Russians were so ostensibly fond of Americans was because they are so
much like us. Perhaps there is some truth behind his remark, but in
many ways they are decidedly unlike us, and not all these divergencies
are by any means to their disadvantage.
I do not anticipate that their political development will parallel that
of America. I do not see why it should, nor do I see how it can. Their
national ideals cannot take form in the molds cast by Jefferson and
Hamilton. And in their struggle for freedom and righteousness it is
quite conceivable that they will evolve political forms and practices
adapted to the modern days and conditions.
Military men who characterize the Russian peasant as lazy, indolent, and
indifferent do not know what they are talking about. They do not see
through the peasant's whiskers. They resent too strongly the peasant's
aversion to the military profession. The peasant is no mollusc as they
learn who have to do with him long. He will fight a long fight for his
freedom, and fight it in his own way. And he will win it, may I
predict, and win it so gloriously that light will shine once more again
from the East even into the West.
Standing on the key at Archangel and waving farewells to the American
soldiers who filled the decks and rigging of a transport slowly moving
off with the current, an educated Russian friend said to me: "They are
good boys, I am glad they came and glad they are going away. But now as
never before Russia knows that she cannot be a second America. Now we
do not want to be a second America. Russia must find her own way, for
herself." He had to wipe tears from his face as he turned for a moment
from the ship to say, "And you will go soon too?"
"Yes."
"But I shall stay here, and die fighting for Russia--fighting men who
love Russia perhaps as much as I do."
THE END