The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-02-04
FEBRUARY 1888

| more intimate acquaintance with him.
and careful study Of Russian litera-
ture, and especially of Russian biogra-
| plies, cannot fail to modify this i'm
preston. We have, of course, a great
err variety of types than among the
peasants; as many probably as could
| be found among educated Englishmen
Conservatives, Liberals, Radicals,
Nihiilsts, fanatical churchmen ready to
| prosecute Dissenters to the death, athe-
lists, mystics, devoted pietists, ritual
lists. and so on to the end of the cata-
logue of good, bad and Indifferent in
| every department of life. But, after
all, whatever else he may be, he is a
Slav. He believes in the mission of his
race as much as the moujik, even
| though he may be an open enemy of
the existing government in Russia-and
his religious instincts are not unlike
those Of the moujk, though he may
call himself an atheist Many Of the
characters in Russian novels seem to
us impossible. We cannot conceive of
sane minds working on such lines, but
Dostoievski himself was almost as
strange a character as Raskolnikoff,
and Marie Bashkirtseff could only have
been a Russian. Tolstoi is not fair
example of typical Russian noble, but
he is only an exaggerated and some
what abnormal specimen. There are
many as good as he. without his pecu-
liar eccentricities. 1t does not seem to
us that Russian official who devotes
himself to plundering his government
and depressing those under him can
have any idea of brotherhood Of self
sacrifice, but such combinations do not
trouble the Russian novelist.
The only conclusion which I wish to
draw from these facts Is that the edu-
Gated Russian differs from other
educated Europeans as much as the
Russian peasant differs from other
peasants and in much the same way.
Wide as is the gulf which separates the
moujik from the educated classes, and
little as they understand one another,
the Slavs of Russia are homogeneous
race, and are likely to bring the Slavs
of other countries under their influence.
1t is not an accident that 1t is Slav,
Goluchowski who has brought Aus
tria and Russia into alliance. But the
Slavs Of other countries are by no
means so homogeneous as those of Rus
STA. The Mahometan Slavs are lost to
the race. Their religion seems to have
destroyed their race characteristics.
They are the most fanatical Of Mos
lens. and are gradually leaving the
Balkan Peninsula for Asia. The Slavs
of Austria and the Balkan States are
divided into SO many nationalities,
each with a long history Of its own,
that they seem to have little in COM
mon, and to care far more for their ma
tionality than their race. They are d.
vided, too, between the Orthodox and
the Catholic churches; but the conflict
with the Germans and Magyars is rap
idly bringing them together in Austria,
while Russia has brought Bulgaria,
Servia and Montenegro into alliance,
and is preparing the way for Slavic
rule in Macedonia
There is no question about the COM
ing of the Slav in southeastern Europe,
This era of peace, so called, Is working
out changes more momentous than
many great war. 1t is clear now that
the Slav and not the Greek, is to in
herit the eastern empire. This does not
necessarily imply the speedy extern
sion of the Russian empire to the Adri-
attic; but when the time comes for Rus
STA to take Constantinople the southern
Slavs must inevitably come under her
rule-and the coming of the Slav will in
the end mean the coming of Russia.
What Russia may be or may do after
she takes Constantinople the Car him
self could not tell us. AS we have seen,
the Slavic race Is still in its youth.
What it may be when it comes to ma
turity, how far it will realize it's dreams
and develop higher and better civiliza-
ton than that of the west, the next
century will show. AS the race be-
comes more united, more enlightened,
and more self-conscious, it will be less
likely to yield to western influences
This is already manifest in Russia. 1t
is more Russian to-day than it was in
the time of Alexander H., and there is
nothing in the hayyp disappearance of
Pobiedonostsef from the front, or in
the more liberal acts of the present
Gear, which is inconsistent with still
more distinctly Slavic development
Russia is every year less dependent
upon the west, intellectually as well as
politically and commercially, and this
has gone so far that the French alli-J
ance is not likely to exert any perma-
nent influence upon the course of Rus
sian thought.-Rev. George Washburn
in the Contemporary Review.