THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE.
While our hard-pressed troops are retreating from Mons before
overwhelming numbers of the enemy, we must turn to what is called the
Eastern theatre of war and see what is happening there. Before, however,
I describe the actual fighting, I must tell you something about Russia
and the Russian army.
You probably know that Russia is not only equal in extent to half
Europe, but stretches right across the northern part of the continent of
Asia to the waters of the Pacific Ocean. This vast empire actually
covers one-seventh of all the land on the globe. Unlike the British
Empire, it is continuous; you may travel from one end of it to the other
by rail. You will get some idea of the tremendous railway journey
involved when I tell you that the distance from the old city of Warsaw
on the river Vistula to Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan is about 6,200
miles--that is, about two-fifths of the circumference of the world at
the latitude of London.
Naturally you will expect this vast empire to be inhabited by vast
numbers of people. In the year 1912 it was estimated that there were
more than 171 millions of people under the sway of the Tsar--that is,
more than one in ten of all the people on earth. I have already told you
of the extraordinary variety of races which dwell beneath the Union
Jack; there is almost as great a variety of peoples in the Russian
Empire. There are, for example, thirty different races in the Caucasus
alone. The bulk of the inhabitants, however, are of Slav race, and are
descended from a people who, ages ago, entered Europe from Asia, and
gradually conquered the land and settled in it. What are known as the
Great Russians form the strongest and toughest race in the whole
empire. They are Slavs who in early times intermingled with the Finns
and set up the kingdom of Moscow. These Great Russians gradually
succeeded in enlarging their borders, until their territory stretched to
the Crimea and Turkestan on the south and south-east, to Manchuria in
the far east, and to Germany in the west. The Great Russians are now the
largest and most important of all the Russian peoples, and they occupy
the bulk of the country.
The descendants of the races and tribes which the Great Russians subdued
still exist, and they differ as widely from their conquerors as a
northern Frenchman differs from a southern Frenchman. One of these
conquered races consists of the White Russians, who represent some of
the earliest Slav colonists, and live near the sources of the Niemen,
the Dwina, and the Dnieper in the south-west of the country. Most of the
people of the south, however, are Little Russians. They speak a dialect
of their own, love dance and song, and are less fond of work than the
peoples of Northern Russia.
Amongst other races in Russia are the Poles, a Slav people with quite a
separate language. In Chapter III. of our first volume I told you that
in the days of the English King Edward III. Poland was an important and
flourishing kingdom. I also told you how the sovereigns of Prussia,
Russia, and Austria conspired to seize portions of this kingdom, and how
it was gradually gobbled up until the Poles, like the Jews, had no land
which they could call their own. From that day to this they have yearned
for the time when their old kingdom might be restored to them. On the
15th day of August, when the war was in full swing, the Tsar addressed
the Poles as follows:--
"Poles! The hour has sounded when the sacred dream of your fathers and
grandfathers may be realized. A century and a half has passed since the
living body of Poland was torn in pieces; but the soul of the country is
not dead. It continues to live, inspired by the hope that there will
come for the Polish people an hour of resurrection and of brotherly
friendship with Great Russia. The Russian army brings you the solemn
pledge of this friendship which wipes out the frontiers dividing the
Polish peoples, and unites them under the sceptre of the Russian Tsar.
Under this sceptre Poland will be born again, free in her religion and
her language. You will be granted Home Rule under the protection of
Russia.
[Illustration: Polish Soldiers of the old days crossing the River
Dneister.
(_From the picture by the Polish artist Juliusz Kossak._)]
"With open heart and brotherly hand Great Russia advances to meet you.
She believes that the sword with which she struck down her enemies at
Grünewald[23] is not yet rusted. From the shores of the Pacific to the
North Sea the Russian armies are marching. The dawn of a new life is
beginning for you, and in this glorious dawn is seen the sign of the
Cross, the symbol of suffering, and of the resurrection of peoples."
Cannot you imagine the joy of the Poles, not only of Russia, but of
Germany and Austria, when they heard these glad tidings? The Poles of
Germany have always been badly treated by the Germans, and they were
immediately won over to the side of Russia by this proclamation. When
the day of victory arrives Germany will have to give up Prussian Poland,
and Austria will have to give up Galicia; and these provinces, together
with Russian Poland, will constitute the new kingdom which will rise
again after being torn asunder and beaten to the dust for a hundred and
fifty years.
The Poles are by no means the only subject race of the Great Russians.
There are the Lithuanians and the Finns in the west and north-west, the
Tartars and Bashkirs in the east, and the Kalmucks, a Mongol people, who
live beyond the Volga. In addition to these peoples, there are the races
of the Caucasus, and the many others who inhabit Asiatic Russia. Some
five million Jews also live in the Empire, chiefly in the south-west and
in Poland.
The armies of Russia are mainly recruited from the peasants. In Northern
Russia the peasant is generally a tall, well-built man, with fair hair
and blue eyes. In the south, as a rule, he is darker. In civil life the
men wear loose shirts belted round the waist, cloth putties on the legs,
and, in summer, shoes of plaited straw on the feet. They also wear
peaked caps and loose knickerbockers of thin cloth. On Sundays and
feast-days they dress in shirts of the brightest colours--red, blue,
yellow, and salmon-pink. In winter they wear big top-boots, made of gray
felt, and brown leather greatcoats, lined with sheepskin. The women do
not wear hats but handkerchiefs over their heads.
The peasant thinks of himself as a member of a family, and addresses
his fellows as father, brother, son, or child. He lives in a one-storied
house, built of logs and thatched with straw. Inside the house there is
a large high stove, on which the family sleep. On the table you will
always see the samovar, a large brass urn filled with boiling water for
making the tea which is so largely drunk. Meat is seldom seen, the usual
fare being porridge made of buckwheat or millet, cabbage soup, and black
bread. Formerly a great deal of vodka, a spirit distilled from rye,
maize, or potatoes, was consumed, and this was manufactured and sold by
the Government. Since the war broke out the Tsar has shut up the
Government vodka shops throughout Russia. This is a great step forward,
and it will certainly do much to benefit the people in body, mind, and
pocket. The Government is sacrificing much money in thus striving to
improve the habits of the people, for nearly one-third of its total
revenue was formerly obtained from the sale of vodka. After eight months
of war the Russian Minister of Finance was able to say that, owing to
the shutting down of the Government drink shops, the workmen of the
country were able to produce from thirty to fifty per cent. more than
formerly. Our French allies have also taken a similar step by forbidding
the sale of a very poisonous spirit known as absinthe.[24]
The Russian peasant can do little work during the long winter, when the
land is in the grip of ice and snow, so that he has a long period of
enforced idleness every year. Perhaps for this reason he does not love
continuous work. But he can, if he chooses, do a large amount of hard
labour in a short space of time. When, for instance, he is putting out a
village fire, or working in the fields, or intent on finishing a job, he
will work like an inspired giant. At other times he is inclined to be
lazy and happy-go-lucky. As a rule, you will find the peasants
independent in their views--shrewd, full of common sense, and much
attached to the old ways. They are very stubborn, and nothing can move
them when they have made up their minds to resist.
[Footnote 23: Place in East Prussia, also known as Tannenberg. A battle
was fought there in 1410, when the Teutonic Knights, who were then
masters of East Prussia, suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the
Russians.]
[Footnote 24: _Ab´sant_ (give a nasal sound to the _n_.)]