1 82 THE GR OWTH OF R USSIA 



Montenegro, and Bulgaria owe their quasi-inde})endence. How far 

 selfi.sh motives have controlled her action they can not tell, but of one 

 thing they are sure — it is, that Russia has iought for them, and that 

 no other Euro])ean nation ever expended anything but words in their 

 behalf. Despite intrigues from abroad and petty ambitions and jeal- 

 ousies at home, the cofiperation of the Balkan States is assured to 

 Russia. 



Russia's influknce in asia 



Russia's larger and more recent conquests have been in Asia. i\m- 

 fronted for centuries ]>y Orientals, both along her borders and ui)on 

 her soil, she understands the Oriental to the core. Among these wild 

 and lawless peoples, explosive as gunpowder, the torch of civilization 

 can be carried only with a firm and steady hand. Asia has never 

 voted except with swords. The sword is the onlv l)allot which the 

 continental Asiatic respects or comprehends. In that vast region, 

 wherever her rule has gone, it has been equally vigorous and benefi- 

 cent. From the Bosphorus to China there is an awe of Russia such 

 as no other power on earth can inspire. 



THE DESTI.NY OF RUSSIA 



But it is not in broadening territorial extent or teeming numbers, 

 not in world-wide jtrestige or disciplined armies, that a nation must 

 confide. The throne of Napoleon III was falling months before he 

 declared war against Prussia and set out on his journey to Sedan. 

 The foundation stone of national existence and national greatness is 

 the spirit of a i)eople. 



In the i^eculiar character of her common jieople is Russia's abiding 

 strength. Tenacious, docile, imitative, but not inventive; receptive, 

 l)ut not constructive ; profoundly religious, as he understands relig- 

 ion ; sul)missive to what he considers the will of God and the Czar, 

 the Russian has remained unchanged through all these changing 

 ■years. Said Grodzitski in the tower of Kudak when surrounded by 

 his foes: "I am commanded to stay here, I sta}' ; commanded to 

 watch,*I watch; commanded to be defiant, I am defiant; and if it 

 comes to dying, since my mother gave me birth, I shall know how to 

 die, too." 



There were only 12,000,000 Ru.ssians when Peter, at the beginning 

 of the last century, crushed the might of Sweden at Pultowa. There 

 were only 28,000,000 when Catharine II signed the first treaty be- 



