RUSSIA.
I. Russian Landscape and the National Character—Rurik to
Peter the Great—German Influence—The Russian Awakening.
II. Siberia—White Russians—Little Russians—Great
Russians—Cossacks—The People of the Sunflower—Made in
Germany—The Reaction.
I.
Roughly speaking, there are 172 million Slavs in the world. The
Russians alone number about 110 millions, and these millions occupy a
vast country reaching from the snows of the far North, to lands where
the orange-trees bloom all the year round. The Russian holds that his
dear “little mother Russia” is the most beautiful land of all the
earth. The mountain fastnesses and precipices of the Urals, the green
slopes of the Caucasus, the Siberian wastes, the grey shores of the
Baltic and the sunny shores of the Euxine—the Volga and the Don, and
even the sacred steppes—to him they are all beautiful, to him they
reflect the image of his soul and his feelings. The Western traveller
will find some difficulty in understanding this passionate love of
the Russian for his country, and will feel tempted to draw sharp
comparisons between the degrees of beauty in the various districts.
But the landscape of Russia is as peculiar as the Russian people. It
is as Russian as the Russian himself. There is probably not another
country in the world where the climatic and geological conditions have
so deeply influenced the inmost character of the people, even to their
external features. Where the landscape is beautiful and the climate
sunny, the handsome noble Russian type prevails; whereas the cold,
inhospitable tracts produce the characteristic wide-faced, flat-nosed
type. Yet there is a strange resemblance between the rough type and the
handsome type analogous to that which a careful observer cannot fail
to notice between the different types of Russian landscape. For though
the steppe is grey, and the fields of Caucasia are green, yet both are
animated by something that wears the same countenance, breathes the
same purely Russian atmosphere, and is suffused with the same wonderful
charm. It is the charm of perfectly balanced contrast. The soil of
Russia has a soul like the soul of her children, for whom she cares and
lives and breathes. This soul appears everywhere the same; it exhales
the same perfume from the dry grass of the steppe as from the Crimean
groves of syringa.
The Russian soil is fertile, inexhaustively fertile, as if it were
conscious of the millions dependent upon it. Metaphorically speaking,
this soil produces its gifts out of itself, and offers them lavishly
to its children. The Russian never works more than he is obliged to—he
need not wrestle with the soil, he need only not forget it. But he
tills it with love; he does not force the gifts of Nature, he coaxes
them from her, and where these fruits do not appear on the surface, he
seeks them in the heart of the earth, and goes down the coal-shafts and
lead-mines with the same serene confidence with which he ploughs the
sunlit surface. Is he not still with his “little mother”?
The Russian is a farmer by nature. The great industrial developments of
the last decades have resulted automatically from the natural wealth
of the country, but the true Russian reaps little benefit from this
industrial boom. His commercial gifts are not great, and he has been
content to leave the business exploitation of the country in the hands
of foreigners, so long as he makes his own little profit. Mills and
factories are “German monsters” in his eyes, and he prefers to give
them a wide berth. But latterly there has been a great agitation in
favour of the resuscitation of all home industries. The Russian has
grasped the fact that his policy of sentiment in business will have to
be modified to suit modern times, and that the welfare of the people
must not be dependent on foreign middle-men. The present great conflict
with the Germans, who have hitherto so largely monopolised Russian
industry, will doubtless do much to further this movement towards
industrial emancipation.
* * * * *
The History of Russia begins practically with Rurik (862) who is
supposed to have come from Scandinavia and laid the foundations of
a Russian state.[2] At the coming of Rurik the Russians were split
up into many separate communities under independent chiefs. Rurik
introduced a new spirit of united organization, and all efforts
towards establishing a Russian Empire date from him. Of course it
was inevitable that this founding of an Empire should involve much
opposition, revolt, war, and bloodshed. Each district was proud and
jealous of its independence, and only yielded after a hard and bitter
struggle. During the period of Empire-making Russian history abounds
in such bloody episodes. The Grand-Dukedom of Muscovy was the largest
of the Russian petty States and in every way the best equipped, so
that the task of organization naturally devolved upon it, together
with the fruits of victory. Six centuries of ceaseless struggle
against foes from without and within bring us from Rurik’s day to the
accession of Ivan Vassilievitch III. (1462-1505), who is regarded as
the founder of Russian Tsardom. He incorporated the still independent
principalities of Twer, Moshnik, and Vologda with the Grand-Dukedom
of Muscovy, defeated the powerful Republic of Novgorod, and freed
himself completely from the Tatar yoke (1480). In 1472 he married Zoë,
a daughter of Thomas Palaeologus, the brother of the last Byzantine
Emperor. European customs were first brought into Russia through this
princess, and the double-headed eagle of Byzantium introduced in the
Russian coat of arms. The celebrated Uspenskij and Blagoveshchenski
Cathedrals in Moskva were built in the reign of Ivan Vassilievitch III.
He promulgated a decree pronouncing the realm henceforth united and
undivisible by law, and was the first Russian ruler to assume the title
of “Tsar of all the Russias.” Christianity, introduced by St. Vladimir
(980-1054), had by this time fully blossomed forth as the national
religion, so that we can date the foundation of “Holy Russia” of to-day
in all her greatness from the age of Ivan Vassilievitch III.
During the following ages the power of Tsardom increased and finally
reached its zenith with Peter the Great, who may be called the first
of the modern Russian Tsars. He applied his own acquired Western
knowledge to Russia, and enormously improved the general status of
the realm. In his reign Russia began to play her part as a political
and military power, for it was he who founded the Russian navy and
mercantile marine. He was a ruthless autocrat, and many pages of his
reign are traced in blood; yet with him autocracy was not so much a
matter of sentiment as of dire necessity. He loved his Russian people
passionately, but said that it was a people who had to be made great
by force. Confident in the inalienable national character he saw no
danger in importing foreigners wholesale to help in the building up of
Russian administration. He surrounded himself with German advisers,
appointed Germans to responsible offices, and freely admitted the
German element into Russia as a means of spreading “culture.” In many
ways German thoroughness proved a most useful asset in carrying out the
Tsar’s intentions. On the other hand it gave rise to a dynasty and an
autocratic aristocracy of foreign stock who failed to understand the
Russian people, and whose influence proved disastrous to civilization
and intellectual freedom in Russia. _Outwardly_, Russia became a
world-power under Peter the Great, but _internally_ it fell a prey to a
system of spiritual slavery, which has been perpetuated even to recent
years by the successors of Peter and their councillors, the descendants
of German immigrants. _Here lies the true cause of the revolutionary
movement of more than a century._ The last three Tsars of Russia—the
two Alexanders and the present Tsar—have taken steps to eliminate the
great evil, and if, so far, they have only been partially successful,
the fault lies not with them nor with the Russian people, but with
the _still German_ mind of their advisers. The abolition of serfdom,
repeated constitutional manifestos and the introduction of the Duma
system are momentous steps towards a brighter future. But the gate to
this future can only be fully opened with the conclusion of the present
war.
II.
Although Russia has acquired millions of non-Russian subjects—chiefly
through the Crimea, Bessarabia and her Asiatic possessions—she has
never lost her purely Russian character. The laws concerning land
purchase are so constituted that the territories belonging to the heart
of Russia cannot to any great extent pass into non-Russian hands, which
accounts for the fact that these parts of the Empire have remained
essentially Russian. Siberia holds an exceptional position, and is
to-day a great colonial province with a mixed population. Every year
the wealth and fertility of Siberia become more and more apparent, and
instead of being bleak and uninhabited, this country is now distinctly
populous. The horrors of Siberia as a penal colony are becoming a
thing of the past, and only the perpetrators of grave crimes are still
condemned to labour in the lead-mines and languish in the Katorga
(penal servitude). Convicts who are simply exiled to Siberia are able
to earn a comfortable livelihood under tolerable conditions—apart from
the loss of liberty and vexatious police supervision. Thus it often
happens that time-expired convicts prefer to remain in Siberia, and
eventually find not only a home but prosperity in the new country.
Siberia, the Crimea and Bessarabia are all three interesting as
countries and as Russian territories, but in a sketch of the Russian
people they are unimportant. The true Russian stock falls into three
great bodies, the “Bielorussi” (White Russians), the “Velikorussi”
(Great Russians) and the “Malorussi” (Little Russians). They represent
the North, the Centre and the South of Russia. Ethnologically,
economically, and intellectually the White Russians represent the
lowest type. They inhabit the Northern tracts from the borders of
Poland, ancient Lithuania, and Novgorod. The governments of Minsk,
Litav, and Smaljensk are their central provinces. Theirs is a
poverty-stricken and, one might add, a slothful Russia. Agricultural
facilities are limited, the soil is not very fertile, and the White
Russian is not sufficiently industrious or persevering to improve it
by rational farming. The people are more apathetic than elsewhere in
Russia, and less inclined to adopt modern ideas with enthusiasm. These
people become nervous and excitable only when menaced by a dearth of
food; then their attitude is often much more dangerous than the tide of
social revolution. At least the White Russian has kept his type fairly
pure and in spite of alien neighbours he shows little trace of racial
admixture.
The Little Russians, who inhabit the entire South of Russia, and from
whose stock the famous Cossacks are sprung, differ most radically
from their northern brothers. They are the excitable, hot-blooded,
dare-devil Russians. In type the men are fine-looking and handsome
almost without exception, and the women often exceedingly beautiful.
Their language differs from other Russian speech by the extreme
softness of the dialect (which is not unlike Serbo-Croatian), and
their music and poetry are the finest in the Slav race. In the past
the Little Russians were divided into many small and independent clans
who outvied each other in reckless warlike enterprises. Of course
the wonderful Cossacks always took the lead. They still occupy their
original home on the Don and in Caucasia, and furnish the _élite_
of the Russian Army, even as they once were the flower of the Little
Russian tribes. Moreover, they preserved to the very last their freedom
and their privileges in Russia. To-day one is accustomed to look upon
the Cossacks as merely a body of men especially devoted to the Tsar,
but, as a matter of fact, the Cossack people have had a most chequered
and interesting past. Once they formed an independent warrior-nation,
feared and courted by their neighbours; and so secure in their
strength did they feel, that they even dared to answer the Turkish
Sultan’s demand for submission with a letter of taunting derision (the
well-known Cossack Ultimatum). They played a great part in the history
of Russia, and each Russian ruler in turn endeavoured to assure himself
of their support. After their final subjection to Russia (1851) the
Cossacks gradually exchanged their political importance for their
present military value. Tolstoi wrote about them as follows—though his
remarks really apply to the whole of the Little Russian people: “Many
years ago the ancestors of the Cossacks, who were ‘Old Believers,’ fled
from Russia and settled on the banks of the Terek (Caucasus). They are
a handsome, prosperous and warlike Russian population, who still
retain the faith of their fathers. Dwelling among the Chechentzes, the
Cossacks intermarried with them and acquired the usages, customs and
mode of living of these mountaineers. But their Russian tongue and
their ancient faith they preserved in all their pristine purity....
To this day the kinship between certain Cossack families and the
Chechentzes is clearly recognizable and a love of freedom and idleness,
a delight in raiding and warfare are their chief characteristics.
Their love of display in dress is an imitation of the Circassians.
The Cossack procures his admirable weapons from his mountaineer
neighbours, and also buys or ‘lifts’ his best horses from them. All
Cossacks are fond of boasting of their knowledge of the Tatar tongue.
At the same time this small Christian people considers itself highly
developed, and the Cossack only as a full human being. They despise
all other nationalities.... Every Cossack has his own vineyard, and
presses his own wine, and his immoderate drinking is not so much due
to inclination as to sacred custom, to neglect which would be regarded
as a kind of apostasy.... Women he looks upon as a means for promoting
his prosperity. Only the young girls are allowed by him to enjoy any
leisure: from a married woman he demands a life of drudgery from early
youth to old age, and he is quite Oriental in expecting deference and
hard work from his wife.... The Cossack who considers it unbefitting in
the presence of strangers to exchange a kind or affectionate word with
his wife involuntarily feels her superiority as soon as he is alone
with her. For the whole of his house and farm are acquired through her
and maintained by her labour and care....”
Between these extremes of Northern and Southern Russia, the Great
Russian stands out like a beacon or an indestructible landmark. He
represents the _purest_ type of the Russian people, the children of
“matyushfia Moskva.” Whatever Russia has produced in the way of true
greatness in every sense of the words, has its cradle in Great Russia,
and has been nursed at the breast of Mother Moskva. This truly Russian
people inhabits the huge central tracts of Russia, and the governments
of Moskva and Novgorod are their particular home. The Russian faith
owes its beauty, the Russian ideal its purity to this people, and
to the race they have given the _All-Slav Ideal_. And they are the
only Russian people whose soul has two faces, an outer and an inner
one. The Russian sculptor Tsukoff has symbolized them in a figure
resembling a sunflower. It is as well to know that the Great Russian
cannot live without sunflower-seeds. He calls them “podsolnushki.”
Everything is smothered in “podsolnushki” shells—streets, floors of
rooms and railway carriages, even the corners in the churches. Every
Great Russian munches “podsolnushki,” and by temperament he himself
is a “podsolnushki.” He has an outer shell and a kernel. In Russia
the sunflower is queen of the flowers, and as the sunflower is among
the flowers so is the Great Russian among the Russian peoples. He is
the true “tsarkiya Rus.” The Tsar is the sun, the heart of the realm,
and the Muscovite people are the “podsolnushki.” Each individual
is only one among many, a particle, a seed for the propagation and
glorification of his own race. Probably, the Great Russian has no equal
in the world as regards idyllic simplicity. Not because he munches
“podsolnushki,” crosses himself in tram-cars when passing a church,
goes about in big boots in the heat of summer, and drinks vodka, wine
and beer without regard to time or season, but because he is a true
yeoman soul. He is quite indifferent to all that does not interest
him personally. The surface of his soul is as hard and impervious as
the shell of the sunflower seed. His face wears an imperturbable,
changeless expression. To reach the kernel of his _human_ soul one has
to discard every formality, thrust aside every obstacle, and _bite_
into it as if it were a sunflower seed. If you abuse him roundly
and “have it out” with him, he suddenly shows himself in his true
colours, the best and kindliest of souls; but if you handle him with
kid gloves you will never get a glimpse of his inner nature. As an
acquaintance the charm of the Great Russian consists chiefly in his
sudden transition from sharp resistance to an unexpected exhibition of
gentle, unaffected loveableness. The Great Russian has a strong natural
talent for philosophy, but, metaphorically speaking, his philosophy is
as vegetarian as his cooking has largely remained to this day. There is
a scent of dried herbs, new-mown hay, and southern-wood about it; it
recalls dark forests where the sunlight, piercing the rifts between the
tree-tops, shines with golden-blue, unearthly splendour—a ray of the
light Divine. His philosophy is innocent of blood like the saints of
the old ikons.
This Great Russian people is the flower of Russia, the Sunflower, whose
golden petals point the way for the future of the whole Russian nation.
* * * * *
The problem of Russian culture has its roots in the Russian _people_,
and not in the educated classes. The desire for culture has emanated
from the people themselves, and the spirit they evinced has pointed
the way for the educated classes in the great struggle for national
culture within recent years. The educated man is the interpreter of the
popular demand for culture, and of the intellectual wealth dwelling in
the soul and mind of the Russian people. Almost the whole of Russian
art and literature is derived from this source, and it has never shown
the world so much the genius of the poet, painter, or the sculptor in
question, as the genius of the Russian people that produced him; and
the best that is revealed in Russian art is the face of the Russian
soul with its manifold aspects of thinker, philosopher, and purely
human being. Dostoievski, Tolstoi, Gogol, Gontsharoff, Tshekhoff,
Gorki and Andreeff in poetry; Repin, Vasnetsoff, Tsukoff, Troubetzkoy
and many others in the pictorial arts;—all have learnt what they had
to tell from the soul of the people and the _wisdom_ of this soul;
and the Great Russian musicians have used the voice of the people
throughout for the expression of their art. They are all of them
merely interpreters of the rich fund of culture, the latent culture
of the Russian people. This latent culture, in conjunction with the
holy Russian faith, has advanced towards the highest development of
human dignity and nobility, towards peace founded not upon blood, but
upon love. The abuse the Germans have heaped upon Russian barbarism
is merely the outcome of envious rage on the part of an inferior, who
sees his artificial pseudo-culture endangered by another culture which
blossoms from the depths of the human heart.
The non-Russian Slavs stood for a long time under the influence of
German culture. With their characteristic aggressiveness the Germans
represented their culture as the high-water mark of civilization and
inculcated it everywhere with the same violence which at present
distinguishes the advance of their invading hordes. Even nations
possessing a peerless millennial culture, like the French and Italians,
have found it difficult to escape their influence. But a sham must
inevitably die of its own exposure. Every people, every nation has
its own peculiar susceptibility, a kind of instinctive taste, which
refuses to tolerate anything that does not appeal to its soul, and
could act destructively upon it. The peoples of the West have for
some time past boycotted the “Williamitic” culture, and only sundry
isolated Slav peoples have admitted it—principally those who were
practically dependent on Germany, and whose native culture was forcibly
suppressed. The result was that a few years ago a non-Russian Slav knew
his sentimental Schiller better than his Dante, Lenau better than his
Pushkin, Kleist better than Shakespeare, and Gottfried Keller better
than Dostoievski. In the Slav schools in Austria-Hungary the German
language is obligatory as the official language (the other languages
are to this day not permitted in the schools), German history is taught
as the standard of national greatness and civilization and German
literature and art as practically unique and unequalled. All that bore
the hallmark “Made in Germany” was inculcated as ideal. Thus it was
not at all strange that German culture has for a long time predominated
among these Slavs. But the Slav instinct always hated this culture,
though at first unconsciously, and sensed it as a false and treacherous
enemy. Then Russia began her intellectual campaign among the Slavs. At
first it was an uphill struggle, for the Government authorities placed
every possible obstacle in the way of this propaganda. But when the
Slav peoples realized that the Russian influence could only reach them
as forbidden fruit, they began greatly to desire it. To the power of
the State they opposed the power of their will and their instincts.
This struggle is still in progress, but it has been uniformly
successful in favour of the Russian influence. During the ’eighties
the results of this influence began to show fruit, and since that time
Slav intellectual and educational development has safely entered the
fairway of Russian intellectualism. Art and literature have followed
the lines laid down by Russia, and become more definitely Slavonic. The
latent mental wealth and resources of the Slav nations have come to the
surface and appear pure and unaffected and entirely free from German
“angularity,” while their social problems betray a distinct kinship
with the Russian social movement. In recent years this process of
emancipation and affiliation has so far developed that it has entered
the field of politics and materialized in the _Russian protectorate
over all the Slavs_. This, however, required no propaganda—it arose out
of itself, as will appear in the chapters dealing with the other Slav
nations.