GEOLOGY IN BOLSHEVIK LAND 
393 
EDITORIAL 
Ge:ology in Bolshevik Land 
When the geologists of the world convened in Russia in trien¬ 
nial conclave as the seventh Congres International Geologique, 
vanity was deeply touched by the attentions showered upon 
them. The greatest Autocrat of modern times was superlatively 
gracious to the most democratic and independent personages on 
earth. After entertainment surfeiting and on such sumptuous 
scale as had seldom before been their lot to indulge these scientists 
finally set out for home wondering what they had really done to 
merit such prodigious courtesy. High and low vied with each 
other to see which could do greatest homage to their foreign 
guests. Not one of the savants from abroad but who returned 
to Jhis native heath with a feeling akin to thankfulness that in 
human evolution intellectual expansion must come from above 
and percolate downwards, come from the few who are especially 
endowed with the mind, the wealth, and the initiative to encourage 
mental development and to further creative productivity. It 
seemed to be a national trait of character. 
Observant ones also saw vast potential powers among the 
lowly. Politically the leaven of the French Revolution per¬ 
meated not yet the land of the Russ. Internacine strife might 
rent the empire; power of the Tzar might be rudely shattered; 
terrors of foreign war might convulse the nation, but out of it 
all might come popular rule such as the world had never before 
seen. 
That was a quarter of a century ago. When, one day on 
that never to be forgotten occasion, while coursing the Euxine, 
there was of a sudden a mad international scramble among the 
visiting geologists to see who first should reach the lofty bare peak 
of the Sudak which rose steeply out of the waves; and as an 
