These simple people
cling to the belief that there is something else in God's world besides
toil and greed; they flock toward the light, and find in it the
justification of their human craving for peace and mercy. For the
Russian people have the Christian virtues of patience in suffering;
their pity for the poor and oppressed are more than occasional
manifestations of individual feeling--they are deeply rooted in national
psychology. This frame of mind has been scorned as fit for slaves! It is
indeed a case where the learning of philosophers is put to shame by the
insight of the simple-minded. Conquerors should remember that the
greatest victories in history have been won by the unarmed--by the
Christian confessors whom the Emperors sent to the lions, by the "old
believers" of Russia who went to Siberia and to the flames for their
unyielding faith, by the Russian serfs who preserved their human dignity
and social cohesion in spite of the exactions of their masters, by the
Italians, Poles, and Jews, when they were trampled under foot by their
rulers. It is such a victory of the spirit that Tolstoy had in mind when
he preached his gospel of non-resistance, and I do not think even a
German on the war path would be blind enough to suppose that Tolstoy's
message came from a craven soul. The orientation of the so-called
"intelligent" class in Russia--that is, the educated middle class, which
is much more numerous and influential than people suppose--is somewhat
different, of course.
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