Russia and the Russians (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900. Excerpt: ... XIII THE RUSSIAN FUTURE Such has been the historical development of Russia; such are the chief features of her civilization. Centuries of growth have given her a continuous territorial extent superior to that of any other nation on the planet. With enormous resources; with immense populations from which to recruit her armies; with her questions of foreign aggrandizement turning not on the popular will, but on the simple decision of the ruler, Russia is enabled on land and sea to play the part, not only of a nation among nations, but of a firstclass military power. Yet when we turn to her internal life, we find that in respect of both political and religious institutions she is not only not modern, but that she is living at least 400 years en retard as compared with western Europe. How largely her home problems have been neglected may be seen in the fact that, in portions of the empire, such as Great-Russia, the proportion of illiteracy rises as high as 94 per cent. Her land system, upon which depend the occupation and sustenance of the great bulk of her people, has now reached a condition of crisis, the feverish pulse beats of which are periodically announced to the world in rhythmically recurring famines. Russia supports, in her mediaeval church, a superstitious and unprogressive religion, repudiated in form by millions of her uneducated, rejected in substance and outright by most of her subjects who have any claim to culture. She is to-day, moreover, as devoid of free political institutions as she was in the times of Ivan the Terrible; after ages of contact with Europe, her people accept the will of an autocrat, entrenched in the loyalty of the peasants, as the supreme law. Not one of the 150,000,000 of her population has the slightest voice in determin...