
 the Chuisky Road that leads from Novy Nikolaefsk 
 on the Siberian railway, through Barnaul and Bisk, 
 Siberian river towns, through Kosh Agatch, the Altai 
 frontier station, on to Kobdo in the heart of Mongolia. 
 Great efforts are being made to capture the brick-tea 
 trade and indeed Mongolian trade in general. Russian 
 influence is so strong that MongoHa is in the nature of 
 an extra colony — something that must necessarily be 
 taken over by the Russians later on. It seems to me, 
 however, they do not need any territory beyond "The 
 White Ones" as the natives call the Altai, beyond the 
 Ala Tau of Kopal and the great heights of Pamir. 
 Within these natural boundaries they can evolve an 
 unexampled prosperity — if that is what they wish. 
 
 The Russian Treasury lost at least £50,000,000 per 
 annum by the vodka prohibition. It lost another 
 £50,000,000 by the cessation of imports and the con- 
 sequent failure of import duties, f • • • 
 
 * Opinion as to efifectiveness of Russian Army excluded by British 
 Censor. 
 
 t Here followed 22 lines on the financial situation of Russia excluded by 
 the British Censor.
 
 264 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Many new taxes have been introduced. Postage has 
 been raised. It now costs twopence-halfpenny to send 
 an inland letter instead of, as formerly, a penny three- 
 farthings. An extra ten roubles (one pound) has been 
 charged on telephones. The income-tax has been 
 raised. New State lotteries have been issued. An 
 extra tax has been levied on sugar, on matches. A tax 
 on bread and on kerosine has been suggested. But 
 Russia cannot readily right herself in that way. She 
 is a spending country. Everybody in Russia likes to 
 spend ; economy is very foreign to her temperament. 
 
 Still Russia's power of recuperation after financial 
 exhaustion is very great. The great mass of her 
 population is peasant, and it works for a half or one- 
 third of the normal European wage. One or two good 
 harvests and Russia is on her feet again, and all Europe 
 feels well as a reflection of Russian well-being. 
 
 That is Russia's function, to supply Europe with 
 bread. Even in war-time when all the youth has gone 
 from the villages the fields are sown, women sow them, 
 and if the war lasts over summer women wiU reap 
 them and women will sow them again — women and 
 children and old men. And when the war is over 
 and the guns have been gathered in, the young moujiks 
 and the Cossacks will return and give their arms to the 
 work — and children will grow up and more children 
 
 "... green earth forgets, 
 The new-born generations mask her grief."
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 265 
 
 There is no new future for the Russian peasantry 
 except a little modification in their methods of cul- 
 tivating the soil, and in the implements they use. 
 The great health of Russia will He in the peasants 
 remaining peasants. I would utter a warning to those 
 weU-wishers of Russia who think that it is necessary 
 to educate the peasantry, and who sigh for a greater 
 exploitation of Russian commerce. It is this : that 
 if you educate the peasant, he will cease to want to 
 plough ; if you dangle before his eyes the tawdry 
 recompenses of life in an industrial settlement, he will 
 be tempted away. The peasants are happy on the 
 land, thanks to the satisf3dng popular rites of their 
 religion, thanks to village customs, village songs, village 
 sociability. Do not pervert them en masse. They 
 leave the land in quite sufficient numbers to nurture 
 with their elemental instincts and knowledge of mother 
 earth the universities and the arts. It is a barely 
 credible fact that even to-day Russia is falling out of 
 cultivation, and twenty per cent, more of her land is 
 covered with forest than was in i860 — owing pri- 
 marily to the liberation of the serfs, secondarily to the 
 lack of interest of the landowners in their own estates ; 
 and thirdly, to the lust of the peasants for industrial 
 life. 
 
 Russia will be exploited commercially as never before. 
 We can be sure of that, whatever her harvests are. She 
 will be too pressed for money to resist that exploitation.
 
 266 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 If the English and French and Belgians are clever 
 enough, Russia and Siberia will become their exclusive 
 field. Russia has a great deal to gain by friendly co- 
 operation with these peoples. She need not, indeed 
 I think she will not, throw open her broad lands un- 
 restrictedly to commercial and mineral exploitation. 
 But she is likely to grant many concessions. 
 
 For my own part, I view foreign exploitation with a 
 great deal of apprehension. It reacts very badly on 
 the lives of the peasants, whose best function, as I 
 have said, is to grow bread. It creates a growing dis- 
 content in the minds of the workmen — always badly 
 underpaid, if wages be compared with either Western, 
 European, or American wages. It increases immorahty 
 and vulgarity; and, more than that, it has a subtle 
 influence for evil upon whole countrysides. Take the 
 life of the foreign mining experts, agents, engineers, 
 managers, foremen, sent out by wealthy corporations 
 to their Russian estates. They are princes of Russian 
 travel. They pay the biggest fares, the biggest tips, 
 live in the best rooms in the best hotels, make the 
 grandest meals, those reserved and silent men, appar- 
 ently uninterested in the lower life around them, the 
 men who sit in proud isolation in first-class carriages 
 reading " John Bull " or "Answers," scarcely ever looking 
 out at the windows; or, if they are confronted by a 
 native, eyeing him with a sort of sportive mirth as if 
 he had escaped from a show; giving importunate
 
 FUTURE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 267 
 
 beggars silver, paying anything that is asked, or that 
 they dream fitting to whomsoever appears to have a 
 claim upon them. When they get to the mine or the 
 factory they meet their confreres, and grumble at the 
 lack of comforts and the supposed ferociousness of the 
 natives; they order from distant cities fruits, teas, 
 biscuits, wines, what not, and pay double and treble 
 prices for food, lodging, cooking, service. They go 
 about with revolvers in their pockets, they pay bribes 
 to the wrong people — always paying more than they 
 need, and teaching the corrupt to expect more and to 
 demand more. They teach the peasant workmen, 
 through their own fear, to think of murder and robbery, 
 teach them to ask higher tips, encourage them to 
 grumble about wages — and then, when a vile state of 
 affairs has been created on a countryside, they suddenly 
 receive orders from home to commence an era of re- 
 trenchment, and they begin to reduce wages and fight 
 strikes — seldom retrenching in their own expenditure. 
 There is one great hope : it is that sobriety will make 
 the peasant workmen stronger. Where vodka shops 
 have been closed they are in many cases to be opened 
 as schools. Once the peasant has become a workman 
 and a sober workman he ought to be set upon the long 
 road of education. There he will in time make up his 
 losses. High ideals should be set before the workmen 
 and their children. They should be made to feel that 
 learning and understanding are as long as Hfe itself —
 
 268 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 are indeed life itself. It is rudimentary education and 
 the Universal Panorama and short cuts to knowledge 
 that are dangerous. The Russian peasant, become a 
 workman, is capable of great development. From the 
 peasant you can breed a noble type, witness Shaliapin, 
 the kingly actor and singer, once a dock labourer at 
 Batum, now able to forget everything else and fill the 
 role of Ivan the Terrible or of Boris Godunof. The 
 Russian race is wonderfully pure. Serfdom seems to 
 have been an accident. The serfs were not an inferior 
 race or a different race. They were, in blood and spirit 
 and instinct, the same as their masters. The peasant 
 to-day, cultivated and carefully bred, would make a 
 typical Tsar. Nevertheless, as I said, do not think of 
 educating the peasantry en masse. Millions would halt 
 at the perilous halting places on the long road of 
 education and would so go to perdition.
 
 VI 
 
 The Future of the British Empire 
 
 The wounds in our trade, in the ordinary course of 
 things, are all waiting to heal over and be as before. 
 After the war comes a period of convalescence, a be- 
 coming normal, a going-on. But England must not 
 be allowed to fall asleep again. We must have a great 
 England, an ideal, worthy of that vast number of people 
 who speak our language and share our culture and 
 traditions. Britain must reahse herself as true mistress 
 of the seas — hospitable mistress. Let us live more on 
 the sea! 
 
 Russia and Russia's future suggest many things. 
 And we may look towards Russia in order to see our- 
 selves better. Though I do not suggest any rivalry 
 between the British and Russian Empires, I do think 
 we should do well to compare ourselves and learn what 
 we can. The road is clear before Russia; she is an 
 all-on-land Empire, and all she needs to do is to build 
 more railways. That is simple, and indeed everything 
 is simple for her. She is always a unity, always 
 organically bound together as one thing, and she is 
 going to have great advantages from that unity and 
 from the simpUcity of her problems. 
 
 269
 
 270 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Our destiny is on the sea. Our future is all problems, 
 the sea itself being a problem. We also have to become 
 a unity, not so much a unity of colonies, a unity of land 
 painted red on the map, as a unity of peoples. We 
 must not continue our poKcy of letting things shape 
 themselves haphazard and trusting to racial pride and 
 colonial loyalty to keep us always together. We have 
 to make things easier. 
 
 Our habit as Englishmen has been to concentrate 
 our attention on the life of our little island and to ignore 
 the life of the colonies as if it were something second- 
 rate or third-rate. Even in this hour of need frequently 
 we hear, in answer to such questions as, "Aren't the 
 Canadians loyal?" — "Yes, too loyal; " or "Did you 
 find New Zealand loyal?" — "Oh yes, a perfect hot- 
 bed of loyalty." That is unkind to our brothers out of 
 sight and out of mind, and it is bad for ourselves. It 
 is not even a true sentiment, nor could it be really true. 
 
 Imperialism has been unfashionable for a number of 
 years, and the colonies have suffered by implication. 
 We have given our colonists powers to look after their 
 own affairs, and have begun to regard them as separate 
 States. We have taken no care to give them spiritual 
 nourishment, to give them the counsciousness that they 
 are part of something very large, that their small 
 destiny is part of a much greater thing, our imperial 
 destiny. And we ourselves have also learned to think 
 small.
 
 FUTURE OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 271 
 
 If we are to counterbalance the Russian Empire we 
 must be large. We cannot balance 200,000,000 people 
 spread over half the globe by 60,000,000 huddled to- 
 gether on our little island. We have not the back- 
 ground, we have not a large enough thought in our 
 consciousness. We must get altogether and be alto- 
 gether. 
 
 What can be done? 
 
 The first thing that occurs to me from my wanderings 
 in the Russian Empire is that we have to make the 
 colonies nearer. We have got to think nothing of 
 going to one of them and back. We have got to ex- 
 change readily thoughts, books, people. We have been 
 more interested in the United States than in our 
 colonies. In a sense, interest in the States has come 
 between us and interest in the people of our colonies. 
 We have to realise that the United States is not one 
 of our colonies but a foreign country with foreign 
 interests. For the rest, we have to make bridges to 
 Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India. 
 
 We need the Government to institute a State service 
 of steamboats between the colonies and the mother- 
 land, not try to make them pay, but to make of them 
 public bridges between our far-off lands and ourselves. 
 It should be possible for £1 to go anywhere in the 
 British Empire, and we would pay for our meals as we 
 wanted them, according to a tariff. 
 
 Such an institution would be an immense gain. We
 
 272 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 have made transatlantic travel into a bit of snobbery. 
 We have got to make the journeys on the sea unimpor- 
 tant and ordinary. 
 
 Quite obviously we diminished the cost of, postage 
 from a shilling to a penny in order that there might be 
 a greater circulation of personal opinion and intelli- 
 gence, and we had great gain. We diminished the 
 price of newspapers from threepence to a penny or a 
 halfpenny in order that we might have more circulation. 
 It is all to our advantage, and much more to our advan- 
 tage, to increase the circulation of the people of our 
 Empire by removing the prohibitive prices that we 
 have to pay in order to cross from one land to another. 
 The citizens of the British Empire want some privi- 
 leges. They have not many more privileges at present 
 than if they were Turks or Chinamen. We want im- 
 perial confidence, we want to feel at home in the world 
 and to go readily from one part to another. How 
 greatly we should all gain by a quickening of our 
 circulation and a sense of our organic unity, by feeling 
 that the distant limbs of the body poHtic responded to 
 the impulse of the brain and the action of the heart. 
 There is nothing to fear in the realisation of our 
 Empire. Our days of aggressive Imperialism are over. 
 We are ready to take over a desert here and there or 
 occasionally to organise the government of some tribe 
 that cannot govern itself, but we are not going to en- 
 slave other nations or seize their land in order to ex-
 
 FUTURE OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 273 
 
 ploit it for ourselves. We have more territory than we 
 have people, or can have people for many a hundred 
 year to come. We have to go forward in love, not in 
 distrust or jealousy. 
 
 We look to those who come back from the war, 
 those who have been touched by reahty and the face of 
 death, the great force that should come into our stag- 
 nant national Hfe, bringing the quiet but potent 
 thoughts dreamed out on the battlefield or sworn in 
 the moment of danger and distress. These will bring 
 their true passion to the making of the new life, the 
 making of a good peace and the shaping of the future 
 of our Empire.
 
 VII 
 
 Naturalisation 
 
 The war has raised in an urgent form the question 
 of naturalisation. Have the British not been very 
 slovenly and careless in the granting of the precious 
 right of nationality ? Why should Russians, Germans, 
 Poles, Jews, Italians, and what not have the right to 
 be considered British subjects, our own people ? It is 
 much better that Germans remain Germans to the 
 end of the chapter. God made the Germans Germans 
 as He made the black man black, German they should 
 remain. Jews also should be Jews. In Russia a Jew 
 becomes a Russian only when he gives up the Jewish 
 faith and is baptised. In England also Christianity 
 should be a compulsory qualification for complete 
 nationalisation. Every man should have his papers 
 of identity. 
 
 In America of course it is different. The Americans 
 are not yet a nation — in America a nation is being put 
 together and established. But in Europe the nations 
 are formed, they are sharply defined. Peace when it 
 is accomplished will be on strictly national principles. 
 The territory that is really German will remain German ; 
 
 274
 
 NATURALISATION 275 
 
 that which was French will become French again ; that 
 which was Polish will return to Poland. Therefore, 
 the individuals in England who are really Germans 
 should be made Germans again and the Poles who are 
 really Poles should be returned to Poland and so on. 
 If that retrospective view of individual rights is difficult 
 to enforce, provision can at least be made for the future 
 that nationalities may be purer and that Poles and Jews 
 may be given passports of Polish and Jewish national- 
 ity, and that Germans be stopped masquerading as 
 British. 
 
 The whole Liberal principle of the rights of indivi- 
 duals and of nations to be themselves and to realise 
 their true individual and national destinies is boundjip 
 in this question of naturalisation. Liberalism is not 
 chaotic freedom but ordered freedom. It is true free- 
 dom. It not only sets free but it safeguards. The 
 compulsory cessation of promiscuous nationalisation 
 is a great safeguard of the rights of individuals and of 
 nations.
 
 VIII 
 
 Conscription 
 
 A HAUNTING question of the day is : will there be 
 conscription after the war ? Before the war a powerful 
 party, led by Lord Roberts and ministered to by Lord 
 Northcliffe, wanted it, but the overwhelming mass of 
 the people were against it. Liberals and Sociahsts were 
 against it en bloc, many Conservatives and also the man 
 in the street. But the war has shown how great was 
 the necessity for a large army. We have had to equip 
 and train a million men in a terrible hurry and have not 
 had clothes for them to wear or guns for them to 
 shoot with or horses to put under them. And now we 
 realise that it would have been better to have prepared 
 our army earlier, better for us, better for the brave men 
 who go to fill up death-gaps in the line of our regular 
 army. 
 
 Among Socialists have sprung up many conscription- 
 ists, and Bernard Shaw is able to call for conscription 
 for this reason — that since men may be forced to serve 
 the state in time of war, they may also be forced 
 to serve it in time of peace. He would have those men 
 shot who in his opinion avoid serving the State. 
 
 276
 
 CONSCRIPTION 277 
 
 Wells, on the other hand, wishes every man to be 
 familiar with the use of the gun, and to be able to 
 defend his home and his countryside whenever occasion 
 arises. The working men and the discontented would 
 then have material power when they were organised to 
 rebel. Strikes would become civil wars. The rich and 
 those who are now powerful would find their position 
 much less secure. Incidentally, we should, of course, 
 be much more formidable in resisting an enemy invading 
 our shores. 
 
 The Quakers, the Tolstoyans, the Plymouth Breth- 
 ren, and other quiet but none the less powerful com- 
 munities are altogether opposed to the use of material 
 force, and they could not be compelled individually 
 to bear arms. By English tradition we should be forced 
 to grant exemption to those whose conscience forbade 
 them to raise the sword. The consequence would be 
 that most of those who were not Quakers but who for 
 ulterior reasons did not wish to serve, would be con- 
 verted nominally to Quakerism or Tolstoyism or the 
 like, and would so escape, putting the onus and the 
 handicap on to those straightforward Englishmen who 
 did not seek to evade the hard year or two years of 
 training. 
 
 But the question of whether we shall have a form 
 of conscription or not is likely to become a deadly 
 poHtical quarrel before it can be resolved. Liberals 
 view with apprehension the coming of a military caste
 
 278 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 and the rising military contempt for civilians. They 
 fear the uniform, the sign of the sword, the distinguish- 
 ing marks of the new mihtary aristocracy. They know 
 that an aristocracy founded on military rank is more 
 difficult to overthrow than the old aristocracy founded 
 on estates or money or tradition. They also say: Is 
 not the German war the last war, did we not fight it so 
 wholeheartedly because we felt it was not the Germans 
 so much that we were fighting as war itself ? Has not 
 our victory over the Germans been a victory over war ? 
 Why, then, should we on the day of peace set out to 
 prepare for wars to come, to attract by increased armies 
 the fear and hate of other countries? 
 
 No one is Hkely to answer these questions. We 
 know, nearly all of us, that the idea of a last war was 
 merely one of the bluffs of the beginning of the war, 
 a pretext, a recruiting fiction, something to fill green 
 young men with a high moral fervour. It was wrong 
 to say it perhaps, but it was said. 
 
 Alas, revenge is always heaping itself up ! Material 
 force is the insolvable quantity. Even in Britain, which 
 has had the smallest army and has prized peace most, 
 the indignation of the people is put down with armed 
 force, and we could not settle such a dispute as that 
 between Ulster and the rest of Ireland without arming 
 the parties. Hate is always gathering to centres and 
 discharging itself. Nameless hate is in the air, and we 
 capture it for ourselves and give it the name of our
 
 CONSCRIPTION 279 
 
 private quarrels. Even the pacifist Daily News, in the 
 glut of national discord and fighting, summons Lord 
 Northcliffe to battle, charging him with appealing to our 
 lower instincts, whilst it itself is actually appealing to the 
 fighting instinct in him, trying to get him to throw back 
 words of abuse. There is a desire for fighting hidden in 
 the breasts of everyone except a few ascetics and saints 
 and poets in every nation, except in a few tribes of tent- 
 dwellers, nomads, or cavemen. Under the crust even of 
 America lies sleeping force, the desire and the need to 
 burst forth and fight and devour, like the fire in the 
 depths of the earth. 
 
 "What, then, of Christ's promise?" ask the Tol- 
 stoyans and the Quakers and the Plymouth Brothers. 
 "What chance has Christianity of coming to any- 
 thing?" 
 
 My answer is : every chance. Christianity is not for 
 nations, it is for individuals. It is an individual under- 
 standing. It is not a rule. It is a personal choice. 
 The peace that Christianity gives is the inner peace, 
 the peace in the depths of the heart even when the 
 outer world is full of war. In fact, the greater the 
 tumult of the outside world the greater is the miracle 
 of Christianity. As the promise says: "My peace I 
 give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto 
 you." 
 
 The Tennysonian and Victorian — 
 
 "The Earth at last a warless world"
 
 28o RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 is a popularisation of Christianity, and much easier to 
 give assent to, and to work for, than the truer 
 "The heart at last a peaceful heart." 
 
 But to turn from the individual back again to the 
 world, I think that when the war is over we shall indeed 
 set to work to maintain a larger army and give more 
 opportunities to youth to ride and shoot and perform 
 the manly exercises. We ought to popularise imperial 
 service and give facilities to our young men and women 
 to see the Empire, and work for periods at different 
 points in it. We need to make imperial service more 
 interesting, we need to make it as interesting as it really 
 is. We need to Say nationally and individually that 
 position in life is not the first thing, earning a Hvingis not 
 the first thing, commerce is not the first thing, that all 
 these things are added if you have first the will to serve 
 an ideal. No compulsion upon individuals is in keeping 
 with the British spirit of freedom. But the prospect 
 of imperial service should be so glorious that everyone 
 should wish to come in of his own free will, and Quakers 
 and Tolstoyans who wished not to carry the gun might 
 still find an immense amount of scope on the positive 
 side in the making of bridges and the carrying of the 
 messages of love and interest from one part of the 
 British Empire to another. Once more we look to 
 those who come back from the war to give us, from their 
 hearts, the wisdom which they have learned in the hours 
 of facing death for their country.
 
 V 
 LAST THOUGHTS
 
 V. LAST THOUGHTS 
 
 I 
 
 Petrograd 
 
 I HAVE been in St. Petersburg for the first time in my 
 life, or rather I have never been in St. Petersburg at 
 all, I have only been in Petrograd. Although I have 
 been almost everywhere else in the Russian Empire I 
 have always avoided the capital, expecting no pleasure 
 there, no revelation of Russia. And wherever I have 
 gone in Russia people have solemnly advised me that it 
 would never be worth while to go to St. Petersburg, and 
 they have rejoiced to hear that I never intended to go. 
 As Merezhkovsky wrote: ''The life of St. Petersburg 
 is the death of Russia, and conversely the death of 
 St. Petersburg might be the life of Russia." Behold, 
 St. Petersburg is dead ! Petrograd has taken its place. 
 As the poet Aksakoff wrote : 
 
 "Its name was a foreign one ; 
 That's why we never remember it." 
 
 When first the new name was spoken it seemed annoy- 
 ing that it should rhyme with retrograd, but the pun was 
 not apposite. The name St. Petersburg sounds sinis- 
 ter, grown old in sin ; nothing sounds more childlike, 
 yoimg and simple than Petrograd. 
 
 283
 
 284 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 The sun did not, however, shine on Petrograd for 
 me, nor did the new sentiment transfigure the dreariness 
 and sordidness of the great city. A moving mist was 
 driving over the house-tops, and through it came a 
 drizzle of finest snow or rain. The raw, penetrating 
 air made one nervously cold. The streets were wet 
 and slippery, and the wood pavements were old and 
 worn and muddy. Every passer-by was muffled and 
 silent. I went down the vaunted Nevski Prospect, 
 one of the greatest streets of the world. Its houses, 
 shops and blocks are of unharmonised heights and 
 colours, disorderly in bulk and in design, with no spaces 
 between the houses, and with window-fronts greedily 
 absorbent of wall. Such an anomaly as the Singer 
 building, an American advertisement in stone, can find 
 a place in the same road with the covered arcades that 
 take their inspiration from the bazars of the East, and 
 with great blocks of Government buildings the colour 
 of fire-glow in the sky or of muddy water mixed with 
 blood. It is a fine, long, straight, flat, wide street with 
 electric standards along the middle, with car lines each 
 side of the standards and red-striped trams pottering 
 along, with diversified bunches of horse droschkies trot- 
 ting forward, with coughing, swift-moving motor-cars, 
 and antique baronial carriages having scarlet-clad 
 coachmen sitting on their boxes. Bits of the street 
 feel Hke Paris, bits hke the East end of London, bits 
 like Broadway, New York, but collectively it is some-
 
 PETROGRAD 285 
 
 thing unique, something sinister and gloomy, brutal 
 and out of date. 
 '' It is the city of Dostoieff sky's novels, the scene 
 especially of Crime and Punishment and the nightmares 
 of Raskolnikof. It is the scene of that wonderful, 
 tender novel Injured and Insulted, the scene also of Le 
 Double, where the hypochondriac, leaning tired against 
 a bridge over one of the canals, saw himself go past 
 himself in the driving blizzard of snow. What sin 
 there has been in this city, what meanness, sordidness, 
 unhappiness ! This hitherto half- German city ! Six- 
 teen thousand Germans were sent out of it in one week 
 whilst I was there. St. Petersburg — Petrograd ; yes, 
 it is good tidings. 
 
 There has been a much stronger German influence 
 there than in London. Germans at court, Germans in 
 business, above all things Germans or naturalised Ger- 
 mans in the secret police. They should get rid of 
 them all; denaturalise and disenfranchise those who 
 are Russian subjects. They have been poisoning the 
 national life. They are a great danger to the State. 
 Their intrigues and machinations are words now, but if 
 not checked might amount to actions later on. The 
 Tsar's life is especially precious at this moment, not 
 only to Russia but to England and France. He has 
 come out unreservedly as the leader of his people and 
 the promulgator of the war. He has trebled the 
 strength of his army by the vodka ukase and by his
 
 286 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 consistently strong decisive personal behaviour. And 
 all the while he has the haunting personal sorrow — 
 the weakness of his heir. It is difficult to view with 
 calm the presence at Petrograd of such men as the 
 notorious Reinbot, once chief of the Moscow police. 
 May the capital have a complete purge ! 
 
 My eyes discover the dead St. Petersburg. I go to 
 Vassily Island where poor Dostoieffsky Hved in poverty. 
 The dank and dirty water of the Neva and the canals 
 suggests the suicide to my mind. But though the dead 
 past is so evident the young present is also insistent. 
 Petrograd is there. The spirit shops are sealed. Half the 
 private-chamber restaurants are shut. In all shops and 
 pubHc places there are notices up requesting you not 
 to speak German. Bright-faced yoimg men and women 
 dart about with picture post cards and newspapers, 
 and call to you as you pass by, "Buy the news for warm 
 clothing." At first you do not understand, but later 
 you learn that the proceeds of the sales go to provide 
 warm clothing for the men at the front. Then you 
 understand the large placard everywhere extiibited, 
 the touching reminder to the townsfolk of the capital. 
 Everywhere you go you see the words 
 
 it's cold in the trenches 
 
 There are five or six new evening newspapers on the 
 streets, and they are bought na raskvat, like hot pies. 
 Crowds stand all day outside the offices of the Novoe
 
 PETROGRAD 287 
 
 Vremya watching for the new telegrams, which, as 
 soon as they are received, are posted up. There is 
 tremendous interest in the daily news, especially 
 in the doings of the Russian Army and of the British 
 Fleet. Away in the background somewhere the Tsar 
 waits for news also, and receives it first of all before 
 any of his people, and if it is great news he orders that 
 it be given out at once. Then all the papers come out 
 with extra sheets, and in the theatres the favourites 
 of the crowd come forward and stop the orchestra. 
 ''One moment, one moment, please; a great victory 
 in Poland. . . . God save the Tsar ! "
 
 II 
 
 Returning from Russia to England 
 
 As I had determined to return to London for a while 
 I had to come to Petrograd. There I had to decide 
 whether I would take the risk of the Scandinavian 
 route, or whether I would go to Archangel and return 
 on a New York liner that called at Liverpool. By 
 most accounts the North Sea was closed, and there was 
 no traffic between Norway and England except by 
 boats going north of Iceland. However, the ticket 
 agents averred that the way was still open, and I be- 
 lieved them, and they were right. Still, it was a most 
 difficult and unpleasant journey, full of unexpected 
 vexations and troublous doubts, relieved only by the 
 hope and the coming joy of seeing my country again. 
 
 Into the fast Finnish train starting so late one night 
 from Petrograd, and away towards the Gulf of Bothnia 
 shore, the engine screaming like a sea-gull ! The train 
 runs all night long, and in the morning we emerge into 
 a new country with a new landscape — Finland. A 
 melancholy and yet beautiful country. 
 
 Snow-covered fields, cold wooden houses with 
 pointed gables, red-painted chalets, an upland country 
 on which Jack Frost has breathed. Vast shadowy 
 
 288
 
 RETURNING TO ENGLANT) 289 
 
 lakes to which the lowering and tumultuous black 
 sky leans down. There is a sadness beyond words, but 
 it is a country to love tenderly. Far away lies the 
 black other side of the lake looking like the end of 
 the lake's life. We love things that are limited — aU 
 mortal things Kke flowers, humans, Kttle lakes — much 
 more than we love stars, gods, seas. We are tender 
 to all that dies, that has an ending or a limit or another 
 side. 
 
 It is an indi\ddual country this Finland. The high 
 white stone buildings, compact, many-pointed, bleak, 
 are a reflection of jaggedness and ice. There is also 
 a jaggedness in people's faces. 
 
 An accurate people the Finns, efficient, orderly, 
 Protestant. They have their backs to Russia and look 
 towards Germany and Scandinavia. One feels that 
 they have a national destiny within the Russian Empire. 
 It was worth while to get a ghmpse of the people, if only 
 on a two-day journey in their country. 
 
 We had to stay forty-two hours at Raumo on the 
 coast — the port of embarkation for Sweden. We 
 arrived at four in the afternoon, and instead of the train 
 proceeding direct to the harbour it stopped at the town. 
 We were informed that the three Swedish boats in the 
 harbour were packed with Germans thrown out of 
 Russia. We should have to go to an hotel. The 
 hotels were all fuU ; it was necessary to seek a hostess 
 in a private house.
 
 290 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Next morning, while it was yet dark, we had to get 
 up, hire sledges, and pelt through a bhnding snowstorm 
 to the pier, where a boat was supposed to be waiting for 
 us. At the pier we found yesterday's steamer still 
 loading and in no huriy to go out. A boat would come 
 for us some time in the afternoon. Meanwhile our 
 trunks were opened and all correspondence was seized 
 and examined so as to prevent letters being taken 
 abroad "behind the Censor's back." A boat came in 
 and we were given cabins. Next day, about eleven 
 o'clock in the morning, we steamed out of the harbour, 
 led by a pilot. 
 
 What a boat that was I It was packed with German 
 refugees from stem to stern. Germans on the decks, 
 in all the passages, in the saloons and eating-rooms, 
 crying, shouting, jesting. Directly we got out of 
 Russian waters it was possible to buy lager beer and 
 spirits, and the Germans appreciated the situation. 
 As one old drunken fellow said : 
 
 "Im Petersburg nicht wodka, nicht bier, nicht 
 schnapps, nicht wein, nicht nitchevo niet." 
 
 All food and drink in the boat was, however, at star- 
 vation price, and the Swedes spoke no language but 
 their own, and gave wrong change. 
 
 We arrived at Stockholm, a bright and stately city, 
 at three in the morning, and submitted to the Swedish
 
 RETURNING TO ENGLAND 291 
 
 Customs. The German refugees were met by the rep- 
 resentatives of their own nation and by a dozen motor- 
 cars. They were packed into the cars, a dozen in each, 
 and taken off to some EvangeKsche Mission to have hot 
 coffee and sleep a few hours. At 4.30 a.m. the Customs 
 closed and I took a taxi-cab to the locked railway 
 station ; after some banging I was admitted by a porter. 
 The train to Christiania went at 8.38 a.m. This train 
 had only second and third class compartments, but I 
 travelled with two Russians who had booked first-class 
 tickets. We telegraphed to Christiania to reserve 
 seats in the next train to Bergen, but arrived two hours 
 late and had to spend the night at Christiania. 
 
 Christiania seemed a much dirtier city than London, 
 if London were all East End. Its traffic is horse traffic, 
 and the streets seem to be seldom cleaned. There was 
 a pea-soup London fog and a penetrating raw air. 
 
 Next day, after a night in a cold hotel, I was informed 
 that all second-class seats in the Bergen train were 
 taken. I had no objection to third class, so long as 
 I got there ; but I was rather amused to find that I 
 must pay six crowns for a sleeping berth in the third 
 class, even though I had a second-class ticket. Next 
 to me in this train was a Chinese British subject from 
 Hong Kong. He had a first-class ticket, and had 
 paid something hke £1 5s. extra for the privilege of 
 going in a third-class sleeping car. True, they had 
 given him a carriage to himself. But then that rich
 
 292 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 Chinaman was tapped in an extraordinary way ; money 
 flowed from him Hke water at every place he changed. 
 
 « 4c * * * * 4c 
 
 At Bergen things were a little better. We all got 
 the cabins for which we had tickets. But the more 
 dangerous part of the journey commenced. The danger 
 to civilians was a Httle heightened by the fact that we 
 had on board five British naval officers and fifty marines, 
 who had been wrecked off the coast of Norway, but 
 had managed to leave the country as civihans. They 
 momentarily expected the approach of a German 
 cruiser, and, indeed, knew that there was a German 
 submarine near Stavanger that had intelligence of their 
 movements. At Stavanger they were all ordered to keep 
 to their cabins, and not show their faces for a moment 
 above deck. 
 
 It was rough weather. There were only three women 
 passengers. We saw the noses of several floating 
 mines. Many people slept in their life-belts, and we 
 all balanced the idea of a sudden explosion, and a 
 plunge into the cold sea, or a rush to the boats. We 
 were forty-eight hours on the sea, and the last morning 
 was one of mist and fog-horns. British torpedo-boats 
 rushed past us like monsters with their tails in the sea. 
 Black torpedo-destroyers steamed round us. At last 
 Tynemouth became visible like a shadow, the fleet 
 enclosed us, a Httle boat drew up to us, and a man, with 
 his hands to his mouth, cried out in a stentorian voice :
 
 RETURNING TO ENGLAND 293 
 
 " Get your passports ready ! '* 
 
 The Russians on board at once fumbled in their 
 pockets for their passports. It was a famihar order to 
 them. The British officers below, now in their uni- 
 forms, drank champagne. The sick recovered at the 
 thought of England. 
 
 "Any revolvers, any letters you are trying to take 
 past the Censor, anything to declare ? What is your 
 occupation? What have you been doing in Russia? 
 What is your English address?" 
 
 "You can go." 
 
 Yes. Dear England once again. Newcastle, the 
 Scotch express, London, dark London. My word, how 
 dark ! How difficult to get there from Russia! 
 ******* 
 
 Britain is great on the sea. All sea adventures touch 
 us, and even the smallest details of the life of our men 
 are interesting. How tantalising it is that the present 
 vast activity of our fleet and the men on it is without 
 its story. The only time when news becomes explicit is 
 when we are told that a ship has been sunk and some 
 of our brave fellows are dead. I have here a true story 
 of one of the shipwrecked naval officers whom we took 
 on board on my journey home from Bergen to New- 
 castle. It gives an idea of the strangeness and pathos 
 and almost feverish activity of the lives of all our gallant 
 sailors in this war. 
 
 On the first afternoon when I came aboard I v as
 
 294 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 surprised to see among the passengers one Englishman 
 wearing a Russian fur hat and another with an Arch- 
 angel reindeer coat. There were several civihans who 
 kept gathering in knots, talking mysteriously and then 
 separating whenever anyone came near them. When 
 questioned as to where they had come from they talked 
 vaguely of the beauty of Mexico and then of the fiords, 
 hinting that if there were light they would hke to take 
 some snapshots at Stavanger. 
 
 They were a captain and officers who had been on 
 the ill-fated W which sunk off the North of Nor- 
 way, and they were disguised as civihans in case a Ger- 
 man cruiser should come up and revise our passengers 
 and cargo. Not until we had been twelve hours out 
 at sea did they let us others know their story. 
 
 They had escorted the Canadian ice-breakers to 
 Archangel, the ice-breakers that it was hoped would 
 keep the Great Northern port open all the winter. At 
 Archangel they had waited five weeks, always expecting 
 to be returning on the morrow. At last they got orders 
 to sail as passengers on the British tramp steamer 
 W . Seven days after leaving Archangel the cap- 
 tain of the W entrusted his ship to an uncertificated 
 
 pilot — the latter led them over a sunken rock. 
 
 It was at supper time, when everyone was gaily chat- 
 ting and eating, that the crash came and the whole 
 bottom of the ship went to shivers. Everyone thought 
 they had struck a mine. The passengers darted to
 
 RETURNING TO ENGLAND 295 
 
 their cabins and put on their life-belts, and stepped off 
 the vessel into the ice and snow of the sea. A light- 
 house was near and they scrambled over ledges and 
 let themselves down over icy precipices into pools of 
 melting ice and icy water, and so reached the shelter. 
 For twenty-fom* hours they shivered on this hghthouse 
 and sent up rockets. At last a Norwegian post boat 
 hailed them and took them off to Trondhjem, where 
 they were at once put under arrest. Eventually they 
 were allowed to return to England — thanks to the 
 courtesy of the Norwegian Government. All the British 
 naval men were saved and not only they but the cap- 
 tain's black cat, Tim. Tim was a great favourite 
 on our journey from Bergen to Newcastle, and many 
 of the sailors thought our safety depended absolutely 
 upon him. 
 
 The officers were some of the most interesting 
 Englishmen I have met, gentle, calm, firm, never vulgar. 
 I reaHsed that in such men as they lay Britain's true 
 strength. My especial friend of the journey was a 
 young lieutenant who was most eager for England and 
 the Empire. Above all things he admired Canada 
 and the spirit of the Canadians, and he promised him- 
 self that when the war was over he would marry and 
 settle down in British Columbia. I wish London 
 would always remember that when one of her sons 
 leaves her and goes to a place Hke British Columbia, 
 he is not lost to Britain : he belongs to Britain even
 
 296 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 more out there than he could at home. His heart 
 beats for her ; his arm is ready at her service. 
 
 "We were off the shore of Mexico when the war 
 broke out," said he. "We received orders to proceed 
 at once to Victoria, B.C. I was very glad. My 
 sweetheart lives there, and we have been engaged two 
 years. I thought 'now is my chance, we'll get married 
 at once.' But when I got to Victoria another order 
 was awaiting us. We had eight hours in which to pack 
 our things to go to Halifax. I saw my girl for just 
 one hour before departure. But I thought, 'Halifax is 
 not far, I can come back and marry her.' But when 
 we got to HaKfax what was my astonishment to find 
 that we were under orders to proceed at once to Arch- 
 angel. It took my breath away; it was such an 
 unlikely destination. I had barely heard of the place 
 before. We escorted certain ships (the ice-breakers, I 
 feel sure) to Archangel, accomplished the journey 
 safely, and when we arrived at the northern port of 
 Russia the Russian Government made us presents, the 
 captain three hundred roubles, each of us one hundred 
 roubles and each of the men thirty roubles. Yes, they 
 were very hospitable to us also, and it was interesting 
 to see the life of Archangel, but we were all crazy to 
 
 rejoin the fleet. We were put on the ill-fated W 
 
 and were wrecked, taken through Norway, and put on 
 this ship. When we get to Newcastle we shall find new 
 orders awaiting us. I hope to see my father in London.
 
 RETURNING TO ENGLAND 297 
 
 I've been three years away from home, and no one has 
 the least idea where I am or whether I am aUve or 
 dead." 
 
 How excited everyone was when at last we entered 
 British waters, and the officers put off their mixed 
 British and Russian attire and donned their uniforms 
 of blue cloth and gilt braid. The ship hummed with 
 boyish excitement. At Newcastle all the kit that the 
 
 men had saved from the W was brought up first, 
 
 and the officers and men went off before any of the 
 other passengers. The orders at Newcastle were that 
 they should travel direct to London and report them- 
 selves at the Admiralty. A second order came directing 
 that my lieutenant should not stay at London, but 
 should go direct to Portsmouth and take with him the 
 marines. 
 
 I found him in the train from Newcastle. He was 
 appaUingly excited and tired, and had deep black circles 
 below his eyes. "Isn't it hard luck?" said he. "I 
 haven't seen my people for three years, and now I 
 have to go straight on to Portsmouth. I was so pleased 
 to think we were to be in London for some days. 
 You know you can telephone from Newcastle to London. 
 It costs three-and-sixpence, but isn't it a miracle. I 
 rang up my father. Just picked up the receiver, put 
 it to my ears, and called into the tube : ' Is that you, 
 father?' I could hear the old man gasp, hear the 
 shuffle of his feet. ...
 
 298 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 "'Is that you, my son?' 
 
 "'Yes, I am at Newcastle, just arrived, and am 
 coming to London. . . .' 
 
 "What a sweet moment it was! And then I had 
 scarcely put the receiver back again on its hook when 
 I was handed the Admiralty telegram to the effect that I 
 was to catch the 5 a.m. train at Waterloo, and not let 
 the men out of my sight till they were safely bestowed 
 in one of the vessels of the fleet. We have to keep a 
 sharp eye on them, they've plenty of money and would 
 be off drinking if they got a chance. ..." 
 
 This, perhaps, gives a glimpse of the life of the de- 
 fenders of our shores. Someone came into me the other 
 evening and I asked, "What news is there?" 
 
 "Only a British warship sunk," was the reply. 
 Only! And only a few hundred brave and loving and 
 patriotic men like my lieutenant drowned, men with 
 sweethearts and homes and an undying love of their 
 country. Let us remember always that the Empire is in 
 the hands of heroes. 
 
 So I find myself in London. My first impression 
 is one of gloom. Business wishes to be as usual, but 
 cannot quite manage it. The ragtimes have stopped ; 
 the barrel organs play national anthems instead. There 
 is not so much laughter, not so many witticisms, many 
 more serious faces. There is depression owing to the
 
 RETURNING TO ENGLAND 299 
 
 absence of news.* Squads of mixed sizes of recruits go 
 by in unwonted looking khaki suits and the passers-by 
 give no cheers. Darkness at night, and the lurid eyes 
 of the searchlights on the Thames. 
 
 But looking further, I am aware of a great optimism 
 and a renewed national vigour. The people who can 
 really help England are at the fore; those who are 
 frauds, self-seekers, mere self- advertisers, have fallen out. 
 There is a brisk breeze blowing against the cobwebs 
 of lazy habit. Forces are beating against the snobbism 
 in our State departments, education, social life. 
 
 Thousands of people breathe a prayer of this sort: 
 "I hope the war won't end till England has been 
 thoroughly wakened up. I hope the war won't de- 
 generate into a sort of triumphal procession for us. 
 I only hope the Germans will keep their end up till we 
 get a thorough shaking-up." 
 
 Everyone sees gain ahead for England if only the 
 war be hard enough and long enough for us. Yet at 
 the same time it seemed strange to me when I first 
 came back to hear the opinions of Londoners : — 
 
 "It all depends on the Russians. We are waiting 
 for them." 
 
 * With regard to the policy of Censorship, those in authority should re- 
 member that all that is suppressed now will burst out with fury when the 
 war is over, or when some great disaster breaks down the Censorship. 
 Out will come the scandals, the mistakes, the bitternesses, all intensified. 
 That is why there is depression now ; the man in the street cannot discharge 
 his feehngs day by day.
 
 300 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 ''We hold them on the Aisne; we shall starve them 
 out." 
 
 "It is money will tell in the end; we shall finish 
 them with silver bullets." 
 
 To which opinions I necessarily replied: "The 
 Russians cannot do much yet on German soil. War- 
 saw is going to be in danger off and on all the winter. 
 Directly the Russians begin fighting on German soil, 
 they are up against German science, German railways, 
 German technical superiority. The Russians have a 
 much harder task than French and English on the 
 other side. You must depend on yourselves if you are 
 going to win properly. When once you force the hands 
 of the Germans on the west, Russia will follow heavily 
 in the east. Everything depends on prosecuting the 
 war with vigour. 
 
 As for starving the Germans out, don't believe it. 
 It can't be done. The Germans, with their extraor- 
 dinary gift for organisation, and their accuracy and 
 discipline, will easily organise their internal trade and 
 their country of Germany (including conquered Bel- 
 gium) ; and they can Hve in a state of war for a whole 
 era like the Romans. The more time you give the 
 Germans the more difficult it will be to crush them. 
 They are a hard people ; there is little give in them. 
 
 And as for winning by force of money, that is a poor 
 foolish materialism. Nothing can be won by money. 
 It is almost a truism to say that men fight more cour-
 
 RETURNING TO ENGLAND 301 
 
 ageously when they have lost everything. The more 
 faith in money we have, the less likely are we to endure 
 to the end. 
 
 A few weeks after I had returned, the absolute re- 
 liance upon Russia began to slacken, and a good new 
 faith began to appear, faith in ourselves. 
 
 "If you want a thing well done, do it yourself, 
 John ! " and England began to prosecute the war with 
 increasing energy, both on land and on sea. News of 
 victory in Gahcia was received thankfully, but was not 
 regarded as having the peculiar significance of being 
 likely to relieve the situation on the Aisne. I began 
 to hear the true whisper: "We could beat them our- 
 selves."
 
 Ill 
 
 Not Too Loud 
 
 Down in our East End in the sweated labour dens, 
 women are busy making flappers and squeakers and 
 tiddlers and feathers and what not for the celebration 
 of peace. Even German Jews are engaged in the 
 business and are making a considerable speculation 
 upon our maf&cking again. If peace is postponed too 
 long then these wares will be put forth on the occasion 
 of great victories or the German evacuation of the 
 Belgian cities. 
 
 There will be room to be joyful. Our populace 
 will want to shout and get drunk and throw confetti 
 about and make a great noise. And yet I hope the 
 noise will not be too loud and that those of us who 
 are quiet-souled will not be too much upset by the 
 clamour. If all the public-houses and off-license places 
 could be shut for a week during the peace celebrations, 
 or on days when we rejoice over victory, I imagine the 
 noise would be of a more tolerable quality. Perhaps, 
 however, the sweaters in the East End are making a 
 miscalculation. We shall be quiet in our joy. So 
 many more of us this time will have lost brothers in 
 
 302
 
 NOT TOO LOUD 303 
 
 the war, so many families will have the remembrance 
 of great sorrow, and England will be in black. 
 
 Those who have perished will also rejoice with us in 
 the victory and in peace. They will look down as the 
 stars look — serenely. A verse of Alfred Noyes gives 
 the thought : 
 
 " When the last post sounds 
 
 And the night is on the battlefield, 
 Night and rest at last from all the 
 
 tumult of our dreams, 
 Will it not be well with us, 
 
 Veterans, veterans, 
 If with duty done like yours we lie beneath 
 
 the stars." 
 
 The day of peace is one when every man should 
 go to Holy Communion and eat and drink the Bread 
 and Wine of those who have suffered and died for 
 us all, and so enter into communion with their spirits 
 and their passion. Do not let them die or think that 
 they are dead. Find them again, find them again ! 
 
 We are accustomed to think of the Germans as coarse 
 and brutal, and yet we may upon occasion learn tender- 
 ness from them. One of the most touching things I 
 remember reading of the Germans was the way the news 
 of the fall of Antwerp was received in one of their 
 theatres. A political play called "19 14" was being 
 performed. It was about half-past ten at night, when 
 suddenly the manager came on to the stage, interrupting 
 the players and the orchestra, and crying out :
 
 304 RUSSIA AND THE WORLD 
 
 ''One moment, one moment, gentlemen; Antwerp 
 has fallen." 
 
 There was tremendous excitement among the audi- 
 ence, the waving of arms, cheering, shouting, singing, 
 the singing of ''Deutschland over all" and ''The 
 Watch on the Rhine." Then suddenly the manager 
 came forward again and imposed silence by his lifted 
 hand. Following him came the chorus singing in a 
 remonstrant tone this beautiful song : 
 
 Nicht zu laut ! 
 
 Nicht zu laut ! 
 Denkt g'rad jetzt wo Ihr jubelt und lacht ; 
 
 Nicht zu laut ! 
 
 Nicht zu laut ! 
 Fiel ein krieger vielleicht in der Schlacht 
 Und er liegt beim zerschossenen Pf erde 
 Und nimmt abschied von Mutter und Braut — 
 
 Nicht zu laut ! 
 
 Nicht zu laut ! 
 
 which may be read in English : 
 
 Not too loud ! 
 
 Not too loud ! 
 Think just now whilst you laugh and cheer ; 
 
 Not too loud ! 
 
 Not too loud ! 
 How out on the battlefield dark and drear 
 A soldier lies dying, his dead steed beside, 
 And bids farewell to mother and bride — 
 
 Not too loud ! 
 
 Not too loud !
 
 NOT TOO LOUD 305 
 
 Which might also be the motto of our remonstrance 
 and our hope in the noisy hours of triumph. Not too 
 loud! There in the dust where the enemy is lying, 
 but for the grace of God England might be l3ang too. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America.
 
 ilf^ 
 

 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 MAY 3 iQ^z 
 1**^ «WKJULn5200ff 
 
 M 
 
 \Am^ mi 
 
 1941 
 
 if 
 
 mm -:;,'3iii77r,2) 
 
 9 
 
 « 
 
 550 
 
 60 
 
 r^r^ '^ 1984 
 
 ^ "at
 
 DK265 
 G76 
 
 G raham - 
 Su s s i a 6c 
 the v/orld 
 
 DK- 
 265 
 G76 
 
 3 1158 00908 1323 
 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REr>IUNAL LIBRARY FAC^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 AA 000 729 008 3
 
 
 
 
 
 • ■ ■ ? 
 I-.' »'»',■ 
 
 ; * •