2484095Great Russia — PrefaceCharles Sarolea

PREFACE


THE present volume is not a mere colleclection of disconnected articles, of disjecta membra, on the Russian Empire and on the Russian people. Rather is it an attempt to give a systematic and co-ordinated survey of Russian history and policy.

In the first part I have tried to analyse somewhat more consistently than has been done by previous authors how Russian history and Russian policy are rooted in definite geographical conditions.

In the second part I have tried to indicate the inappreciable debt which the world owes to the Russian people.

In the third part I have shown how the ideals of Russian culture have found adequate expression in the representative masters of Russian literature.

In the fourth part I have dealt with the two burning questions of Russian politics, the Polish problem and the Jewish problem.

In the paper on the abortive Revolutionary Movement of 1905 I have examined the difficulties which confronted Russian reformers. The paper was written ten years ago in Moscow under the direct impression of the tragic events of the Russian Annus Mirabilis. I have analysed the causes why the civil war of 1905 failed and was bound to fail, and I have suggested on what lines any future reforming movement is likely to succeed. I have not hesitated to reprint those pages, not only because I was repeatedly urged to do so by the late Count Tolstoy, not only because my forecasts were verified in every detail, but because those pages are still entirely applicable to the present situation. The difficulties which confronted the Russian Revolutionists in 1905, will still confront Russian Reformers in the political reorganization of to-morrow. The remedies which were demanded in 1905 are still urgently required to-day.

I am quite aware that within the narrow compass of 200 pages I have only been able to touch the fringe of a huge subject, but I shall have sufficiently attained my purpose if I have succeeded in stimulating some of my readers to think for themselves on those fascinating topics, and if I have succeeded in removing some of the most glaring British misconceptions of a wonderful people whose fortunes are henceforth closely bound up with our own, and who are destined after this war to be the dominant influence in World Politics.

The Hermitage, Jedburgh
November, 1915