# Great Russia/Chapter 17

​CHAPTER XVII
RUSSIAN POLITICAL EVILS AND THEIR REMEDIES
FANATICS, extremists, political metaphysicians and doctrinaires of all sects may try to obscure the Russian issues. But the issues are perfectly clear, and the principles themselves are amazingly simple, although their patient and consistent practice may tax all the resources of statesmanship. Both the evils from which the Russian body politic has suffered in the past, and the remedies which will cure the evils are equally obvious to a dispassionate student of politics.
The evil is a false philosophy of Imperialism. The remedy is the new political philosophy of federation.
The evil is a tortuous Russian statecraft based on intrigue and dissension, a policy inherited from Frederick the Great. The remedy is a wise and straightforward statesmanship.
The evil is a mystical belief in an unnatural political unity, in an artificial uniformity. The remedy is the recognition of the complex ​variety of national characteristics, of the rich diversity of history.
The evil is a Byzantine immobility, a dread of all fresh revelations of life. The remedy is a belief in movement, in political experiment, even though the experiment may be attended with risk.
The evil is a belief in State interference, in the magic of regulations, in paternalism and protection. The remedy is a belief in individual initiative and in individual responsibility.
The evil is a monstrous centralization imposed upon a heterogeneous conglomerate of one hundred and eighty million human beings. The remedy is systematic decentralization and Home Rule.
The evil is the inevitable corruption of an arbitrary bureaucracy. The remedy is the publicity of the Press denouncing abuses wherever they occur.
The evil is an exclusive nationalism disguised under the name of patriotism. The remedy is equal rights to all nationalities.
The evil is race fanaticism and race antagonism. The remedy is race co-operation and race harmony.
​The evil is a narrow and shallow policy of obscurantism, sinning against the Holy Spirit.
The evil is the keeping of the people in ignorance. The remedy is the spread of popular education, the diffusion of sweetness and light.
But greatest of all political evils in the Russian Empire has been the insensate dream of religious unity, imposed by authority, the pagan confusion of spiritual and temporal power. The remedy is the separation of Church and State, equal rights to all the Churches, the releasing of the tremendous spiritual forces latent in the Russian people.
The Slavophiles are ever opposing their three mystical and equivocal watchwords: "Samoderjavie," "Pravoslavie," "Narodnost," autocracy, orthodoxy, nationality—to the three revolutionary watchwords, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." No doubt it is quite possible to see in the Slavophile doctrine a healthy reaction against a blind imitation of the West, it is quite possible to read a deeper meaning into the Slavophile Trinity, just as it is quite possible to read a perverted meaning into the French Trinity.
The Slavophile principle of "Samoderjavie," or Autocracy, may only stand for the necessity ​of a strong executive counteracting the centrifugal forces and the disintegrating elements of the Russian Empire. It may only express a belief in the value of the Monarchy, as a visible sign of political unity.
"Pravoslavie," or Orthodoxy, may only stand for the significance of a national Church in the life of the people. It may only mean the recognition of the importance of spiritual unity as the foundation of political unity.
"Narodnost," or Nationality, may only stand for the recognition of the democratic principle, for loyalty to a national ideal. It may only express a healthy distrust of the many alien races within the Russian Empire.
But although the Slavophile doctrines are capable of a liberal and democratic interpretation, and have actually received a liberal interpretation from noble spirits like Samarine, Aksakov, and Dostoevsky, such certainly has not been the interpretation which they have received from those pillars of reaction, Katkov and Pobiedonostsev. In recent Russian history, Slavophilism has only been too often a creed of hatred and intolerance, the creed of the Soiouz Ruskago Naroda, "of that infamous League of the Russian people," the oppressors ​of the Poles, the butchers of the Jews, the persecutors of the Uniats.
Through the influence of reactionaries it has come about that the theory of "Samoderjavie" has been perverted into a Byzantine despotism. The theory of "Pravoslavie" the principle of a National Church which, as the case of Ireland proves, may be the very reverse of a State Church, has been perverted into the dogma of Cæsaro-papism. The democratic principle of "Narodnost" has been perverted into the claim of the stronger nationality to crush the weaker.
Slavophiles would make us believe that Slavism expresses the pure undiluted Russian spirit. Unfortunately the Slavism of Katkov is often undistinguishable from Pan-Slavism, and Pan-Slavism is but the twin brother to Pan-Germanism. Slavophiles are never tired of extolling their principles as rooted in national tradition. Let them beware lest those so-called traditional principles only represent the traditions of a German bureaucracy and of a Potsdam monarchy: and, unfortunately, it is only too true that those traditions have prevailed at St. Petersburg for two hundred years. At the beginning of the war the German name of Petersburg was changed into the Russian name ​of Petrograd. But, alas! it was not only the name of the capital which had been German. The Russian Government itself was controlled by hyphenated Teutonized Russians, by the German Barons of the Baltic Provinces. Even the Russian Foreign Policy was directed from the Wilhelmstrasse and the politicians who oppressed the Slav brethren of Poland joined hands with the Prussian Hakatists who oppressed the Slav brethren of Posen. The All-Powerful Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg was a duplicate of the Berlin Academy, and refused to open its doors even to a Mendelieff. The intellectuals of the universities were inoculated with the poison of German economic and political materialism. Bazarov, the Father of Nihilism in Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons," was a disciple of Büchner and Haeckel.
A hundred years ago, Alexander I, the most liberal ruler of Russian history, was the pupil of Laharpe, himself a disciple of the French Revolutionists, and all through his reign Alexander remained under the influence of French Liberalism. The Alliance of the French democracy with the Russian Monarchy is based on political sympathies and elective affinities. ​However much the reactionaries of the Katkov School may distrust the principles of 1789, it is under the French banner, it is in the name of the immortal principles of 1789, which were also the guiding principles of the American Revolution, that civilization is taking up arms against Prussianism and Pan-Germanism. After the war those principles adapted to Russian conditions will triumph in the internal policy of the Russian Empire as they are guiding its foreign policy. It would indeed be the most tragic paradox of all human history if millions of Russian patriots had laid down their lives to conquer freedom for their Slav brethren only to be themselves denied freedom at home, and if the Russian Government were fighting for the liberty of the Balkan nationalities only to repress the legitimate aspirations of the nationalities gathered under the Russian flag.