The Germans have probably convinced
themselves already how superficial was such an estimate of the forces of
Russia, but in reality their mistake was due to an entirely superficial
view of the national culture of Russia and an extremely elementary idea
of our internal development. The Germans did not believe that there is
in Russia a genuine and growing national civilization, and did not
understand that the liberation movement in Russia had not only not
shaken the power of the Russian State, but had, on the contrary,
increased it.
Not understanding this, they thought that any blow from outside would
tumble over the Russian State like a rotten tree. German aggression, on
the contrary, united the whole population of Russia, and by this alone
strengthened a hundredfold her external power. This, of course, would
have been the natural effect of any attack from without upon any sound
people or any State that was not in decomposition. But in this case
there was something else. Such a war as this could not fail to take on
at once the character both of a world war and of a national war. That is
why in this struggle with Germany and Austria-Hungary, elemental forces
united in one impulse and spirit both the Russian Radicals, with their
tendency to cosmopolitanism, and the extreme Nationalist Conservatives.
Nay, more than that, all the races of Russia understood that a challenge
had been thrown out to Russia by Germany that morally compelled her, in
the interests of the whole and of the various parts, to forget for the
time all quarrels and grievances.
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