clearly shows that it must be adapted to the needs of and in conformity with the aspirations of the inhabitants. Now autocracy in Russia has endured for centuries; it has survived every revolution. Individual Tsars have been suppressed, Peter III, Paul I, Alexander II, have been murdered. The institution itself could not be suppressed. In times of national disturbance and national distress it has always appeared to the people, rightly or wrongly, as the supreme refuge. It has owed its existence not to chance, but to necessity. And this necessity seems so obvious, so imperative to every Russian who knows his history, that all Slavophiles, even though their tendencies were liberal, as in the case of Aksakov and Yourii Samarine, have upheld the autocracy, the "Samoderjavie," as the corner-stone of the political structure.[1]
- ↑ In the course of an interview with Tolstoy, the Russian prophet repeatedly emphasized to me the importance of studying the "Slavophile" theories, in order to understand the present situation in Russia.
