GERMANY AND HER NEIGHBORS 233 



have much to do with it. The Russian climate, as we have seen, 

 varies extremely from season to season. The long cold winters 

 are deadening. The air becomes cold and stays cold. There are 

 indeed changes of temperature, but the variety of weather during 

 the winter is not nearly so great as in a place like New York. 

 Thus health is impaired more than in the northeastern United 

 States. The spring and fall, however, are admirable. In summer, 

 on the other hand, although large parts of the country are so 

 far north that they do not become very hot, the monotony of the 

 climate or some other cause raises the deathrate enormously. 

 Whatever may be the reason, the deathrate of Russia in July, 

 according to official figures for a long series of years, is 45 per 

 cent greater than in May and 55 per cent greater than in October. 

 Such extreme and sudden fluctuations in health must have a corre- 

 sponding mental effect. Moreover, where the health of the com- 

 munity varies so greatly from season to season it also varies much 

 from year to year. Thus in the Russian people we should look 

 for fluctuations between optimism and pessimism similar to those 

 which our own business men experience, but on a much greater 

 scale. That is what we actually find. We see it in daily inter- 

 course with the Russians. It pervades their literature. A good 

 example is Tolstoy's novel, "Resurrection." During his youth 

 the hero is filled with high ambitions. Then he succumbs to 

 sensualism, but is overwhelmed with remorse. Finally he decides 

 on a course of expiation, but carries it out in an inconclusive, 

 half-hearted manner that is most irritating. Finally when the 

 hero leaves the girl whom he has wronged, and lets her continue 

 on her way to Siberia, the reader closes the book with the same 

 pitiful and disappointed feeling that we all have when we think 

 of the events in Russia during the second half of the Great War, 

 The Russian revolution after the Japanese War was quite in 

 accord with Russian character — a revolution that promised much 

 but accomplished little. And the Great War furnishes an example 

 of the same proneness to begin a task with great enthusiasm and 



