This being so, it is not particularly to be
wondered at that the eastern neighbor of Austria and Prussia has
followed to some extent on the same lines.
But the general direction of Russia's evolution is not doubtful. Western
students of her history might do well, instead of sedulously collecting
damaging evidence, to pay some attention to the building up of Russia's
universities, the persistent efforts of the Zemstvos, the independence
and the zeal of the press. German scholars should read Hertzen's vivid
description of the "idealists of the forties." And what about the
history of the emancipation of the serfs, or of the regeneration of the
judicature? The "reforms of the sixties" are a household word in Russia,
and surely they are one of the noblest efforts ever made by a nation in
the direction of moral improvement.
Looking somewhat deeper, what right have the Germans to speak of their
cultural ideals as superior to those of the Russian people? They deride
the superstitions of the mujikh as if tapers and genuflexions were the
principal matters of popular religion. Those who have studied the
Russian people without prejudice know better than that. Read Selma
Lagerloef's touching description of Russian pilgrims in Palestine. She,
the Protestant, has understood the true significance of the religious
impulse which leads these poor men to the Holy Land, and which draws
them to the numberless churches of the vast country.
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