CHAPTER XXXV 



&quot;ALL SOETS AND CONDITIONS OF MEN&quot; IN EUSSIA 1892-1894 



STILL another department which interested me was 

 that known as the &quot;Ministry of Public Enlighten 

 ment, its head being Count Delyanoff. He was certainly 

 a man of culture; but the title of his department was 

 a misnomer, for its duty was clearly to prevent enlighten 

 ment in the public at large. The Russian theory is, evi 

 dently, that a certain small number should be edu 

 cated up to a certain point for the discharge of their 

 special duties ; but that, beyond this, anything like the gen 

 eral education of the people is to be discouraged; hence 

 the Russian peasant is the most ignorant and helpless in 

 Christendom. 



There was evidently a disposition among very many of 

 the most ardent Russians to make a merit of this imperfect 

 civilization, and to cultivate hatred for any people whom 

 they clearly saw possessing anything better : hence it came 

 that, just as so many Frenchmen hate Great Britain, and 

 so many in the backward, slipshod regions of our coun 

 try hate New England, it was quite the fashion among 

 large classes of Russians to hate everything German, and 

 especially to detest the Baltic provinces. 



One evening during my stay a young Russian at a social 

 gathering of military and other officials voiced this feel 

 ing by saying, &quot;I hope the time will soon come when we 

 shall have cleared out all these Germans from the Rus 

 sian service; they are the curse of the country.&quot; There 

 upon a young American present, who was especially noted 



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