14 
LAND & WATER 
April 5, 1917 
the democrats ot Western Europe. Both these groups 
have become much more numerous within the last 
twelve years, and their intiuence has spread until it now 
readies practically all scciiojs of the people, with the 
exception ot the members ot the old bureaucracy. It is 
too much to say that this intiuence amounts to turning 
into revolutionaries the 178 millicni o( the population 
oi the Kusbian Empire, but it has permeated the country 
to auch an extent mat the bulk ot the people are ready to 
follow the new regime, wlule in i(j05 tiiey were more 
inclined to be passive under a rccogmsed wrong. 
The Socialist Group 
It is natural that the second group, with its Socialistic 
tendencies, should lur the last iwelve years have grown 
much more rapidly than that of the vntelligcntsia, since 
it lias a more direct appeal to the peasant and soldier 
of iUl parts of Russia, whether more or less Slavonic in 
ethnic composition. The grouji of intelligentsia, connected 
as it is more or less directly with ideas of reforms on 
national or Slavophil grounus, makes its inlluencc felt 
chieliy among the comparatively small educated classes. 
To the intelligentsia is due the credit of having influenced 
even the Comt circles, so that the present revolution 
has had three centres — in the Court, among the intelli- 
•^cntsia and among " the people "—each in its turn giving 
place to its more powerlul successor. Even the revolu- 
tionary -Grand Dukes have had to \>o\v before the com- 
mands of the l-'rovisionai Government, while the Pro- 
visional Government itself has to follow the programme 
set before it by " the people," represented within it 
chiefly by Mil. Kerer,sky and Chcidze. In both cases 
they have chosen the quietest methods — thus bringing about 
rather a rapid evolution, than a revolution as it is under- 
stood in countries of more Latin temperament. 
Since in 1905 the Secret Pohce and the regular army, 
trained in a Prussian school,, made a strong stand against 
the revolutionaries, tliere was more bloodshed and 
cruelty on both sides than we hear of to-day. It must, 
however, be remembered that those who have seen the 
year 1905 in various parts of the Russian Empire, all 
agree tnat the barbarism showTi bj' the German Barons, 
supported by the Cossack regiments, to the Lettish 
y population of the Baltic Provinces, had no parallel in 
otiier parts of the Empire. Judging from this it might 
well be fexpected that if the Prussian supporters of 
Tsardom had their way now, they would stop at nothing 
in their eliorts to crush the revolution. - 
In bjth cases ideals have taken precedence of economic 
considerations. It might be said that this is true of any 
revolution, but account must be taken of intensity. In 
no other revolution of recent years do we find ideals put 
before material comfort to a greater extent than is being 
done by the Russian revolutionaries to-day. This fact 
is of enormous importance for the morale of all the Allied 
nations, because it vindicates the dhly nation which 
might have been said to fall below the standard set up 
at the beginning of the war. Quite unintentionally, the 
Russian revolutionaries remind the world what we are 
fighting for, and the effect of this reminder cannot fail 
to be felt for good in both European and Asiatic countries, 
since Russia is a combination of both. 
One of the most remarkable changes of the last twelve 
years took place in the attitude of the revolutionaries towards 
the relations with Finland and Poland. 
However detested was the old regime it was occasionally 
successful, and it took care that the bulk of the Russian 
population should know ;as little about Finland and 
Poland as was known to the bulk of the British public. 
Thus the ])opular knowledge has been spread through 
histories written by .special order of the old Ministry of 
Education, such as the well-known Ilovaisky's history 
(the books of Professor Kareiev and Sir Paul Vinogradoh' 
were forbidden for school use), misrepresenting the facts 
according to the Government's political aims. During 
the last twelve years the progressive Russian found the- 
means of learning more about these two countries. 
No school or agitator could have opened the eyes of 
Russian soldiers to the Polish problem better than the 
Russian retieat and the devastation of Poland. 
The Provisional Government of 191 7 has started 
immediate action to relieve the political situation in- 
Finland. Let us hope they will not imitate the old 
government in recognising their debts to Poland merely 
by beautiful manifestos. 
There are two cliief problems arising out of the present 
situation which are not clearly understood by foreigners 
who speak on Russia, and of which even many Russians 
— in 1917 as in 1905— fail to appreciate the significance. 
The first and greatest mistake is to declare that Russia 
is what Europe was, and hence to assume that we shall 
liiid in Russia a repetition of the same evolutionary stages 
thrtnigh which the countries ot Western Eurojx; passed 
before they readied their present position. The lact is 
that Russia is behind Western Europe, and behind even 
Asia, if we consider japan, in culture and poUtical 
organisation, it does not mean that she can develop only 
along the lines laid down by them. She must find her 
own way of dealing with this most ditticult situation, of 
belonging as much to Asia as to Europe. The present 
grandeur of Russia begins historically with the founda- 
tion of the Duchy of Moscow, a Finno- Slavonic con- 
glomeration. Since then many jnorc elements have 
been absorbed into it from the iiast than from the West. 
The settlement of the problems of nationalit\' upon the 
model of a federation of nations within the Russian 
Empire is as unsatisfactory as some of the foreign 
doctrines imported into Russian Europe. Except for 
the two w-estern countries, Poland and Finland, which 
are only politically connected with Russia, but otherwise 
fonii separate units, all the races within the Russian 
Empire have at present strong cultural aflinities with the 
Russians, or strictly speaking, with the Great Russians, 
and they are striving more for personal and communal 
freedom and betterment of social conditions' than for 
national independence. 
Deeply Rooted Traditions 
It has been said that only autocracy kept together this 
mixture of races, and it is true that Russia's autocratic 
traditions are deeply rooted— derived as they were from 
Byzantium and Tartary. and strent!;thened by a frame- 
work of Prussian organisation. , But.Von tlie' other hand, 
it may be argued th;it Russia has more chances of demo- 
crj.tic government than many other Empires of Europe 
and Asia, since this very mixture of races tends to mini- 
mise class distinctions and to accentuate democratic 
tendencies. This will be evident If we think of Russia in 
terms of millions instead of in thousands, as has hitherto 
been the habit of travellers. 
The other misundcrstuHding is . in connection with 
the religion of the Russian people. Manj' writers, by 
placing Orthodoxy alongside of Autocracy, lead people 
to understand Orthodoxy as embodied in the enforced 
State religion with the autocratic monarch at its head, 
and the undeducated clergy and half- heathen monks 
working hand in hand with corrupt police and gendar- 
merie to keep the people ignorant and poor. For this, 
however, we cannot blame the dogma of the Orthodox 
Church, any more than' we can blame the dogma of the 
Roman Catholic Church for the corruption rife in the 
timies of the Borgias. Once the Orthodox Church has 
ceased to be an instrument in the hands of the autocracy, 
and uses as its administrators a moral and educated 
clergy, it will be a form of religion which has a sounder 
theological and moral basis than many of the modern 
sects of Russia. But this, alas, neither intelligentsia 1 
nor " people" remember when they condemn the Orthodox ■ ■ 
Church in its ))resent condition. 
One fundamental fart must be remembered. It is 
with Christianity that the nations of Eastern Europe 
entered into the heritage of European culture ■. thus for 
the Western Slavs (Poles, Czechb) acceptance of Roman 
Catholicism meant the acceptance of Latin culture, 
scrips, political organisation and general outlook ; just 
as the Eastern Slavs by being baptized into the Eastern 
Church, received at the same time the Graeco-Byzantine 
type of culture. In the same way Finland is Protestant 
not only in religion, but in the whole of its cultural hfe. 
It would be a greater advantage to Russia if the rclormers 
would exploit this historical factor in their reorganisation 
of the country, instead of neglecting a most deeply- 
rooted trait of the bulk of the population of Russia — 
the necessity for giving expression to religious emotion. 
