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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:59:18 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 19:59:18 -0700 |
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diff --git a/33303-h/33303-h.htm b/33303-h/33303-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2dda6ca --- /dev/null +++ b/33303-h/33303-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9232 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Russian Life To-day, by Herbert Bury, D.D. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-style:italic;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:50%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em -10em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.gap4 {margin-top:4em;} +.gap2 {margin-top:2em;} +.small {font-size:small;} +.large {font-size:large;} +.ralign {text-align:right;} +.vbot {vertical-align:bottom;} +.hangindent {padding-left:2em;text-indent:-2em;} +.indfirst {margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:0em;padding-left:6em;text-indent:-6em;} +.indmain {margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0em;padding-left:6em;text-indent:-6em;} +.indsub {margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:0em;padding-left:8em;text-indent:-6em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Russian Life To-day, by Right Rev. Herbert Bury + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Russian Life To-day + +Author: Right Rev. Herbert Bury + +Release Date: July 31, 2010 [EBook #33303] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUSSIAN LIFE TO-DAY *** + + + + +Produced by Brownfox and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[Pg i]</a></span></p> + +<h1>RUSSIAN LIFE TO-DAY</h1> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[Pg ii]</a></span></p> +<p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter gap2" style="width: 431px;"><a id="image001" name="image001"></a> +<img src="images/image001.png" width="431" height="662" alt="His Imperial Majesty the Tsar." title="" /> +<span class="caption">His Imperial Majesty the Tsar.</span> +</div> + + + + +<h1 class="gap4">RUSSIAN LIFE TO-DAY</h1> + +<h4>BY THE</h4> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Right Rev.</span> HERBERT BURY, D.D.</h2> + +<p class="center"><i>Bishop for Northern and Central Europe</i></p> +<p class="center"><i>Author of “A Bishop among Bananas”</i></p> + + +<p class="center gap4">A. R. MOWBRAY & CO. <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">London</span>: 28 Margaret Street, Oxford Circus, W.</p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Oxford</span>: 9 High Street</p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Milwaukee</span>, U.S.A.: The Young Churchman Co.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span></p> + + + +<p class="center gap4"><i>TO MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN +AT WORK IN SIBERIA</i></p> + + +<p class="center gap2 small">First impression, March, 1915</p> + +<p class="center small">New impressions, April, July, December, 1915</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2 class="gap4">INTRODUCTION</h2> + + +<p>My first inclination, when the entirely unexpected +proposal of the Publishers came +to me to write this book, was immediately to +decline. There are so many well-known writers +on Russia, whose books are an unfailing pleasure +and source of information, that it seemed to me +to be nothing less than presumption to add to +their number. But when I was assured that +there seems to be a great desire just now for a +book which, as the Publishers expressed it, +“should not attempt an elaborate sketch of the +country, nor any detailed description of its +system of government and administration, or any +exhaustive study of the Russian Church, and +yet should give the <i>impressions</i> of a sympathetic +observer of some of the chief aspects of Russian +Life which are likely to appeal to an English +Churchman,” I felt that I might venture to +attempt it.</p> + +<p>It has been given to me to get to understand +thoroughly from close and intimate knowledge +the commercial development of Siberia by our +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>countrymen; and yet everywhere, both there and +in Russia proper, I have to go to every place +specially and primarily to give the ministrations +of religion. It can be permitted to few, if any, +to see those two sides of the life of a great +and growing Empire at the same time. This +has been my reason, therefore, for undertaking +this small effort, and my object is to give, as the +Publishers expressed it, “personal impressions.” +I hope my readers will accept this book, therefore, +as an impressionist description of Russian +life of to-day, of which it would have been quite +impossible to keep personal experiences from +forming an important part. And though I write +as an English Churchman, yet I wish to speak, +and I trust in no narrow spirit, to the whole +religious public, that I may draw them more +closely into intelligent sympathy with this great +nation which has seemed to come so suddenly, +unexpectedly, and intimately into our own +national life and destiny—and I believe as a +friend.</p> + +<p class="ralign large" style="margin-right:1em;">HERBERT BURY,</p> +<p class="ralign" style="margin-right:2em;"><i>Bishop</i>.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<table summary="Table of Contents" style="border:0px;border-collapse:collapse;width:60%"> +<tr> +<td class="ralign small" style="width:10%">CHAP.</td> +<td> </td> +<td class="ralign small" style="width:10%">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign">I.</td> +<td class="smcap">Russia’s Great Spaces</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign">II.</td> +<td class="smcap">General Social Life</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">21</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign">III.</td> +<td class="smcap">The Peasantry</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">46</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign">IV.</td> +<td class="smcap">The Clergy</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">71</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign">V.</td> +<td class="smcap">Religious Life and Worship</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">95</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign">VI.</td> +<td class="smcap">His Imperial Majesty the Tsar</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">118</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign">VII.</td> +<td class="smcap">A Paternal Government</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">139</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign">VIII.</td> +<td class="smcap">The Steppes</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">162</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign">IX.</td> +<td class="smcap">Russia’s Problem</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">186</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign">X.</td> +<td class="smcap">The Anglican Church in Russia</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">205</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign">XI.</td> +<td class="smcap">The Jews</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">228</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign">XII.</td> +<td class="smcap">Our Countrymen in the Empire</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">248</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="ralign"> </td> +<td class="smcap">Index</td> +<td class="ralign"><a href="#INDEX">268</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<table summary="Table of Illustrations" style="border:0px;border-collapse:collapse;width:60%"> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">His Imperial Majesty the Tsar</td> +<td class="ralign" colspan="3"><a href="#image001"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Russia’s Great Spaces—Winter</td> +<td class="vbot" style="width:0em;padding-right:0.5em;"><i>facing</i></td> +<td class="vbot" style="width:0em;"><i>page</i></td> +<td style="width:0em;" class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image002">4</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Russia’s Great Spaces—Summer</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image003">8</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">The Kremlin</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image004">21</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">The Gate of the Redeemer, Moscow</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image005">29</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">A Well-clad Coachman</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image006">33</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">A Village Scene</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image007">46</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">The Metropolitan of Moscow</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image008">71</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">The Convent at Ekaterinburg, Siberia</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image009">78</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">The Abbess Magdalena</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image010">84</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">The Russian Priest at Spassky</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image011">90</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">S. Isaac’s Cathedral, Petrograd</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image012">95</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Interior of a Russian Church</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image013">102</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">The Cathedral at Riga</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image014">112</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Her Imperial Majesty the Tsaritsa</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image015">118</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">His Imperial Highness the Tsarevitch Alexei</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image016">125</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess +Elizabeth, The Friend of the Poor</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image017">139</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Characteristic Group of Russians</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image018">144</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">A Group of Russian Peasants</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image019">152</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Consecration of Burial Ground in the +Siberian Steppes</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image020">162</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Outside a Kirghiz Uerta</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image021">166</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Tarantass with its Troika for the Steppes</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image022">170</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Inside a Kirghiz Uerta</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image023">180</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Russian Service at the Atbazar Mine</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image024">186</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">A Class of Russian Students with Teacher</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image025">195</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">The English Church of S. Andrew, Moscow</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image026">205</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">The Bishop and Russian Chauffeur</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image027">216</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">The British Community at Atbazar, Siberia</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image028">224</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">The Archbishop of Warsaw</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image029">228</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">A Polish Jew</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image030">236</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Camels at Work—Summer</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image031">256</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Camels at Work—Winter</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot center">"</td> +<td class="vbot ralign"><a href="#image032">262</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="smcap hangindent">Map</td> +<td class="vbot ralign" colspan="3"><a href="#image033"><i>at end</i></a></td> +</tr> +</table> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2 class="gap4">RUSSIAN LIFE TO-DAY</h2> + + + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Russia’s Great Spaces</span></h2> + + +<p>I will begin my opening chapter by explaining +how I come to have the joy and privilege of +travelling far and wide, as I have done, in the +great Russian Empire. I go there as Assistant +Bishop to the Bishop of London, holding a +commission from him as bishop in charge of +Anglican work in North and Central Europe.</p> + +<p>It may seem strange that Anglican work in +that distant land should be directly connected +with the Diocese of London, but the connection +between them, and between all the countries of +Northern and Central Europe, as far as our +Church of England work is concerned, is of long +standing. It dates from the reign of Charles I, +and from an Order in Council which was passed +in 1633, and placed the congregations of the +Church of England in <i>all</i> foreign countries at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +that time under the jurisdiction of the Bishop +of London “as their Diocesan.” It may be +remembered that when the present Bishop of +London went to Washington some years ago he +took with him some interesting documents which +he had found in the library at Fulham Palace, +and which were connected with the time when +Church work in the United States looked to +London for superintendence and episcopal +leadership. These he handed over to the +custody of the Episcopal Church of America, +knowing how interested that Church would be +to possess them, and to keep them amongst +other historical records.</p> + +<p>The same rapid progress as that which has +attended the American Church has been made +in the Colonies and other parts of the world. +New dioceses and provinces have been formed +one after another, and in 1842 the Diocese +of Gibraltar was formed, taking in the congregations +of the English Church in Spain, +Portugal, Italy, and Roumania, and all places +bordering upon the Mediterranean and the Black +Sea. But the other countries of Europe, to the +north and in the centre, remain still, as far as +Church work goes, where that old Order in +Council placed them, in the jurisdiction of the +Bishop of London.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is impossible, of course, that he should +attempt to meet this responsibility himself and +bear the burden of such a diocese as that of +London, and so the rule has been, since 1825, +to issue a commission to another bishop, who, +while being an assistant, yet has to feel himself +fully responsible, and in this way spare the Bishop +of London as much as he possibly can.</p> + +<p>It will therefore be understood, as I have said +in my few words of introduction, that, filling +such a position and having such work to superintend, +and also, for many reasons to be more +fully explained in succeeding pages, finding the +Orthodox Church of Russia very friendly towards +our own, I shall write throughout with those +whom I have termed the “religious public” very +clearly in my mind and sympathies. At the +same time I am hoping to interest the general +reader also, and therefore shall try my utmost +to give a comprehensive view of Russian life as +it will be found to-day by travellers on the one +hand if they give themselves time and opportunity +enough, and by those, on the other, who have +to go and live and work in Russia.</p> + +<p>First impressions are usually interesting to +recall. Mine were immediate and extraordinarily +vivid, and were all associated with +thoughts—which have gradually become con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>victions—of +Russia’s vast potentialities and +future greatness.</p> + +<p>When first I had the honour and pleasure of +an audience with the Emperor of Russia—I will +speak of it at greater length in a later chapter—one +of the first questions he asked me was:—</p> + +<p>“And what has most impressed you, so far, on +coming, as a new experience, into my country?”</p> + +<p>I was not prepared for the question, but +answered at once and without the least hesitation—for +there seemed to come into my mind even +as His Majesty spoke, the vivid impression I had +received—</p> + +<p>“Russia’s great spaces!”</p> + +<p>“Ah, yes!” he said, evidently thinking very +deeply; “that is true. Russia’s <i>great</i> spaces—what +a striking impression they must make, for +the first time!”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 641px;"><a id="image002" name="image002"></a> +<img src="images/image002.png" width="641" height="405" alt="Russia's Great Spaces—Winter." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Russia's Great Spaces—Winter.</span> +</div> + +<p>I went on to explain that one can see great +spaces elsewhere. On the ocean when for days +together no other vessel is seen; on some of the +great plains in the other hemisphere; riding +across the great Hungarian tableland; and even +in Central France or in the Landes to the west +I have felt this sense of space and distance; but +Russia’s great flat or gently undulating expanses +have always seemed to me to suggest other spaces +on beyond them still, and to give an impression<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> +of the vast and illimitable, such as I have never +known elsewhere. It is under this impression +of vast resources, no doubt, that so many military +correspondents of our daily papers constantly +speak of the Russian forces as “inexhaustible.” +It is the same with other things also. They +suggest such marvellous possibilities.</p> + +<p>This is the impression I would like to give at +once in this my opening chapter—a sense of +spaciousness—power to expand, to develop, to +open out, to make progress, to advance and grow. +It is not the impression the word “Russia” +usually makes upon people who know little +about her inner life, and have received their ideas +from those who have experienced the repressive +and restrictive side of her policy and administration. +But I can only give, and am glad of +the opportunity, the results of my own experiences +and observations; and those are embodied in my +reply to the Emperor.</p> + +<p>When I crossed the Russian frontier for the +first time it was with a very quaking and apprehensive +spirit. All that lay beyond was full of +the mysterious and unknown, so entirely different, +one felt it must be, from all one’s previous +experiences of life! Anything might happen, +for this was Russia! “Russia” has stood so +long with us in this country for the repressive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +and reactionary, for the grim and forbidding and +restricting, that it will be difficult for many to +part with those ideas, and I can hardly hope to +remove impressions now deeply rooted. I can +only say, however, that my own prejudices and +preconceptions in the same direction disappeared, +one after another, with astonishing rapidity in +my first year; and now my spirits rise every +time I cross the frontier of that great country, +and my heart warms to that great people as soon +as I see their kindly and friendly faces, their +interesting and picturesque houses, and catch my +first sight of their beautiful churches, with the +fine cupolas above them with their hanging chains, +painted and gilded domes, and delicate finials +glittering in the sun and outlined against a sky +of blue. Russia to me presents at once a kindly, +friendly atmosphere, and others feel it also; for +I have, just before writing these words, laid +down a copy of <i>The Times</i> in which Mr. Stephen +Graham—no one knows the heart and soul of +Russia quite as he does, I fancy—writing one of +his illuminating articles on “Russia’s Holy +War,” says “People in Russia are naturally kind. +They have become even gentler since the war +began.” Those who enter Russia expecting +the unfriendly will find, I feel sure, as we have +done, exactly the opposite—nothing but kindness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +and courtesy. It will be the same in other +experiences also if I mistake not.</p> + +<p>One of the chief difficulties ordinary travellers +or tourists expect to encounter, for instance, in +Russia is that of language.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t it extraordinarily difficult to acquire, +and to make yourself understood?” is an invariable +question, and certainly in long journeys +across country, as from Warsaw up to Riga, +and from Libau on the Baltic to Moscow, and +especially in my Mining Camp Mission in Siberia, +I expected to have very great difficulties; but, +as so often happens, they were difficulties in +anticipation rather than in reality.</p> + +<p>Even off the beaten track in Russia any one +who can travel comfortably in other European +countries can travel equally satisfactorily there. +Most educated people speak French, and an ever-increasing +number—for English governesses and +nurses are in great request—speak English. Great +numbers of the working class speak German, the +national language, of course, of Russia’s Baltic +provinces, on railway trains as conductors and +in restaurants as waiters, and at railway stations +as porters. Indeed, if any one is in the dining-car +of a train or in the buffet or dining-room of +a railway station or other public place, and has +the courage to stand up and say, “Does any one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +here speak French?” or “Does any one here +speak German?” some one ready to help and +be friendly will invariably come forward.</p> + +<p>In my first Siberian Mission, however, I found +myself in a real difficulty. I had to drive across +the Kirghiz Steppes from the railway at Petropavlosk, +about four days and nights east of +Moscow, to the Spassky Copper Mine, and the +management had sent down a very reliable +Kirghiz servant of theirs to be my interpreter; +but I found that his only qualification for the +work of interpreting was that, in addition to his +own Kirghiz tongue, he could speak Russian!</p> + +<p>For the inside of a week, travelling day and +night, we had to get on as best we could together, +and arrange all the business of changing horses, +getting food, and paying expenses, largely by +signs. Once only, and then in the dead of night +when changing horses, did we encounter a +German-speaking farmer from Courland or +Lettland on the Baltic, and a great joy it was +to him to meet some one who knew those fair +parts of the Russian Empire where agricultural +work brings much more encouraging results for +the toil bestowed upon it than Siberia, with its +terrible winter season.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 673px;"><a id="image003" name="image003"></a> +<img src="images/image003.png" width="673" height="397" alt="Russia's Great Spaces—Summer." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Russia's Great Spaces—Summer.</span> +</div> + +<p>But though to acquire a knowledge of Russian +for literary purposes, so as to write and compose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +correctly, must be most difficult, owing to the +number of letters in the alphabet—forty-six as +compared with our twenty-six—and the entirely +different way from our own in which they are +written, I do not think it is difficult to acquire +a fair knowledge of the language in a comparatively +short time so as to make one’s self +understood and get along. I find young +Englishmen, going to work in Russia and beyond +the Urals, very quickly come to understand +what is being said, and to make known their +own wishes and requirements; and in a couple +of years, or sometimes less, they speak quite +fluently.</p> + +<p>It always seems to me that the Russians +pronounce their words with more syllabic distinctness +than either the French or Germans. +And that natural kindness and friendliness of +the whole people, of which I have already written, +makes them wish to be understood and to help +those with whom they are speaking to grasp +their meaning. This, of course, makes all the +difference!</p> + +<p>When the question of the great difficulty of +the language is raised another remark nearly +always follows:</p> + +<p>“But then the Russians are such great linguists +that they easily understand!” And it is usually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +supposed that they “easily learn other languages +because their own is so difficult,” though they +encounter no more difficulty, probably, than any +one else when talking in their own tongue in +infancy. They are “great linguists” for the +same reason as the Dutch—and that is because, +if they wish to be in educated society or in +business on any large scale, their own language +will only go a very short way.</p> + +<p>In Russia as in Holland, as I have been told +in both countries, an educated household will +contain a German nurse and an English governess, +while French will be the rule at table. It +used to be a French governess, but now the +English governess is in great request everywhere +in Russia and Poland; and, in the great nobles’ +houses, there is the English tutor also—not +always for the language, but to impart English +ideas to the boys of the family. When I was +last in Warsaw, an Oxford graduate came up at +a reception and introduced himself, and told me +he was with a Polish prince who had astonished +him on the first morning after his arrival by +saying:—</p> + +<p>“I have engaged you as a tutor for my two +boys, but it will not be necessary for you to teach +them anything—that is already provided for. +I want you to be their companion, walk out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +with them, play games with them, and help +them to grow up after the manner of English +gentlemen.”</p> + +<p>There is no real difficulty, therefore, with the +language, nor is there with the money of the +country as soon as one realizes the value of +the rouble, eight of which make nearly a pound, +and that it is divided into a hundred <i>kopecks</i>, +pronounced <i>kopeeks</i>, two of which are equal to +about a farthing.</p> + +<p>And now to speak of the actual travelling. +Everything in the way of communication in +Russia is on a large scale and in keeping with +the answer I gave to the Emperor, and which +I have placed at the head of this chapter. As +soon as one passes the frontier, for instance, +the travellers change into carriages adapted for +a broad-gauge railway, and are at once in +more commodious quarters. There is no land, +I suppose, where travelling over great distances +is so comfortable as in Russia for all classes; and +it is incredibly cheap, first-class tickets costing less +than third in our own country, for those using +the ordinary post train, which every year becomes +more comfortable and nearer to the standard of +the wagon-lit. There are excellent lavatories, +kept perfectly clean, where one can wash, shave, +and almost have a sponge bath, for—though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +without the luxuries of the Trans-Siberian +express—there is more room.</p> + +<p>There is usually a restaurant-car on the long-distance +trains—and practically all the trains in +Russia are for long distances—and, if not, there +is plenty of time to get food at the stations on +the way. Conductors will take every care and +trouble to get what is necessary, and first and +second-class compartments are never overcrowded, +as far as my experience goes. I believe, indeed, +that not more than four people may be put into +a compartment for the night, and, as the cushioned +back of the seats can be lifted up, all the four +travellers can be sure of being able to lie down. +The first-class compartments on a post train are +divided into two by folding-doors, and one is +allowed to buy a <i>platzcarte</i> and so have the whole +compartment to one’s self. Every accommodation +too is provided for lying down comfortably in the +third-class, and the travellers there are always +the happiest-looking on the train.</p> + +<p>Another consideration shown to the public is +that the scale of charges falls in proportion to +the distance to be traversed. The stations are +specially spacious, particularly along the routes +beyond Moscow, where emigration continually +goes on into the great pastoral lands of Siberia. +In the summer months the traffic is very great,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +and it is one of the most touching and appealing +experiences I can recall to pass through one of +the great waiting-halls of such a station as Samara, +at night, and pick one’s way amongst the sleeping +families of peasants waiting to get their connection +with another line, and resting in the meantime. +Their little possessions are all about them, and +father and mother and sons and daughters lie +gathered close up together, pillowing their heads +upon each other, good-looking, prettily dressed, +and fast asleep—as attractive a picture as any +one could wish to see.</p> + +<p>There is a great freedom of movement everywhere +in Russia, and I do not remember +having seen the word <i>verboten</i> (the German for +“forbidden”), or its equivalent, in any part of +a Russian or Siberian station. The rule of having +three bells to announce approaching departure is +a most excellent one, whether the pause is long +or short, the first ringing very audibly about +five minutes, the second one minute, and the +third immediately before departure. If travelling +long distances, the ten-minutes’ stop at all large +towns gives plenty of opportunity for exercise +and fresh air, and the absolute certainty of hearing +the bells gives a perfect sense of security that no +one will be left behind. If the bell rings twice +just as the train enters the station, every one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +knows that the stay will be short, and that it is +not worth while getting out.</p> + +<p>Some of the most resting and refreshing +experiences I have ever had have been those +of travelling day after day for some two or three +thousand miles in Russia, getting one’s correspondence +straight, for writing is quite easy in +those steady and slow-moving express trains, +reading up reviews and periodicals or making +plans for future journeys, looking out of the +windows in the early morning or late evening, +all varied by meals in the <i>coupé</i> or at a station, +seeing all kinds of interesting people in strange +costumes, and many attractive incidents at places +where one alights for a walk and exercise.</p> + +<p>More interesting than the railways, however, +are the rivers. How large these are, and how +important a part they have filled in the past, +before the days of railways, and still play in the +commerce and life of the people, will be seen at +once by a glance at the map at the end of the +book. None of them, however, though one gets +a real affection for the Neva after sledging over +it in the winter and sailing upon it in the summer, +attracts and indeed fascinates, as the Volga never +fails to do. It is magnificent in size, and is the +largest in Europe, 2,305 miles in length, three +times as long as the Rhine. Many of us know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +what the Rhine is to the Germans. Treitschke, +as we have been reminded in one of the most +widely read of modern books, when leaving +Bonn, wrote to a friend, “To-morrow I shall +see the Rhine for the last time. The memory +of that noble river will keep my heart pure, and +save me from sad and evil thoughts throughout +all the days of my life.”</p> + +<p>I have always understood the strong appeal +to the historic, and even the poetic, sense which +the Rhine puts forth, but I never understood the +sense of the ideal which a river might convey +until I saw, approached, and crossed the Volga.</p> + +<p>It was a May evening, three years ago, as we +drew near and then passed along its right bank +before crossing. It was of the loveliest colour +of rich and living brown, like that of a healthy +human skin, carrying life and burdens of every +description upon its ample bosom, fostering all +kinds of enterprise and activity on its shores, +and flowing on with stately dignity, as if it would +not be hurried from its calm consciousness of +its own strength and significance for those nine +provinces through which it passes on its way to +the Caspian. I felt its spell at once, and, as +I crossed the great bridge over which the Trans-Siberian +line is carried—an exquisite piece of +engineering a mile and a quarter in length<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>—I +knew that I should always feel a curious sense +of personality in connection with that glorious +river. I think Merriman, in one of his novels, +speaks of associating a sense of consciousness +with the Volga; and that is just what I have felt +each time of crossing over its bounteous-looking, +calm, and steady flow. It seems to live and know.</p> + +<p>The third and last “difficulty” which I will +speak of in this opening chapter, and which is +no difficulty at all, is the passport. Every one +in Russia must possess one; and, if travelling +and intending to spend one or two nights in +a place, it must be sent to the proper official +and be duly stamped. It must be <i>visèd</i> by the +Russian ambassador, or minister, at the place +from which one starts before entering Russia; +and, which is even more important, it must be +<i>visèd</i> by the right official at some important town +or place of government, and stamped with the +necessary permission, before one is able to <i>leave</i> +Russia.</p> + +<p>It is natural to feel at the frontier, when entering +the country, “I hope it is all right,” as the +passport is handed to the customs officer, and, +with just a little approach to anxious uncertainty, +after all one has heard and read; but it is almost +impossible to avoid real anxiety that it will be +found correct and in order as it is presented at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +the frontier when <i>leaving</i>, as the difficulties of +being kept back there, so far away from the great +cities, would be far greater than those of being +refused <i>admission</i> from some technicality that +could probably be put right by a telegram to +and from England.</p> + +<p>“But surely the passport must prevent you +from feeling that sense of freedom that you have +spoken of more than once—surely <i>that</i> must +give a sense of repression and suspicion and +being watched and having an eye kept on your +doings,” my reader will be thinking, and perhaps +many other people have the same feeling. It is, +however, exactly the opposite with me, for my +passport in Russia and Siberia is a great stand-by, +and gives me a great sense of being always able +to establish my own identity.</p> + +<p>There can be little doubt that the passport was +established from the first in the interests of the +community, for it is entirely in their own interests +that people should possess them. No one who +is honest in purpose can have any difficulty in +procuring one or be brought to any trouble +through it. The necessity of frequently producing +them, in moving from place to place, is always in +the interests of the traveller in a vast empire +like Russia. It has given me a great feeling of +confidence in launching out, as has been neces<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>sary +now and then, into the unknown, to feel +“They will be able to trace me all along +by the entries made in official registers, as +the passport has been stamped.” If any one +disappeared in Russia the police would be able +to trace his movements to very near the place +of disappearance.</p> + +<p>It is a great help in getting letters also to have +a passport, for we are just as anxious as the +officials can be that our letters should not go to +the wrong people; and in travelling in out-of-the-way +places it is simply invaluable in getting +the help, advice, and recognition that sometimes +are so very necessary. Even the passport, therefore, +helps to deepen the sense of security and +freedom with which one launches out into +Russian travel, anxious to gain all that it has to +give in information and stimulating experience.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered, however, that I speak +always not as a resident, but as a traveller; and +there is just this difference—<i>indeed, it is a vast +difference</i>—between my own opportunities and +those of an ordinary traveller. Travelling as +the bishop for the English Church work in +Russia, in every place our clergy and residents +have only been too happy to speak of their own +experiences and impressions, some of them lifelong +and all-important. When travelling in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +Siberia, and the guest from time to time of +managers of the great mines, I go out with +them day after day and get long conversations +with them, their wives, and members of the +staff. I hear all about early struggles, hopes +and fears, difficulties and triumphs extending +over many years. The conditions of life and +characteristics of the people in vast tracts of +country are described to me by those who +know them well. No one but a bishop +travelling through the country would have the +same information so freely volunteered to him. +And it is this which has led me to feel that +I might, without undue presumption, write for +ordinary readers about the life of a country in +which I have not, as yet, spent a great many +years.</p> + +<p>It <i>is</i> a great country, as all we who know it +feel, and “It doth not yet appear what it shall +be.” If some of us are right in thinking of the +Russians as a great race with a vast country of +tremendous resources; who can in any way picture +the great and wonderful possibilities of their +future? It will be my task to try and show +how little opportunity they have had as yet +of getting their share of modern civilization, +how imperfectly, as yet, the ethical side of their +religion has been imparted to them; and still,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +in spite of all this and of other defects of their +social and religious life, how much they have +accomplished in the way of real achievement.</p> + +<p>I fail to see how any one can help feeling the +greatest interest—hopeful and expectant—about +their future, or feel anything else but the great +thankfulness that I feel myself, that we and +they as peoples have been brought so intimately +together by circumstances which few could have +foreseen only a very few years ago, but which +have come about not only, as some would say, +in the course of Providence, but in a very true +sense, as I trust our and their national histories +shall show in time to come, “According to the +good hand of our <span class="smcap">God</span> upon us.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 655px;"><a id="image004" name="image004"></a> +<img src="images/image004.png" width="655" height="407" alt="The Kremlin." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Kremlin.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">General Social Life</span></h2> + + +<p>The whole life of the Russian people reminds +those who visit them continually and in every +possible way that they are in a religious country; +for everywhere there is the <i>ikon</i>, or sacred religious +picture. There are other ways, especially the +columns of the newspapers full of notices of +private and public ministrations and pathetic +requests for prayers for the departed, of bringing +religion continually before the public mind, but +the <i>ikon</i> is most in evidence. It is a picture in +one sense, for it is a representation either of our +<span class="smcap">Lord</span> or of the Holy Virgin or of some well-known +saint; but the garments are in relief, +often composed of one of the precious metals +and ornamented in some cases with jewels; and +thus it is quite different from other sacred pictures. +It is the first characteristic evidence of “Russia” +to meet one’s eyes on entering, and the last to +be seen as one leaves, any public place.</p> + +<p>“A great picture of the Virgin and Child +hangs in the custom-house at Wirballen,” writes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +Mr. Rothay Reynolds at the beginning of <i>My +Russian Year</i>, “with a little lamp flickering +before it.”</p> + +<p>“The foreigner, who was a few minutes before +on the German side of the frontier and stands on +Russian soil for the first time, looks at the shrine +with curiosity. Porters are hurrying in with +luggage, and travellers are chattering in half a +dozen languages. An official at a desk in the +middle of the great hall is examining passports. +A man is protesting that he did not know that +playing-cards were contraband; a woman is +radiant, for the dirty lining she has sewn in a new +Paris hat has deceived the inquisitors. Everybody +is in a hurry to be through with the +business, and free to lunch in the adjoining +restaurant before going on to St. Petersburg. +It is a strange home for the majestic Virgin of +the Byzantine picture.</p> + +<p>“Here, at the threshold of the empire, Russia +placards—S. Paul’s vivid Greek gives me the +word—her faith before the eyes of all comers. +In the bustle of a custom-house, charged with +fretfulness and impatience and meanness, Russia +sets forth her belief in a life beyond the grave +and her conviction that the ideals presented by +the picture are the noblest known to mankind.”</p> + +<p>Nowhere as in Russia is one reminded so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +constantly, in what we should consider most +unlikely places, that we are in a Christian +country. In the streets and at railway stations, +in baths, hotels, post offices, shops, and warehouses, +in the different rooms of factories and +workshops, in private houses, rich and poor alike, +in government houses, and even in places of evil +resort which I will not specify, as well as in +prisons, indeed in <i>every</i> public place there is the +<i>ikon</i>—most frequently representing the Holy +Mother and Child—and its lamp burning +before it.</p> + +<p>In later chapters I will write more at length +upon religion and worship, but I must give the +reader <i>at once</i>, if a stranger to Russia, something +of the impression which the ubiquity of the <i>ikon</i> +makes upon those who go there for the first +time. It is <i>always</i> to be seen. And though I +will try and describe what it directly represents +in the shape of Church life later, yet from the +very first I must write, as it were, with the <i>ikon</i> +before me. I must see with my mind’s eye the +Holy Mother clasping the Divine Child to her +bosom, with a few flowers and a twinkling little +light before them, all the time I write, whether +it is of things secular or sacred, grave or gay, +national or international, or I shall give out but +little of the spirit which I feel I have breathed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +deeply into my life in that wonderful country, +and certainly shall not be able to help any reader +who has not been there as yet to understand +why it should be spoken of as “Holy Russia.”</p> + +<p>That which the <i>ikon</i> stands for, therefore, must +be the spirit of every chapter I write, or I shall +give my readers no true picture of Russian life.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for those who want further +particulars than such a book as this can give +them—and it will fail in its purpose if it does +not make many readers <i>wish</i> to have them—there +has been a very excellent <i>Baedeker’s Guide to +Russia</i> published last year, which is a wonderfully +complete work considering the vast empire with +which it has to deal. I will therefore attempt +nothing at all in the way of statistics or descriptions +such as a guide-book gives, or such as will +be found in the excellent books to which I shall +often refer. If I can take my readers with me +in thought as I travel about Russia and Siberia, +and can give them some of the information which +has been given so freely to me, and can convey +to them some portion of the impressions made +upon me when far away from the beaten track, +and above all can lead them to give their +sympathies freely and generously to the people +of the land and to our own countrymen so +hospitably welcomed amongst them, and so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +generously treated, I shall be more than repaid +for my work, and shall ask nothing better.</p> + +<p>In Russia there are two forms of government, +clearly and strenuously at work, and wide +asunder in their character, the autocratic and +the democratic. It is impossible to do much +more than mention these two tremendous forces, +which are so strongly forming the character, and +determining the destinies for a long time to come, +of a great people.</p> + +<p>Since 1905 the Russian Empire has had constitutional +government under the form of +an Imperial Council or First Chamber, the +Imperial Duma or Second Chamber, with the +Emperor, advised by a small council of ministers, +still an autocratic sovereign. The Emperor can +overrule any legislation, and probably would if +advised by a unanimous council; but it must be +evident to most people if they think a little, that +even now he would be very reluctant to do this +except in some very grave crisis of the national +life, and that in time to come he will never dream +of such interference. Constitutional government +in Russia has really begun, and when one considers +the past it is clear that great progress has been +made in the direction of constitutional freedom +since it was granted in 1905. The reconstitution +of the Polish nation, the stirring amongst the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +Finns, the rising hopes of the Jews, the national +aspirations of Mongolia more and more fully +expressed, the general “moving upon the face +of the waters” of the Spirit which makes a free +people, cannot but rivet the attention of those +interested in social and national life upon Russia +at this time, when the autocratic government of +long standing is passing, so simply and so +naturally, it would seem, into the constitutional.</p> + +<p>Since the emancipation of the serfs there has +been a steady growth of the democratic, almost +communal, spirit in all the peasant villages of +Russia, and though their powers have been somewhat +curtailed since 1889 they are self-governing +and very responsible communities. Some of the +best and most interesting Russian stories, therefore, +deal with incidents and experiences in village +life; and it is the great fact that Sir Donald +Mackenzie Wallace, whose book upon Russia is +one of the most complete character, went and +shut himself out from the rest of the world at the +little village of Ivanofka, in the province of +Novgorod, and there drank in the spirit of the +language and of the national life, that makes his +compendious work a real classic for those who want +truly to understand Russian life and nationality.</p> + +<p>There are two distinct social and constitutional +forces at work, therefore, and not working slowly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +and deliberately, as so often in the past, but with +great rapidity—the autocratic seeking to realize +its responsibilities and to fulfil them, and the +democratic feeling that its ideals are coming +nearer to being realized every day.</p> + +<p>There is consequently no country so absorbingly +interesting to the constitutionalist at this +time as Russia. Nothing can be more stimulating, +to those who want to read the signs of +the times, than to know that revolutionaries, +such as M. Bourtzeff,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> who had left their country +in despair to plan and plot, have now returned, +without troubling whether they would be pardoned +or punished, full of expectant hope for their +country’s constitutional future. Perhaps cautious +people will hope that progress may be slow, but +the great thing is to be able to say, “It moves.”</p> + +<p>Every city and great town in Russia has something +specially characteristic about it, and of +course they are, as yet, very few in number. +Catherine the Great, as is well known, thought +cities and towns could be created, though +she found out her mistake, and Russia still +remains a land of villages rather than of towns, +but the great towns which do exist have usually +very distinctive features.</p> + +<p>Petrograd, for instance, though, as Peter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +intended it should be, essentially modern, has +its very special features in its domed churches +and the magnificence of its wide river with the +great palaces upon its banks and bordering upon +its quays. The fortress of S. Peter and S. Paul, +on the opposite side, “home of political prisoners +and dead Tsars,” when the sun is setting, is +never to be forgotten, and enters at once upon +the field of vision as one thinks of Peter’s capital.</p> + +<p>Then Moscow! How well I remember Bishop +Creighton’s enthusiasm whenever he spoke of +Moscow. Though his face might be calm and +its expression grave before, only let Moscow be +mentioned and it would light up at once, as with +sparkling eyes he would exclaim:—</p> + +<p>“Moscow!—oh, you must see Moscow: +nothing in the world is like it. You <i>must</i> +see it.”</p> + +<p>But it is really the Kremlin which makes +Moscow unique, with an intangible influence +and sense of association connected with it that +no one can describe, as one thinks of its historic +past and of Napoleon! The Kremlin! I had +read and heard descriptions of it from time to +time, but was in no way prepared for that vast +area of palaces, churches, treasuries, great houses, +and barracks, enclosed by glorious walls and +towers and entered by impressive gateways,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +over which one gazed with wondering eyes +when seen first under the blue sky and brilliant +winter sun.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 413px;"><a id="image005" name="image005"></a> +<img src="images/image005.png" width="413" height="661" alt="The Gate of the Redeemer, Moscow." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Gate of the Redeemer, Moscow.</span> +</div> + +<p>It is no use attempting to describe it; but +Moscow is the Kremlin, and to <i>feel</i> the Kremlin +is to <i>know</i> Moscow.</p> + +<p>Upon entering the Spassky Gate, or Gate of +the Redeemer, every hat has to be removed in +honour of the <i>ikon</i> of the Saviour which is placed +above it. The picture was placed there, by the +Tsar Alexis, in 1647, to be regarded as the +“palladium of the Kremlin,” and the order was +given then that hats should be removed when +passing through. The law is rigorously enforced +still, and though it is sometimes a trial—I had +frostbite in consequence when I last went through +a year ago—yet the act is almost an instinctive +one when entering or leaving the Kremlin.</p> + +<p>Warsaw, again—for no one in this generation +can dissociate it from Russia and call it Polish +only—with its glorious position on the Vistula +in the midst of its great plain, though not so +ancient and inspiring as Cracow, in Galicia, is +full of moving appeal to the national and historic +sense for those who visit it for the first time, and +especially, as in my own case, when entering the +empire by that route. I have seen Warsaw in +spring, summer, and winter, and always felt its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +charm; and I have not felt more deeply moved +for a long time than by the Emperor’s proclamation +that he intended the Poles once more to be +a nation and—there can be but little doubt about +it—with Warsaw as its capital.</p> + +<p>Riga also, the great shipping-port on the Baltic, +which I have entered by sea and by land, and when +coming in by sea have had the pleasure of seeing +our beautiful English church on the shore with +its graceful spire standing out conspicuously, yet +blending in with other towers and pinnacles. How +very characteristic of the Baltic and attractive the +city is, with its blending of the Teuton and Slav +populations! But how essentially Russian it is +in all its leading features, while different from +all other Russian cities! It is so wherever one +goes both on this and on the other side of the +Urals. There always seems to be something +specially characteristic in these great centres of +population; and they all seem as if, unlike +other towns, they had each their own interesting +story to tell for those who have ears to hear.</p> + +<p>Town or city life in Russia is not very representative +of the true life of the country and its +people, though it undoubtedly exerts a widespread +influence upon their general social life; for +Russia’s vast population is not gathered together +in either towns or cities, but in hamlets and villages.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace tells us that when +he wrote his first book on Russia, in 1877, there +were only eleven towns with a population of +over 50,000 in European Russia, and that, in +1905, they had only increased to thirty-four. +The increase of the future will no doubt be +more rapid when the war is over.</p> + +<p>The great cities will probably, as practically all +the cities of Europe have done of late years, +follow the lead of Paris under Baron Hausmann +in the character of their imposing blocks of +houses and wide boulevards, and one capital +will be much the same as any other in Europe in +its general appearance and social life.</p> + +<p>Russian cities, however, even the capital, +though ever becoming more cosmopolitan, still +possess their many distinctive and interesting +features, costumes, and customs, and are most +picturesque and interesting, of course, during +the long winter. It gives one a shock almost +to go for the first time to Warsaw or Petrograd—at +Moscow there is always the Kremlin—in +the middle of the summer. There is little to +distinguish them then, apart from the ever-glorious +beauty of the churches, from Buda-Pest +or Vienna.</p> + +<p>But in the winter! Then it is everywhere still +characteristic Russia. The sledges, for instance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +with their <i>troikas</i>! They are the same carriages +or <i>droschkes</i> as in summer, but with runners instead +of wheels. Horses are harnessed in the same +way in both seasons, and even the coachmen +seem to wear exactly the same dress all the year +round, edged with fur like their caps, though +the padding inside the coat <i>must</i> be less in summer, +one would think. The sledges of nobles and +other wealthy people, used in the winter only, +are painted and decorated most attractively. To +drive out on a winter night, under a sky brilliant +with stars, the air extraordinarily keen, bracing, +and stimulating, the bells tinkling from the high +and graceful yoke which rises from the central +horse of the three, wrapped in furs, and with no +sounds but the bells and the crack of whips and +the subdued crunching of the snow, is to taste +one of the joys of life, and feel to the full, with +happiness in the feeling, “This is Russia!”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 661px;"><a id="image006" name="image006"></a> +<img src="images/image006.png" width="661" height="427" alt="A Well-clad Coachman." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A Well-clad Coachman.</span> +</div> + +<p>The coachmen pad up their robes of blue to +an enormous extent, so that they seem to bulge +out over their seat. It is said to be a custom +dating from Catherine’s days and from her +requirements that there should be at least twelve +inches of good stuff between her coachman’s skin +and her nose! But the present reason for the +custom, which prevails, as far as I know, in no +other country, is that there is an objection to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +a thin coachman. When I was speaking of the +absurdity of these grotesque padded-out figures +to a lady whom I had taken into dinner one night +in Moscow, she at once said:—</p> + +<p>“Well, I must say I like my coachman to look +comfortable and well fed, I should hate a thin +one.”</p> + +<p>Dickens’s fat boy in Pickwick must commend +himself to Russia, for they love Dickens and read +him in translation and the original all through the +empire, as just what a driver ought to be. I should +think coachmen in Russia, however, <i>ought</i> to be +fat without any padding-up, for they are all merry +and good-tempered, their blue eyes and pleasant +faces under their furry caps giving the impression +of perfect health. They sit on their boxes all +day without any violent exercise, and probably +have good and abundant food, and above all they +sleep. However long you keep your coachman, +even in the depth of winter, he does not mind, +for he invariably seems to go to sleep while +waiting, and to have an absolutely unlimited +capacity for gentle and peaceful slumber. I +am not at all sure whether my driver on the +steppes has not usually been asleep even when +we have been going at full speed, the centre +horse trotting swiftly, the other two, according +to custom, at the gallop.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>The <i>dvornik</i> is another institution in town life. +He is an indoor servant in great houses, usually +about the front hall, to open the door for those +who go out, ready for all sorts of odd things; or +he may be a head out-of-doors servant; or he +may give general help for three or four or more +smaller establishments; but he has to be there, +and cannot be dismissed, for he is <i>ex officio</i> a +member of the police and has to make his report +from time to time. It must give a little sense +of espionage, but still, as with the passport, it +is only the evil-minded or evil-living who need +to be afraid of the <i>dvornik’s</i> report, and it must +be remembered also that the Russian Government +has long had cause to dread the revolutionary spirit, +and has had to fight for its very life against it.</p> + +<p>This is the darker side of life in Russia; and as +far as my experience goes it is the only dark side, +for it must be evident that a designing <i>dvornik</i> +may do untold harm, and specially—as I have +known to be the case—in official and diplomatic +establishments. The custom opens out possibilities +of blackmail also, and one can only hope +that it will pass away in what so many of us feel +are to be for Russia the better days to come.</p> + +<p>Russians are very hospitable, not only lavish +in its exercise where ample means allow, but +naturally and by custom thoroughly and truly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> +ready, even in the homes of the very poor, to +welcome the coming guest.</p> + +<p>This is brought out in every book one reads +of Russia, but by no one more touchingly than +by Mr. Stephen Graham in his <i>Tramp’s Sketches</i>, +when he journeyed constantly amongst the very +poor and found them always ready to “share +their crusts.” Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace +says the same about the wealthier classes: “Of +all the foreign countries in which I have travelled +Russia certainly bears off the palm in the matter +of hospitality.”</p> + +<p>An interesting feature of a Russian meal, +luncheon, or dinner, is its preliminary, the +<i>zakouska</i>. It probably dates from the time when +guests came from long distances, as they do still +in the country, and would be hungry upon +their arrival, and yet would have to wait until +all the guests had come. It would be, and indeed +in some houses to which I have been is still, +understood, that if you were asked for a certain +time the dinner would follow in the course of +an hour or two; and so the “snack” was provided, +and laid out upon the sideboard. The +great dinners or banquets in London are “7 for +7-30,” to give time for guests to assemble.</p> + +<p>The <i>zakouska</i>, however, remains the custom +still at every meal, and consists of caviare sand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>wiches, +<i>pâté de foie gras</i>, and various kinds of +deliciously cured fish. Strangers to the country, +not understanding this particular custom, for it +is provided in the drawing-room, ante-room, or +in the dining-room itself, sometimes enjoy it so +much and partake so freely, that they feel unequal +to the meal which follows, and then have the +pain of seeing their host and hostess quite +mortified and hurt by their not doing full justice +to the good things provided. I remember being +entertained at supper in Libau by the good consul +and his family, at the St. Petersburg Hotel, when +the <i>zakouska</i> provided was so abundant and +attractive that we all decided that we could not +go beyond it to anything more substantial.</p> + +<p>Another special and characteristic feature of +Russian life, and one which it seems impossible to +transplant to another country, for many of my +friends have tried it, is the <i>samovar</i> or large urn +with a central flue for burning or smouldering +charcoal. The <i>samovar</i> is always near at hand, +and ready to be brought in at short notice to +furnish what one can only call the national +beverage of tea. The steaming urn is a very +cheerful object in the room, and when tea is +made and guests are served, the teapot is placed +on the top of the central flue and everything is +kept bubbling hot. On the steppes I used to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +boil my eggs in the space between the flue and +the outside cover, though this was not held to +be good for the tea. Tea is provided and enjoyed +everywhere in Russia, drunk very hot, rather +weak and almost always with sugar, though <i>not</i> +with lemon except in great houses and hotels. +“Slices of lemon,” to my amazement I was told, +as I travelled off the track of railways and sometimes +on, “are an English custom!”</p> + +<p>Tea is always taken in tumblers set in a little +metal frame with a handle. On the trains for +the poorest passengers there is often hot water, +and always at stations on the way; and emigrants, +as they travel, may be said to do so teapot in +hand. It is China tea and light in colour, and, +as the custom amongst the poorer classes is to +put only a moderate quantity of tea into the +<i>tchinak</i> or teapot, to begin with, and to fill up with +hot water as they go on drinking for an indefinite +time, it must be very weak indeed at the end. +Not even at the start is it strong, or what some +public schoolboys call “beefy.” At the end it +can hardly have even a flavour of tea about it, +though they go on drinking it quite contentedly. +Across the Urals and amongst the Kirghiz I found +the custom was not to put sugar in the tea but +in the mouth, and drink the tea through it, and +just above the Persian frontier jam was taken in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +the same way, to flavour and sweeten the tea in +the act of drinking.</p> + +<p>Russian houses, in the great cities, are much +the same as in other capitals, though perhaps +rather more spacious and richly furnished. The +rooms for entertainment and daily use open out +of each other, of course, and the beautiful stoves +of porcelain have not, as yet, given way to central +heating. Double windows in all the rooms are +the rule all through the long winter, with a small +pane let in for ventilation; and thus a cosy +and comfortable sense of warmth is experienced +everywhere whilst indoors, which renders it, +strange as it may seem, unnecessary to wear, as +in our own country, warm winter under-garments. +Comfortably warm by night or day, without +extra clothing or extra blankets whilst indoors, +and wrapped in thick warm furs when out of +doors, the winter is not as trying in Russia as +in more temperate countries. One takes a cold +bath, indeed, in that country with more enjoyment +than anywhere else, for, though the water +gives an almost electric shock with its icy sting, +yet, as soon as one steps out into the warm air +of the bath-room and takes up the warm towels, +the immediate reaction brings at once a glow of +pure enjoyment. There is every comfort in a +Russian house, especially in the winter.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<p>The country house, or <i>datcha</i>, is a necessity for +those who have to live in Russia all the year +round, as the cities and great towns are very hot +and dusty, and often full of mosquitoes in the +two or three months of summer, which is quite +tropical in its character.</p> + +<p>Thus there are the two extremes, an Arctic +winter and a tropical summer.</p> + +<p>The country houses are entirely summer +residences, with great verandahs and balconies +and other facilities for life in the open, and are +often placed amongst pine-woods or by the sea. +Some of my friends use their <i>datchas</i> in winter +also; and it is interesting to see how balconies +and verandahs which in summer are filled with +carpets, furniture, and plants, and are quite open +on every side to meet the needs of the family and +its guests all through the day in the open air, in +winter are closed in by double windows fitted +in on every side, and thus are made into +additional and altogether different rooms.</p> + +<p>The homes of the Russian nobility are very +richly and artistically appointed in every particular. +I stayed with friends a couple of years ago who +had taken such an establishment for the summer; +and furniture, pictures, china, arrangements and +decorations of rooms all gave striking testimony +to the wealth and cultivated tastes of the absent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +family. Even beyond the Urals, at the Kyshtim +Mine, when first I visited it and was the guest +of the managing director, I was amazed at the +sumptuous character of his abode built by the +former owners of the mine.</p> + +<p>It is a vast building approached by a great +courtyard and in the Greek style of architecture, +with towers in different places giving it a fortress-like +appearance in the distance. The rooms are +extraordinarily large and numerous, and here +and there are bits of Venetian furniture, old +paintings, and rich carpets. On going straight +through the great salon, which one enters from +the outer door and into the open air on the other +side, one is again under a great portico with +Greek pillars, capitals, and frieze, looking out +over a large sheet of water towards hills and +forests. I could not help saying to myself in +amazement the first time I went there, “And +this is Siberia!”</p> + +<p>I am not at all sure that social life upon European +lines will not develop more rapidly in +Siberia than in European Russia. Even now +I do not know any railway station in Russia +proper that can compare with that of Ekaterinburg, +just where Siberia really begins, in all +its arrangements for the travelling public and +especially in the equipment of its restaurant and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +dining-rooms, where every comfort in the way +of good food and good service is provided for +the traveller, and French and German are freely +spoken.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to write on the general social life +without mentioning, though one cannot do more, +certain recent events which must have a tremendous +influence upon Russia’s future, socially +as well as nationally. There is, for instance, +the Emperor’s proclamation against the <i>vodka</i> +monopoly hitherto enjoyed by the government, +which prohibits State <i>vodka</i> selling for ever. +The effect upon the public life of the great cities +has been astonishing already. No one could have +believed that the “stroke of a pen,” so to speak, +could have wrought such a change in the habits +of a people. It remains to be seen, of course, +how long the change will last; but, though Acts +of Parliament cannot make people sober, it is +a grand step in the right direction to decide that +they shall not make them drunk, as the encouragement +given by the State to the sale of <i>vodka</i> must +certainly have done.</p> + +<p>Could any other modern government have +made a sacrifice such as Russia has made in +giving up the expectation of nearly £100,000,000 +of revenue for the social well-being of her people? +Truly she deals with “large spaces!”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>Moreover, the <i>vodka</i> proclamation comes in +the natural course of things, and can have been +but very little hurried by the war; for things +were already moving in that direction. Last year +but one—1913—a scheme of “local option” was +introduced into the empire; and, in every +commune within its boundaries, I am assured, +men and women alike having the vote for the +purpose, the inhabitants were allowed to decide +for themselves whether they would allow <i>vodka</i> +to be sold in their villages and towns. It was +recognized that if the men enjoyed getting drunk +the wives and mothers were the sufferers, and +so they were allowed to vote.</p> + +<p>The whole country, therefore, before the war +broke out, was prepared to face a great issue. +And the general war cry, “We’ve a greater foe +to fight than the Germans!” shows how they +faced it, and gives them that ideal which should +enable them to go far. They are out for a holy +war, and far-reaching influences are clearly at +work which will profoundly and permanently +affect the whole social conditions and well-being +of the people.</p> + +<p>Then there is the proclamation concerning the +resuscitation of Poland. This also does not come +at all as an overwhelming surprise to many of +us, as it has been fairly well known that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> +Emperor, and some at least of his principal +advisers, have for some time had ever-increasing +constitutional, even democratic, sympathies. It +has been more and more felt of late that what +is called Russification, as practised towards the +Finns, would go no further; and indeed, as far +as they were concerned, would be reversed. No +thoughtful person who has marked the trend +of events since 1908 could doubt the direction +in which higher and responsible Russian thought +was moving. But who can possibly foresee the +far-reaching effect of raising up a great Polish +nation once more and recognizing the Roman +Catholic Church as the Church of that part of +the empire, with Russians and Poles, Orthodox +and Roman Catholic living together in amity and +international unity?</p> + +<p>“I have just been staying,” writes Mr. Stephen +Graham in the <i>Times</i> for October 29, 1914, “in +the fine old city of Wilna, a city of courtly Poles, +the home of many of the old noble families +of Poland. It is now thronged with Russian +officers and soldiers. Along the main street is +an incessant procession of troops, and as you +look down you see vistas of bayonet-spikes +waving like reeds in a wind. As you lie in bed +at night you listen to the tramp, tramp, tramp +of soldiers. Or you look out of the window<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +and see wagons and guns passing for twenty +minutes on end, or you see prancing over the +cobbles and the mud the Cossacks of the Don, +of the Volga, of Seven Rivers. In the days of +the revolutionary outburst the Poles bit their lips +in hate at the sight of the Russian soldiers, +they cursed under their breath, darted out with +revolvers, shot, and aimed bombs. To-day they +smile, tears run down their cheeks; they even +cheer. Whoever would have thought to see +the day when the Poles would cheer the Russian +troops marching through the streets of their +own cities? The Russians are forgiven!”</p> + +<p>No one who has known Russia and Poland +before the war could read this description without +deep emotion.</p> + +<p>“A very touching spectacle,” he continues, +“may be seen every day just now at the Sacred +Gate of Wilna. Above the gateway is a chapel +with wide-open doors showing a richly-gilded +and flower-decked image of the Virgin. At one +side stands a row of leaden organ-pipes, at the +other stands a priest. Music is wafted through +the air with incense and the sound of prayers. +Down below in the narrow, muddy roadway +kneel many poor men and women with prayer-books +in their hands. They are Poles. But +through the gateway come incessantly, all day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +and all night, Russian troops going to the front. +And every soldier or officer as he comes lifts +his hat and passes through the praying throng +uncovered. This is beautiful. Let Russia always +be so in the presence of the Mother of Poland.”</p> + +<p>It is impossible to read of that scene also, and +recall at the same time past relations of the two +Churches here mentioned, without dreaming +dreams and seeing visions of social unity such +as has never yet been known, both for Russia +and all other countries to which she has so +nobly and unselfishly given a social lead and +invitation to follow on.</p> + +<hr style="width:30%;" /> + +<blockquote><p style="font-size:small;">Note from p. 27, “M. Bourtzeff.”—There was a notice +in the <i>Times</i> of February 4th last as follows: “A Reuter +telegram from Petrograd of yesterday’s date states that +M. Bourtzeff has been sentenced to deportation to Siberia.” +I have never been able, however, to obtain any confirmation +of this from Russian officials in this country, nor do the +Russian Embassy know anything about it. I hope it will +prove that a sentence was passed <i>pro forma</i>, and that the +Emperor, as in Miss Malecska’s case, at once remitted the +sentence, or that M. Bourtzeff was merely requested to live +in Siberia for the present rather than in Russia, and I +personally should think that no great hardship. I feel that +we must await further particulars before being able to form +correct impressions of this important case.</p></blockquote> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See end of this chapter, p. 45.</p></div> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">The Peasantry</span></h2> + + +<p>It would be much more satisfactory to one’s +self to try and write a <i>book</i> about the peasantry +of Russia, rather than attempt to say all that one +wants to say in a single chapter, for there could +hardly be any more interesting and promising +people in the world than the peasant folk of Russia. +The future of the empire depends upon the +development and improvement of its agricultural +population, as they form three-fourths, according +to the last census of three years ago, of +its grand total of over 171,000,000 souls. +Russia thus leads in the white races in the +matter of population, and possesses that splendid +asset, which Goldsmith feels to be vital to +a nation’s advance and with which nothing else +can compare when lost:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A breath can make them as a breath has made;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When once destroyed can never be supplied.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is upon coming to write even briefly and +in an impressionist kind of way upon a class which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +forms the huge majority of Russia’s population +that the vastness of her empire and the different +conditions under which her people live begin +to be in some small degree apparent. It is +no wonder that thoroughly well-informed and +experienced writers, who have lived long and +travelled far in the country and who are +evidently quite to be trusted, should yet write +so differently.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 659px;"><a id="image007" name="image007"></a> +<img src="images/image007.png" width="659" height="396" alt="A Village Scene." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A Village Scene.</span> +</div> + +<p>One will write as if the Russian peasant was +only a degree better in his intelligence than +the animals which share his filthy hovel, and +no less brutish in temperament and nature. +Fearsome pictures are drawn in some books +I have read of the almost impossible conditions +and indescribable filth in which men, women, +and children, fowls, pigs, horses, cattle, and +dogs herd together in a stifling atmosphere and +sickening stench, where to enter is out of the +question unless one is to be covered with vermin +and contract some illness. All this may be true +to the writer’s own experiences, and he can only +write and describe things as he has found them; +but I too will do the same.</p> + +<p>It is worth while to remember from the first +that the lives of the peasant population of Russia +must be as different in summer and winter as +tropical heat is from arctic cold. In the winter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +all <i>must</i> crowd in together when the household +is poor if life has to be preserved and defended +against that appalling cold, when the one condition +of the survival is warmth, or even heat. +All outdoor occupation ceases, of course, with +the one exception, it may be, of cutting, stacking, +and carting wood. A peasant population, with +a not very advanced civilization as yet, and little +education—only twenty per cent. of the whole +population can read and write—must, like the +animal world, hibernate, come as it were to a standstill, +rest physically and mentally, and prepare +for the unremitting activities of the summer.</p> + +<p>I remember once when staying in an inn at +the top of an Alpine pass being impressed with +the extraordinary energy and vivacity of the +head waitress. She was simply untiring, always +in good spirits, always at hand when wanted, +unfailing in her attentions; however late a guest +was up she was moving cheerfully about, however +early one was down she was down before +him helping to get things ready. When I was +leaving I said to her, “I’ve been wondering +when you get your rest?”</p> + +<p>She smiled brightly, and said cheerfully, “In +the winter, sir.”</p> + +<p>That’s when the Russian peasant gets his +rest also, and with the spring he begins his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +energetic life of farming and agriculture, of +carting and labour. The long days are busy +and all too short, the brief nights are hardly +more than an interval. The whole land is full +of movement, the air is full of song and +music, the holidays marked by game and dance. +Nothing could be more unlike the bitter cold +and gloom of Russia’s long and terrible winter +than the glow, brilliance, joy, and never-ceasing +activities of her amazingly rich and life-giving +summer. Her peasantry must present the same +contrasts in homes and seeming temperaments, +and two writers may therefore be widely asunder +in their descriptions, and yet both write truthfully +of the things they have seen and known at +different times of the year.</p> + +<p>To me the Russian peasant is, as to others who +have known him at his best, an amiable, attractive, +intelligent, thoroughly good-natured and +altogether lovable creature. It is quite true that +he can do, has done, and may again do some +perfectly appalling things, but it has been when +thoroughly worked up, as one of a crowd, and +when every one else has lost his head. Terrible +things which were not allowed to be known in +Europe outside their frontiers, and now will +probably never be known, were done during the +revolution of seven years ago. But the Russian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +peasants are like children, as yet, and any one +who knows and loves children knows perfectly +well also what they are capable of, if they have +any spirit in them, when thoroughly worked up, +and when they too have for the time being lost +their head and feel capable of almost anything +that will hurt and pain and annoy. The peasants +are in this, as in many other things, like children.</p> + +<p>As soon as the statistics of the Russian +peasantry come to be examined a startling fact +comes to light. More than half their number—582 +out of every 1,000—die before they are +five years old. This means, as in the more +inclement parts of our own country, that those +who survive are a hardy race, strong and virile. +The mortality is greatest amongst male children—over +600 out of every 1,000—and those, +therefore, who do live are strong enough for +anything and of amazing vitality, as we have +seen in the present war.</p> + +<p>Not only are they vigorous and strong in +physique, however, but there is nothing lacking +in their intelligence, or Russia would not have +the charm and fascination she possesses. Probably +no country in the world, unless it be still +agricultural France, can compare with Russia +in the character of its peasant industries or their +importance as part of the national revenue and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +resources. Probably the people will be stimulated +to greater industry in this direction by the +removal of the <i>vodka</i> temptation, and both cease +to feel the desire for it and get something in +its place. Just as a man I once knew who was +led to give up drink and gambling at the same +time, when wondering how he could possibly +live without them, had to change his house +and remove to another with a garden. There +in gardening work he found his compensation, +and at the same time added to the resources of +his household. Thus may it be in Russia.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>The list of the Russian peasant industries is +a long and interesting one, but I won’t take up +time in enumerating them, as they can be found +in the <i>Russian Year Book</i>, or probably in most +encyclopaedias. I may perhaps mention a few +which have especially interested and attracted +me, and will no doubt be brought before our +own people in the Russian shops and exhibitions +which are almost certain to be opened before long, +and it must be remembered that I am speaking +of peasant productions only.</p> + +<p>There is the beautiful “drawn thread” work, +lace-like in character, that all my friends say<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +is unlike anything to be found in our own +country, the making of which is promoted by +the Princess Tenisheva and other Russian ladies, +as well as embroidered and worked linen of +all descriptions. Toys, and particularly large +ornamental wooden spoons, of all kinds are made +in great quantities by village folk, and painted +boxes such as the Japanese make, but with +Russian scenes upon them, in delightful shades +of colour, and with rich and brilliant lacquer +inside and out. Then there are hand-woven +laces of different varieties, and, above all, the +Orenburg shawls, exquisitely dainty and so fine +that the largest of them will go through a +wedding-ring, and yet warmer than Shetland wool. +These also are hand-woven, and come from the +province of Orenburg, just beyond the Urals.</p> + +<p>Ironwork, again, is a speciality in Siberia, +where they are said to be the best iron-workers +in the world, though a friend of mine to whom +I mentioned this, when I was showing him some +perfectly wonderful and artistic specimens which +had been given to me when I first went to +Siberia, said, “That’s because they have the best +iron in the world.” The stone or gem-cutting +industry is an important one. Furs, from sheep +and wolf-skins up to bears, as well as those of +foxes, sables, elk, and reindeer, and other animals,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> +are perfectly dressed by the peasants for their +own use, as well as for sale. I have some +exquisite work in coloured silks upon hand-woven +cloth which had never been out of the +tents where they were made till given to me, +and above all I cherish a silver box which had +been made in a Kirghese <i>uerta</i> or tent, far away +upon the steppes, and was given to me when +I had had services there after my long drive +in the <i>tarantass</i>. It would hold about a hundred +cigarettes, and was given to me for that purpose, +is oblong in shape, with a lid of sloping sides, +and is made from silver roubles hammered out +and ornamented with that beautiful damascening +that is said to be a lost art except for the peasants +of the steppes. It is such a beautiful bit of +workmanship that any one looking at it would +think it had come out of a Bond Street silversmith’s, +until he turned it over and saw that +the bottom is a plain piece of iron, rough and +unornamented. Let no one think the Russian +peasant unintelligent or unskilful or wanting in +dexterity or resource. The wonder to me is +that, with the few advantages and opportunities +he has had, he is so capable, intelligent, and +quick to learn as he is. And what is important +for us to remember is that he loves to learn +from an Englishman.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then, again, we are told that he is brutish in +temperament and of low ideals, and never seems +to rise above his squalid surroundings. I don’t +agree that his surroundings <i>are</i> squalid. Simple +they are, without a doubt, as the Canadian shack +of three brothers I know is simple, and has +nothing in it but beds and tables and chairs, their +boxes and saddle-trees, etc., and all is bed and +work, but it is not squalid. They have been +brought up in a good and refined home, and yet +find nothing incongruous in their present abode +amongst the pine-woods.</p> + +<p>That’s what a Russian peasant’s home is also, +simple and yet attractive. It is built of logs, +the interstices well plastered up with moss and +clay to keep out all cold air, cool in summer and +warm in winter by reason of the thickness of +these outer walls; and it usually has an inner +entrance or small room, before the large and +chief living-room. There will be two or more +small square windows in the latter, an <i>ikon</i> in a +corner with a lamp before it and a shelf for +flowers below—every one on entering looks +towards it, bowing reverently and making the +sign of the Cross—a very large stove of bricks, +whitewashed, upon the top of which rests a wide +shelf, carried along the wall as far as is necessary +for the whole family to be able to find sleeping-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>space +upon it. There will also be a long wooden +bench, a great table, a few wooden stools, and +a great cupboard, and, nearly always, cheap +coloured pictures of the Emperor and Empress, +whose portraits are to be found in all shops, inns, +post offices, and places of public resort.</p> + +<p>These are the simple surroundings described +and made familiar to us by all writers of Russian +stories of which peasants form a part, and all +over the empire they are found just as Tolstoi, +Dostoviesky, Turgenieff, and others bring them +before us in their interesting tales. Take for +example Tolstoi’s <i>Where Love is there God is also</i>, +<i>Master and Man</i>, and other parables and tales. +When Martin Avdeitch is looking out from his +small abode through his one small window upon +the passers-by as simply as man could do, and +yet with shrewd and discerning eyes, he is ready +for the old pilgrim who comes into his life just at +the right moment, and shows him the way to God.</p> + +<p>Or take Nikita in <i>Master and Man</i>, in the +same volume. In some ways he is extraordinarily +simple, and does not appear to know how +shamefully he is being exploited by his avaricious +and grasping master. We are told in the story +that he <i>does</i> know even though he goes on as +if he didn’t, and does his duty by him as if he +were the best of masters, just as he does by an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +unfaithful and unfeeling wife. It would be difficult +to imagine a peasant one would more love +to know and understand than Nikita, strong, +capable, affectionate, and shrewd, as he comes +running before us in the story, to harness the +horse for his master, the only man on the place +that day not drunk, talking to the little brown +cob which noses him affectionately, and in the +end making a tremendous struggle for his own +and his master’s life, and winning through himself. +Thus he goes on steadily as long as he +lives, with no other thought but that of duty, +until he lies down beneath the <i>ikon</i>, and, with +the wax candle in his hand just as he had always +wished, passes away at peace with every living +creature and with <span class="smcap">God</span>.</p> + +<p>There are no peasants like the Russians, or +who think as they do. They are young, one +feels, and “The thoughts of youth are long, +long thoughts,” and that is just what those who +know them best find out.</p> + +<p>A friend of mine told this story the other day +at a meeting, at which we both had to speak, +and I am sure it will bear repetition. A <i>moujik</i>, +or peasant, was driving a German commercial +traveller across the open country, and in the +course of their conversation together his companion +said to him:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>“Your countrymen are nothing but a lot of +idolaters. You worship those <i>ikons</i> of yours, and +bow down to them as the heathen do,” and so on. +The <i>moujik</i> was very indignant, and grumbled +out his disapproval of all this.</p> + +<p>“Worship our <i>ikons</i> indeed! We don’t.” +And as they went driving on he suddenly drew +up, and, pointing to a tree, demanded of the +astonished traveller:—</p> + +<p>“Do you mean to say that I would worship +that tree?”</p> + +<p>“No, no. Of course not! Drive on.”</p> + +<p>With a very disapproving grunt he drove on, +and when they reached their destination, where +there was a painter at work upon an outside +door, the <i>moujik</i>, pointing to the paint-pot beside +it, again demanded of the traveller:—</p> + +<p>“Would you say I could worship that paint?”</p> + +<p>“No, certainly not! You could not be so silly.”</p> + +<p>“But yet you say I worship an <i>ikon</i>, which is +only painted wood, and can’t see that I only use +it to help me to worship <span class="smcap">God</span>.”</p> + +<p>Let the reader reflect upon the way in which +that peasant had been thinking over the charge +made against him of idolatry, thinking what +idolatry really was, and how far he felt himself +from it. Let him try and imagine how one of +our own agricultural labourers would think over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> +such a subject if he were entering into conversation +with us as he was digging in our garden, +or driving us in a farmer’s cart to a country +station. I am writing this chapter in a quiet +part of the country, and I can’t conceive of any +of the labouring people here even approaching +that line of thought upon which the mind of +that <i>moujik</i> began at once to move, though slowly +enough no doubt, when he was told he was little +better than a worshipper of idols.</p> + +<p>I read the other day in a book on Russia +that the peasantry are very dirty in person, and +never wash; but again it must be borne in +mind, as another remarkably well-informed and +sympathetic writer<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> says also: “When people +generalize about the intense misery of Russian +peasants and the squalor in which they live they +should remember that Russia is a large country, +that it possesses a North and a South, an East +and a West, and that what is true about one place +is quite untrue about another.” I shall be quite +prepared, therefore, to be told by people who +know Russia far better than I can ever hope to +do, that their experience has been altogether +different from my own, and I shall not dream +of questioning or doubting the truth of what +they say as far as their own experience goes.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> +<p>In this vast area of which we are thinking +there must indeed be great varieties of experience +and conditions of life, and it is not contrary to +what one might expect to find much nearer home, +that the people of one village may be clean in +their habits and those of another quite the reverse. +But from all I have seen, heard, and read the +Russian labouring and peasant class have a great +desire to be clean. Nor is this a new thing at +all in the national life. It is nearly forty years +ago since Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace told us, +in the first edition of his work, of the important +part taken by the weekly vapour-bath in the life +of the Russian peasantry, and described “the +public bath possessed by many villages.” How +many villages of our own, even now, have +a public bath? And how many of our own +peasantry dream of having what is a perfectly +ordinary and weekly habit of the Russians—the +bath in his own house?</p> + +<p>My Russian and Siberian friends tell me how +they have always to arrange for their domestic +servants to get a good bath, before they change +for Sunday, every Saturday afternoon and evening. +Mr. Rothay Reynolds says the same: “My +friend took me to see his bath-house. Russians +are exceedingly clean. In villages one may see +a row of twenty cottages, and, thirty yards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +from them, a row of twenty bath-houses. The +one the peasant showed me was a hut with +a stove intended to heat the great stones placed +above it. On bath nights the stove is lit, and +when the stones are hot a bucket of water +is thrown on them, so that the place is filled +with steam. The bather lies on a bench in the +suffocating atmosphere, soaps himself, and ends +his ablutions with ice-cold water. In town and +country it is held to be a religious duty to take +a steam-bath once a week. Servants ask if they +can go out for a couple of hours to visit one of +the great baths in the cities. They go away with +clean linen bound up in a handkerchief, and +return shining with cleanliness. Admission to +the cheapest part of a steam-bath is usually +a penny farthing, but in the great towns there +are luxurious establishments frequented by the +rich.”</p> + +<p>There is another custom connected with the +bath which testifies to the hardy character of +the Russian <i>moujik</i>. They often rush straight +out of the almost suffocatingly hot bath which +they have been taking <i>inside</i> the huge earthenware +oven that they all possess and, naked and steaming, +roll themselves contentedly and luxuriously in +the snow. This, as a writer has well said, “aptly +illustrates a common Russian proverb which says<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> +that what is health to the Russian is death to the +German”—a proverb which has had striking +illustration again and again this very winter. +Probably some of my readers saw the account +of the arrival at the Russian front, soon after +war began, of the bath-train which was so +completely furnished and arranged that two +thousand men could have a clean bath during +the day or twelve thousand in the course of the +week. No doubt others have followed since then.</p> + +<p>The bath to the Russian has a certain religious +significance also, as in Moslem countries; “and +no good orthodox peasant,” I have read, “would +dare to enter a church after being soiled with +certain kinds of pollution without cleansing +himself physically and morally by means of the +bath.” “Cleanliness is next to godliness” is +not a bad motto for any people, and possibly +Russians will like to know that we have an order +of knighthood which dates from 1398, and is +named “The Most Honourable Order of the +Bath,” and mentioned regularly in the services +at Westminster Abbey.</p> + +<p>A great sense of initiative and personal responsibility, +as well as corporate spirit at the same +time, is clearly given early in life to the peasant +mind in Russia, for nowhere, I fancy, in the world, +except in countries where primitive ideas and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +customs still obtain, is there the same standard +of village life and self-government. There are +two kinds of communities. First, there is the +village community with its Assembly or <i>Mir</i>, +under the presidency of the <i>Staroshta</i>, who is +elected by the village. He presides over the +Assembly, which regulates the whole life of the +village, distributes the land of the commune, +decides how and when the working of the land +has to be done; and it is specially interesting +to know that in this most remarkable and +exceptional village government of the <i>Mir</i> all +women who permanently and temporarily are +heads of houses are expected to attend its +meetings and to vote—no one ever dreams of +questioning their right to do so.</p> + +<p>In addition to the village assembly and chief +elder there is also the “Cantonal” Assembly, +consisting of several village communities together, +meeting also under the presidency of a chief elder. +All this is, of course, a development of family +life where exactly the same ideas of corporate +duty in its members, and responsibilities in its +head, are held.</p> + +<p>It is evident that Russia has a great future +if this view of self-government is gradually +carried upwards. The right beginning in constitutional +government, surely, is in the family,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +for there we find the social unit. A state is +not a collection or aggregate of individuals, but +of families, and all history shows us that the +greatness or insignificance of a country has always +been determined by the condition of its homes +and the character of its family life. If from the +family, village, and commune Russian constitutionalists +work slowly and carefully upwards, +giving freedom to make opinions and convictions +felt in the votes, just as responsibility is understood +and met in the home, until one comes +to the head of it all in “The Little Father”; +and if he really rules—or administers rather, +for no true father rules only—just as any good +father would do, Russia the autocratic and +despotic, associated in the minds of so many +with arbitrary law in the interests of a few, +enforced by the knout and prison-chain, may +yet give the world a high standard of what the +government of a free and self-respecting people +ought to be.</p> + +<p>I should doubt if any peasantry in the world +live so simply and frugally or, as they say in +the North of England, “thrive so well on +it,” as the Russians. The men are of huge +stature, and their wives are strong, comely, and +wholesome-looking also. Their boys and girls +are sturdy, vigorous, and full of life; and yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +how bare the table looks at the daily meal, how +frugal the fare and small the quantity! It has +been the greatest joy to me to have Russian boys +and girls, in out-of-the-way places, to share my +sandwiches or tongue or other tinned meats, +when stopping at a rest-house, and see their eyes +shine at the unexpected and unusual treat.</p> + +<p>Black rye-bread and cabbage-soup form the +staple food of a peasant family, while meat of +any kind is rarely seen. The many and rigorous +fasts of the Church make very little difference to +the quality of the food, but only to its quantity. +The thanks given by guests to their host and +hostess, <i>Spasibo za kleb za sol</i>, “Thanks for bread +and salt,” tell their own story of a bare and simple +diet. Many of us have read in <i>The Russian +Pilgrims to Jerusalem</i> of the sacks of black and +hard crusts the peasants take with them, which +quite content them.</p> + +<p>What a tremendous difference it must have +made this winter in the Russian food transport +from the base to the front, to know that, if +a serious breakdown took place, or a hurried +march was ordered with which it was difficult +for them to keep up, and the worst came to the +worst, the men would have their crusts. It has +been said in years gone by, and may be true still +in many places, that the Russian peasant’s ideas of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +Paradise is a life in which he would have enough +black bread to eat.</p> + +<p>This bare subsistence and monotonous diet, +perhaps, is responsible for the break-out from +time to time when the attraction of <i>vodka</i> is too +strong to be resisted in a life in which there are +no counter-attractions. Counter-attractions there +ought to be for a being who is created not for +work alone, but for that recreation which, as its +very name betokens, his whole nature needs if +he is to do his best work. “There is a time to +work and a time to play,” says the proverb +writer; and if we hold that in school life “All +work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” we +can hardly wonder that, the world over, those +for whom work is provided and play refused will +seek, as they have ever done, to make up for its +absence by the exhilaration of stimulating and +intoxicating drinks. It is when writing upon the +drunkenness to be seen at every Russian village +holiday that one whom I have often quoted in this +book,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> truly says, “As a whole a village fête in +Russia is a saddening spectacle. It affords a +new proof—where, alas! no proof was required—that +we northern nations who know so well +how to work have not yet learnt the art of +amusing ourselves.”</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> +<p>As an instance of the real and natural friendliness +and essential good nature of the Russian, +I may say that even when drunk I have never +seen or heard of men quarrelling. They do +not gradually begin to dispute and recriminate +and come to blows or draw the knife, as some +of the more hot-blooded people of the South +do, when wine excites or spirits cheer them. +They seem to become more and more affectionate +until they begin to kiss each other, and may be +seen thus embracing and rolling over and over +together like terriers in the snow. If wine +unlooses the tongue, and brings out what is +usually hidden away beneath the surface, it evidently +brings out nothing very evil from the +inner life of the Russian peasant.</p> + +<p>In time to come, if all’s well, Russia is to be +opened up to the traveller, and everywhere the +British tourists will be welcomed, and even though +the beaten track of the railway may never be left +there will be abundant opportunities for observing +the habits and customs of the people. A modern +writer who, apparently, in passing through Siberia +never went far from the railway, though he probably +stayed for some time at different places on the +way, and sat in third and fourth-class carriages +even if he did not actually travel in them, managed +to see a great deal of peasant life. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +railway train is open from end to end, and a +great deal may be learnt thus about the people +while merely passing through. There are also +the long waits at the stations where there are +invariably interesting groups of the most romantic +and picturesque character—the women vivacious +and full of conversation, while the men stand +more stolidly by, always making one long to +speak and understand their language and to know +more about them.</p> + +<p>There is a story of Mr. Maurice Baring’s +which illustrates what I have already said of +the way in which the Russian peasant mind +begins to move freely, independently, and +responsibly upon lines undreamed of by those +who may be addressing him, and shows how +far he is from receiving merely conventional +and stereotyped impressions, but is always +ready to think for himself. Mr. Baring considers +it an instance of his common sense. +The reader may also have his own ideas of what +it illustrates, but the story is this:—</p> + +<p>“A Socialist arrived in a village to convert the +inhabitants to Socialism. He wanted to prove +that all men were equal, and that the government +authorities had no right to their authority. +Consequently he thought he would begin by +disproving the existence of <span class="smcap">God</span>, because if he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> +proved that there was no <span class="smcap">God</span> it would naturally +follow that there should be no Emperor and +no policemen. So he took a holy <i>ikon</i> and said, +‘There is no <span class="smcap">God</span>, and I will prove it immediately. +I will spit upon this <i>ikon</i> and break it +to bits, and if there is a <span class="smcap">God</span> He will send +fire from heaven and kill me, and if there is +no <span class="smcap">God</span> nothing will happen to me at all.’ +Then he took the <i>ikon</i> and spat upon it and +broke it to bits, and said to the peasants, ‘You +see <span class="smcap">God</span> has not killed me.’ ‘No,’ said the +peasants, ‘<span class="smcap">God</span> has not killed you, but we will’; +and they killed him.”</p> + +<p>It is not difficult to imagine that closing scene, +knowing Russia. There would be no excitement, +but all would be quickly and effectually +done.</p> + +<p>The same writer draws our attention to +Turgenieff’s wonderfully appealing sketches of +country life, though not many of his works +have been translated for English readers as +yet. He alludes especially in an essay of last +year on “The Fascination of Russia” to his +description of the summer night, when on the +plain the children tell each other bogey stories; +or the description of that July evening, when +out of the twilight from a long way off a voice +is heard calling, “Antropk-a-a-a!” and Antropka<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +answers, “Wha-a-a-at?” and far away out of +the immensity comes the answering voice, “Come +home, because daddy wants to whip you!”</p> + +<p>Perhaps the reader may <i>feel</i> nothing as he +reads, but all who know and love Russia, and +are stirred by thoughts of its life and people +will feel that it was abundantly worth while +to write down such a simple incident. They +will understand and feel that stirring within, +which Russia never fails to achieve again and +again for those who have once lived and moved +amongst her peasantry, and come under her +strange spell and felt her charm.</p> + +<p>Gogol, the greatest of Russian humorists, +has a passage in one of his books, where, in exile, +he cries out to his country to reveal the secret of +her fascination:—</p> + +<p>“‘What is the mysterious and inscrutable +power which lies hidden in you?’” he exclaims. +“‘Why does your aching and melancholy song +echo unceasingly in one’s ears? Russia, what +do you want of me? What is there between +you and me?’ This question has often been +repeated not only by Russians in exile, but by +others who have merely lived in Russia.</p> + +<p>“There are none of those spots where nature, +art, time, and history have combined to catch +the heart with a charm in which beauty, associa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>tion, +and even decay are indistinguishably mingled; +where art has added the picturesque to the beauty +of nature; and where time has made magic the +handiwork of art; and where history has peopled +the spot with countless phantoms, and cast over +everything the strangeness and glamour of her +spell.</p> + +<p>“Such places you will find in France and in +England, all over Italy, in Spain and in Greece, +but not in Russia.</p> + +<p>“A country of long winters and fierce summers, +of rolling plains, uninterrupted by mountains +and unvariegated by valleys.</p> + +<p>“And yet the charm is there. It is a fact +which is felt by quantities of people of different +nationalities and races; and it is difficult if you +live in Russia to escape it; and once you have +felt it you will never be free from it. The +aching melancholy song which, Gogol says, +wanders from sea to sea throughout the length +and breadth of the land, will for ever echo +in your heart and haunt the recesses of your +memory.”<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 392px;margin-bottom:1em;"><a id="image008" name="image008"></a> +<img src="images/image008.png" width="392" height="558" alt="The Metropolitan of Moscow." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Metropolitan of Moscow.</span> +</div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Just as I go to press Mr. Lloyd George has told the +House of Commons that productivity is already increased +30 per cent. in Russia.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The Hon. Maurice Baring.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Wallace, <i>Russia</i>, vol. i, p. 129.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Russian Review</i> for February, 1914.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">The Clergy</span></h2> + + +<p>The Russian Church is a daughter of the +Byzantine Church—the youngest daughter—and +only dates from the close of the tenth +century, when monks came to Kieff from Constantinople +during the reign of Vladimir. There +would be little “preaching of the Cross of +<span class="smcap">Christ</span>,” I should fancy, as the great means of +conversion for that great mass of servile population. +We are told, indeed, that Vladimir gave +the word and they were baptized by hundreds +at a time in the River Dnieper, and that no +opposition was offered to the new religion as the +old Nature worship had only very lightly held +them, and had no definite priesthood.</p> + +<p>The new religion, however, soon acquired a +very strong hold upon the people of all classes, +and the power and influence of the Church grew +just as the State gained ever-new importance; +the power of the Patriarch increasing as that of +the Tsar increased, until in a comparatively short +time the Orthodox Church stood alone, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +owned no Eastern supremacy on the one hand, +nor yielded to the approaches of the Roman +Papacy on the other. By the end of the sixteenth +century the other Eastern Patriarchs +recognized and accepted the Patriarchate of +Moscow as being an independent one, and fifth +of the Patriarchates of the East.</p> + +<p>This absolute independence only lasted about +a hundred years, and the masterful Peter the +Great laid his hands upon the Church as upon +other parts of the national life, for he certainly +had little cause to love the clergy, and appointed +no successor to the Patriarch of Moscow when +he died in 1700. It was very interesting to hear, +from the Procurator of the Holy Synod himself, +M. Sabloff, when I first went to Petrograd, what +great importance Peter attached to this office +when he constituted the Holy Synod in 1721 +to take the place of the Patriarchate.</p> + +<p>“He used to say,” he mused, looking down +upon the ground, “that the Procurator of the +Holy Synod was the <i>oculus imperatoris</i> (the +Emperor’s right hand, literally ‘the Emperor’s +eye’),” and as he said so one could not but +remember how his predecessor, M. Pobonodonietzeff +had upheld that tradition, and, next to the +Emperor, had himself been the most prominent +and autocratic figure in the whole empire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Procurator, however, is not the President +of the Holy Synod, as the Metropolitan of +Petrograd fills that office, but he is present as +the Emperor’s representative, and though all the +other members of the Synod are the highest +ecclesiastical dignitaries of the Russian Church, +yet as they are summoned by the Emperor, and +his special lay representative is there always to +represent and state his opinion and wishes, the +Emperor himself must have an infinitely greater +influence than our own sovereigns possess, though +theoretically they fill the same office of “Defender +of the Faith.” He is described in one of the +fundamental laws as “the supreme defender and +preserver of the dogmas of the dominant faith,” +while immediately afterwards it is added “the +autocratic power acts in the ecclesiastical administration +of the most Holy Governing Synod created +by it.” The Emperor must have unlimited power, +typified by his crowning himself at his coronation, +in ecclesiastical administration, and the bishops +and other clergy, who are intensely loyal, would +probably not wish it otherwise; but he could not +affect or change, even by a hair’s breadth, any of +the doctrines of the Church nor one of the +ceremonies of its Liturgy.</p> + +<p>Should the reader wish to know more about +Church and State in Russia he will find a most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> +admirable chapter (XIX) with that heading in +Sir Donald M. Wallace’s book. Interesting and +important as the position of the Russian Church—in +many ways so like our own—is for us +to-day, it is only possible now to glance briefly +at its constitution.</p> + +<p>The clergy are divided into two classes, the +black and the white, the black being the monastic +and the white the secular and married clergy. +All the patriarchs or archbishops, bishops, abbots, +and higher dignitaries are taken from the ranks of +the celibate and monastic clergy and have attained +a high standard of education. All the parochial +clergy, on the other hand, are educated in seminaries, +or training colleges, but only those who +show special ability go on to the academy, an +institution which occupies the same position for +the clergy as the university fills in civil education. +They do not reach a very high standard as a rule, +and before being appointed to a parish must be +married. No unmarried priest can be in charge +of a parish, and should he become a widower +he must resign his parish, and either enter a +monastery or retire into private life; but, in +either case, he must not marry again.</p> + +<p>Many years ago (1890) there appeared an +interesting story of Russian life in the chief +Russian literary magazine, and it was translated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> +for the “Pseudonym Library” in a cheap form +under the title of <i>A Russian Priest</i>.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> It is still +to be obtained, and it is most refreshing to +read again this brief story of a brilliant young +seminarist going on to the academy and attaining +such distinctions, that he might have aspired to +any high office in the Church, yet impelled by +his ideals, and full of the <span class="smcap">Christ</span>-like spirit, +choosing the lowest grade of humble and village +life, and “touching bottom,” so as to speak, in +his Church’s work. As far as I can judge it +describes still quite faithfully and clearly the +relations of clergy and people in Russian villages +and hamlets.</p> + +<p>Let me now, however, speak briefly of some +of the clergy I have met, taking such as I consider +fairly representative of the different classes. +I have felt myself that I have learnt a great deal +more about the spirit and aims of the Russian +Church, and what we may regard as its present +and future attitude to ourselves, from knowing +its clergy and devout laity than ever I could have +hoped to do by reading books about them, or +from lectures, addresses, or letters written by +them.</p> + +<p>I will speak first of the Archbishop of Warsaw, +who received me at Petrograd on my first visit,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +in place of the Metropolitan Antonius who +had sent a very brotherly message of welcome +from his sick-room, where shortly afterwards he +died. The Archbishop Nicolai—Russians speak +of their bishops and archbishops in this way, +using the Christian name and not that of the +See—is a most imposing and fatherly figure, and +received me attired, just as his portrait shows +him, wearing a very rich-looking satin robe, +decorated with orders, and with a large cross of +magnificent diamonds in the centre of his black +cap or mitre. He had been in the United States, +in charge of the Russian work there, and also in +England, and spoke a little English, but it was +so little that I was glad to have Mr. Feild, a +churchwarden of the English Church, who has +lived in Russia all his life, to be my interpreter.</p> + +<p>His Grace was full of interest, sympathetic +and intelligent, in all that I could tell him about +our own Church at home, in Russia, and on the +Continent generally, very keen to know of my +impressions, and of my reception by the Procurator +of the Holy Synod, and by the official +at the Ministry of the Interior, who is responsible +for religious administration. I shall have to speak +later of the status of our Anglican Church in +Russia, and so here I will only say that it led me +to speak of the work of our Anglican Chaplain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +(the Rev. H. C. Zimmerman) at Warsaw, whereupon +the archbishop said at once, “Ask him to +come and see me when I am at Warsaw three +months from now.” I did so, and Mr. Zimmerman +wrote to tell me afterwards that he had had +the kindest reception, with quite a long conversation, +had been presented with souvenirs, and +dismissed with a blessing, his Grace saying +to him as he left:—</p> + +<p>“Now, regard me as your bishop, when your +own is not here, and come to me whenever you +are in need of advice or information.”</p> + +<p>The archbishop loves to think of his pleasant +recollections of England and its Church life.</p> + +<p>“Ah,” he said, “your English Sunday! How +beautiful it is to walk along Piccadilly on Sunday +morning, with all the shops closed, and no one +in the streets except quiet-looking people, all on +their way to Church!”</p> + +<p>London <i>is</i> very different in that respect on +Sunday mornings, whatever it is later in the day, +from every capital in the world. All is quiet, +and Church and worship are in the air. Then +the archbishop told me of his going to S. Paul’s +Cathedral, sitting in the congregation, and enjoying +it all, until it had gradually come home to him +during the Second Lesson that something was +being read from one of the Gospels. On finding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +by inquiry that this was so, he rose at once to his +feet, and looked with amazement upon the people +<i>sitting</i> all round him while the Holy Gospel was +being read. I’m afraid my telling him that we +always stand for it in the Liturgy only added to +his surprise, for he murmured to himself in a +puzzled way, “Why in one place and not in +another?”</p> + +<p>Dear old man, he presented me with his +portrait, here given, and all his published works, +and hoped, as I do, that it would not be long +before I went to see him again.</p> + +<p>When at length the Metropolitan Antonius, +after a long illness, passed away, he was succeeded +by the Archbishop of Moscow who, in his turn, +was succeeded by Archbishop Macarius, and it +is of the last-named that I will next give briefly +my experience. It was on January 10, 1914, +according to our calendar, and on December 28, +1913, according to the Russian, when I had +the feeling of being in two years at the same +time, and of spending the same Christmas first in +London and then in Russia, that he received me +in his palace at Moscow. Palace it certainly is +in the character and spaciousness of its rooms, +but the furniture is what we should consider, +in our own country, simple and rather conventional. +The salon, or drawing-room, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +very large, with the usual polished floor and +rugs laid upon it. At one side two rows of +chairs, facing each other, stood out from the +wall, against which a sofa was placed, and in +front of that a table. It was exactly the same +at the Archiepiscopal Palace at Riga, where I +had been a few months before, and the same +procedure was followed on both occasions.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 619px;"><a id="image009" name="image009"></a> +<img src="images/image009.png" width="619" height="387" alt="The Convent at Ekaterinburg, Siberia." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Convent at Ekaterinburg, Siberia.</span> +</div> + +<p>First the archbishop warmly embraced me, +kissing me on either cheek and then upon the +lips, and then courteously waved me to the +seat of honour upon the sofa. At Riga when +the archbishop took his seat upon the sofa he +indicated the place beside him which I did not +notice, and took the chair. But just as I was +about to sit down, Madame Alexaieff, who had +most kindly come to interpret, said hurriedly +and in rather a shocked tone, “Take the seat +beside him, he wishes it,” and, remembering +the etiquette of the sofa as observed still by +old-fashioned people in Germany, I did as I +was told.</p> + +<p>At Moscow, however, I was more observant, +and when the archbishop courteously waved his +hand to the sofa I bowed to him and at once sat +down, but only to find that he himself took a +chair next me and left me alone in the place +of dignity. It was quite in keeping with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +whole bearing and conversation throughout, for +he is evidently one of the most humble and +unassuming of men. Yet he has covered himself +with distinction in the course of his long life +spent chiefly far away in the Altai country in +Siberia, below Omsk, engaged in work of a +missionary character. No one is more respected +in the whole of Russia. He is just as shown +in the portrait he gave me, slight and not tall, +and his whole face lights up with keen interest +as he talks and enforces his words with appropriate +gestures. He was very caustic upon +the subject of the non-attendance at church +of educated and wealthy people in a certain +place, which perhaps it will be kinder not to +mention.</p> + +<p>“No,” he said, “they are never to be seen +at any service, however important and solemn +it may be. There are none there but the same +common people who are always crowding into +their churches. At least,” he added more +deliberately, “if the others are there, they +adopt the common people’s dress for the +occasion!”</p> + +<p>His expression and gesture as he said this +were inimitable and indescribable, and the little +touch of humour made one’s heart warm towards +him. He was much interested in hearing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +anything I could tell him of our own Church, +and delighted, in a wistful sort of way, to hear +the many details I gave him of its progress, +especially in the extension of its missionary +activities and ever-deepening interest in social +questions and economic problems, as they affect +the labouring classes and the very poor. His +eyes sparkled as he too spoke of the poor, and +told me what I should hear from the Grand +Duchess Elizabeth, whom I was to see that +afternoon, about the work to which she has +given her life since the assassination of her +husband, the Grand Duke Serge.</p> + +<p>Like all his brethren of the episcopate he was +greatly interested in anything I could tell him +of the Archbishop of Canterbury and of his views +and hopes about our own and the Russian +Churches, and the Christian Church as a whole. +He looked thoughtfully down as I spoke to him +about unity and inter-communion under special +circumstances, and said rather sadly:—</p> + +<p>“How one would love more unity! But how +much ground there is to be covered, how many +difficulties to be cleared away before that can +come!”</p> + +<p>I smiled a little, at which he looked at me +questioningly, and so I said:—</p> + +<p>“I smiled because I thought of the brotherly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +and loving way in which you have received me +to-day, and in which you are speaking so much +and so freely of what is in your heart, and if +these kind and friendly relations go on increasing +between our Churches it will be progress +such as He must love to see Who said ‘By this +shall all men know that ye are My disciples if ye +have love one to another.’ That will be progress +of the best kind, and, even if it is slow, I for one +shall greatly rejoice that we are moving at all in +the right direction. Let us only keep moving, +and we shall arrive in time.”</p> + +<p>We talked on about my own experiences the +year before just to the south of where he had +lived so long, and when I told him that I hoped +this year to go to the Altai, his own actual +country, he looked as though he envied me the +journey. After embracing me again he accompanied +me into the ante-room, where a poor +peasant woman was waiting to see him with an +<i>ikon</i> to be blessed. There was a great pile of +quite cheap <i>ikons</i> for the poor, towards which he +waved his hand and said, “And I have all these +to bless also.”</p> + +<p>As I left I could only murmur to myself, +“The dear old saint.” He made me feel some +sense of being back at Troas or Miletum or +Ephesus, or coming out from the presence of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +Barnabas or Silas or St. Paul. It was truly +apostolic!</p> + +<p>Of course the interpreter makes a tremendous +difference, but again, as at Petrograd and Riga, +I had an excellent friend and helper in Mr. +Birse, one of the churchwardens of our church +in Moscow, who had spoken Russian all his life. +I may add also that, as in Mr. Feild’s case at +Petrograd, he enjoyed the interview as much as +I did, and would probably catch little subtleties +of expression and self-revelation that would be +lost to me by the hurried kind of interpretation +that was necessary.</p> + +<p>The next great dignitary I will try and describe, +though I know I cannot possibly do +justice to the dignity and nobility of character +evident in all she says and does, is the Abbess +Magdalena of the great Convent at Ekaterinburg +in Siberia. The Convent is a most imposing +group of buildings, stretching along an extended +front, with cupolas, spires, and pinnacles, and is +much frequented by pilgrims from far and near +who come to pray in its chapel before a famous +<i>ikon</i>. The Abbess and all her nuns wear the +same kind of black dress, with cap and veil, quite +black and unredeemed by any trace of white +linen or cambric. The first thing that impressed +me, even before I entered the gate, was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> +beauty of their singing. The choir were practising +for a service on the Emperor’s name-day +on the morrow, and their hymn was the most +beautiful thing I had ever heard from women’s +voices. It seemed to me that all the four parts +were there. The bass certainly was, and I was +told that the nuns with deep voices submitted +them to careful training until they were able to +reach very low notes indeed. There was, of +course, no accompanying music, the conductor +just waving her open hand to and fro to beat +time, and the precision and crispness of the whole +hymn were wonderful.</p> + +<p>The chapel is a fine building beautifully +painted by the nuns themselves, and its services +are conducted by a priest and deacon. The +deacon is a special feature in the ranks of the +Russian clergy, and is responsible for all the +choral parts of the services, apart from the actual +priest’s part in the Liturgy of course, and is +chosen for the beauty of his voice. If a young +man has a very fine voice and is wondering +what use he shall make of it, he sees nothing +at all unbecoming or incongruous in saying +that he has not made up his mind yet whether +he shall choose the Church or the stage.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 403px;"><a id="image010" name="image010"></a> +<img src="images/image010.png" width="403" height="654" alt="The Abbess Magdalena." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Abbess Magdalena.</span> +</div> + +<p>When I was being introduced to the Ekaterinburg +deacon, my friend and interpreter whispered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> +to me, “He gave up the opera to come here.” +I thought, in my ignorance, that he had left the +world for religion, and full of sympathetic +interest said:—</p> + +<p>“Ask him if he has ever regretted it!” and +was rather disconcerted when he said in an off-hand +way:—</p> + +<p>“Oh! well of course I missed things at first, +but I’m gradually getting used to it.”</p> + +<p>The Abbess confided to us that sometimes +from the way he offered the incense she thought +he must be thinking he was on the stage still.</p> + +<p>He was a remarkably good-looking man with +a wonderfully rich voice, and as none of the +clergy ever cut hair or beard after Ordination, +and his was just getting full, he looked a most +picturesque and interesting figure. I should like +to meet him again, and put the same question, +in the hope of a somewhat more encouraging +answer.</p> + +<p>The Abbess, as well as managing and inspiring +her sisters, superintends a really remarkable work. +Her revenue is a very large one, and she gives a +portion of it to the Bishop of Ekaterinburg for +the work of his diocese—he is a young and +energetic prelate whom I greatly liked when I +knew him later—and out of the remainder she +supports an Orphanage for six hundred girls in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +the Convent. The remarkable thing, however, +about her management is its essentially practical, +sensible, and considerate character. The girls do +not wear a uniform, but can consult and improve +their own taste in dress. They are carefully +studied individually, and, while all are educated +in school in the same way, special preparation is +given for different callings in life according to +the inclination and aptitude shown by the girls. +Many, of course, prefer domestic service as being +simpler and perhaps more in keeping with what +they have known before coming there; but the +more enterprising and competent can be, and +are, taught all sorts of things which these very +modern nuns do with such great ability themselves. +They play, sing, do all sorts of “white +work” for Russian and French purchasers, and +are well up in modern photography. They +carve, paint, make <i>ikons</i>, illuminate pictures, +and do wonderful embroidery. There is a wide +choice, therefore, for the girls under their charge, +and they avail themselves of it to the full. Just +before I was there a girl with a wonderful voice, +after having been trained, had been launched, at +the age of twenty-six, upon her career as a +member of the Russian Imperial Opera.</p> + +<p>I described this very modern work as carried +out by the nuns of a very ancient convent, on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +my return, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, +who remarked significantly, as I daresay many +of my readers will, “And <i>that</i> is in Siberia!”</p> + +<p>From Abbess let me pass to Abbot, but to a +very different community. At Tiumen, the +farthest point I reached in North Siberia, and +where I had been to give services to a family +living alone there, and from Scotland originally, +I went out in the afternoon to see an old church +outside the town where there had formerly been +a fairly large monastery. It is very small and +humble now, I am sure, from the few we saw +there, and their neglected appearance as they went +about their work in old and well-worn habits. +The church was locked, but one of their number +fetched the keys and showed us over the church, +explaining their oldest <i>ikons</i>. As we walked +towards the gate and our little carriage, he was +full of curiosity about ourselves and our Church, +and at last, as he questioned me rather closely, +my friend could keep it in no longer, and +explained:—</p> + +<p>“He’s a bishop, an English bishop, and he +has come from London to give us lonely folk +a service!”</p> + +<p>The effect was extraordinary.</p> + +<p>“An English bishop! Do you say it? Only +to think of it! And I in my dirty clothes like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +any common labourer! And I am the Abbot! +I beg of you! Oh! yes, I must insist. Do +not deny me. Enter my humble house, and +let me feel, even if you only take a seat upon +a chair for a moment, that I have entertained +you!”</p> + +<p>Such hospitable intent was not to be withstood, +and willingly enough we went with him +into his small and, as he said, very humble +abode, feeling how very touching and appealing +it all was. We entered, our host saying cheerfully, +“Be good enough to walk on,” and found +ourselves in a very bare and cheerless-looking +parlour with stiff chairs, with black horsehair +seats, round the walls, and a bare table in the +centre, upon which stood a conventional and +faded little basket of wax-flowers and fruit +under a glass shade. On looking round we saw +the good Abbot had disappeared, so we sat down +and looked about us, hoping he had not gone +off to order food; but in an incredibly short +time, as if he had been a “lightning-change +artist,” he was back again. And what a transformation! +The dirty and faded brown cassock +was gone, and a flowing rich black robe had +taken its place, a black mitre with dependent +veil was upon his head, a magnificent chain and +cross hung from his neck, and, thoroughly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +satisfied with his change, he looked as though +he were saying “Now we meet upon equal +terms!” His boyish delight was good to see +as he said:—</p> + +<p>“Now let me welcome you and greet you!” +and he kissed me as other bishops had done.</p> + +<p>These embraces are no light ordeal, as the +good clergy never shave or cut their hair, and +are very heavily bearded. But what of that, if +one can feel as I did that day, when driving +off and waving our adieux, that one had been +breathing apostolic air, and had been very near +in the spirit to “Peter and John”?</p> + +<p>It only remains to give my experience of a +typical parish priest, and then I shall feel that +the Russian clergy have been fairly described.</p> + +<p>Upon my arrival at the Spassky Mine, during +my first journey in Siberia, in the very heart of +the Kirghese Steppes, the manager told me what +had passed between himself and the parish priest, +kept there by his company to minister to the +labourers in the smelting works. These were all +Russians, though the labourers in the mine itself +were chiefly Kirghese and Mohammedans.</p> + +<p>“You will be interested to hear that our +bishop is coming to see us,” he had said by way +of beginning.</p> + +<p>“Your bishop! Where from and what for?”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + +<p>“He is coming across the steppes, and from +London, to give us services.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t mean to say so!” was the startled +exclamation. “I never heard of such a thing! +Your bishop, all the way from London, driving +night and day for five days across the steppes, +to give you twenty English folk your services! +Why, our bishop is only two or three days down +the river at Omsk, but we could not expect him +to come here for us.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you see,” observed my friend, “our +English Church does not forget her children, +even if they are scattered far and wide. And +we shall be glad to see him and receive Holy +Communion and have sermons from him about +our faith and highest duties.”</p> + +<p>After a moment’s silence the priest looked +up suddenly and said:—</p> + +<p>“I wonder if your bishop will come to our +service on Sunday and join with us in worship? +If he will address us how glad we shall be to +hear him!”</p> + +<p>“He will certainly come, and, what is more, +we will all come with him, and we will all be at +divine service together for once. Suppose we +have our Celebration at 7.30, and you arrange +yours for 8.30 instead of 8.15, and we will all +come over together? We shall fill our little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +room, and can’t invite others; but we will all +accompany the bishop to the church.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 376px;"><a id="image011" name="image011"></a> +<img src="images/image011.png" width="376" height="632" alt="The Russian Priest at Spassky." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Russian Priest at Spassky.</span> +</div> + +<p>Next day (Sunday), after our Communion—all +the staff received it—we went over, I in my +robes, to the church, and were received by the +wardens, the choir leading off with a hymn as +we entered. The wardens at once conducted me +behind the screen where the priest stood before +the altar in his vestments, with a boy server on +either side beautifully vested, the one in gold +and the other in silver tissue.</p> + +<p>After bowing to me gravely and reverently, he +began the service. Nothing is <i>seen</i> of it by the +congregation, and they hear only the voice of the +priest, and are told from the other side of the +screen what is passing within. The Russian +Liturgy is full of traditional ceremonies, and +rather bewildering, I should think, to an English +Churchman; but there is no question as to +the great reverence which distinguishes it. The +priest confided to his manager afterwards how +nervous he felt at celebrating with a bishop at +his side, and how anxious he felt to make no +mistake. He did not show it, however, and +was as reverent and absorbed as any priest ought +to be when back again in thought and word and +deed in the Upper Room, where, on the same +night on which He was betrayed, our <span class="smcap">Lord</span> left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +us the memorial of His Passion and the Sacrament +of His love and grace.</p> + +<p>It was touching also to see the little servers +struggling between curiosity and the claims of +the service, but the latter triumphed; and not +till they had taken off their little vestments and +stood forth in their ordinary clothes did they +permit themselves a good look at their strange +visitor, and show themselves ready to have a +word or two from him.</p> + +<p>The priest, when he had taken an extra little +service which some old men had asked for, came +over to the manager’s house and told me of his +work, asked questions, and received little gifts, +and told me how inspiring it was to all the +Russians to know that their English staff were +religious, as well as clever and able men, and +glad to have their services when they could.</p> + +<p>In one way this priest was not typical, for +he was paid his stipend by the company, and +not dependent upon his people. In all ordinary +parishes this is not the case. The parish priest +receives a nominal stipend from public sources, +but depends upon his people for the rest. They +give small contributions on their name days—a +very substantial sum is received on S. John’s +Day, as a favourite Russian name is Ivan, or +John—when the priest comes to bless their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +house or workshop, or for a marriage, christening, +or funeral, or to give the Sacrament in illness. +There is often, usually, indeed, bargaining +on all these occasions. A portion of their +fruits and crops is claimed. All sorts of contributions +are made throughout the year, and, +except in town parishes where able clergy have +large incomes, given ungrudgingly by their +people, the priest and his wife are always +trying to get as much as they can for their +services, and the people, who are very poor, +to give as little.</p> + +<p>This cannot lead to good relations between +clergy and people, and, as the clergy in the +country seldom if ever preach, there is no +personal teaching to bring them together. Officially, +therefore, it is true to say that the +Russians value and reverence the ministry of +their parish clergy, while, personally, they do +not feel any great interest in them or their +families, nor see any reason why they should. +And certainly, as a rule—the fault of the system +no doubt—they do not love them.</p> + +<p>Let me now describe the service which I have +mentioned upon a previous page, conducted after +the Liturgy was over and the people had been +dismissed. The priest told me four old men had +asked to have a few special prayers and a reading<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +from the Gospels, and I stayed to share it. The +prayers were said, petition and response, by all +five standing before the screen, after which the +four old men, with rough and rugged faces, +shaggy hair, and wide flowing beards, closed +up together, and, as they stood back to back, +the priest placed the beautifully-bound copy of +the Gospels upon their heads and began to read. +The rough faces seemed at once to change their +whole expression: their blue eyes sparkled, and +there appeared that light upon every countenance +which “never was on sea or land,” or anywhere +else except upon the face of one who is in communion +with God. My thoughts went back to +the story of Moses as he came down from Sinai, +and veiled his face as he spoke to the people, +lest they should find there that which they +could neither bear to see or understand. One’s +thoughts are always going back to scriptural +scenes and descriptions when amongst the +Russian peasantry.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 589px;margin-bottom:1em;"><a id="image012" name="image012"></a> +<img src="images/image012.png" width="589" height="416" alt="S. Isaac’s Cathedral, Petrograd." title="" /> +<span class="caption">S. Isaac’s Cathedral, Petrograd.</span> +</div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Published by T. Fisher Unwin, Paternoster Square.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Religious Life and Worship</span></h2> + + +<p>It is well sometimes to define our terms and +phrases, and it is absolutely necessary in this +case. What is it that we mean when we speak +of the religious life of a people, Christian and +non-Christian alike? Our soldiers have been +fighting shoulder to shoulder with Hindoos and +Mohammedans, whose British commander, on +the eve of their first battle, addressed them in +words which ought to be long remembered by +those who are working and praying for the +hastening of <span class="smcap">God</span>’s kingdom, appealing to their +faith, and reminding them that prayers were +ascending from Mosque and from Temple to +the <span class="smcap">God</span> of all, on their behalf.</p> + +<p>The Hindoos and Moslems have their religious +life as well as ourselves. And it behoves us of +the Christian Church, especially when such +stirring words can be addressed to two Eastern +peoples, so widely different in their creeds, to +remind them that their prayers are going up to +the same “<span class="smcap">God</span> of all,” to look very earnestly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> +and sympathetically at the religious life and +worship of all the different Churches which make +up the “Mystical Body of <span class="smcap">Christ</span> and the blessed +company of all faithful people.”</p> + +<p>It is along that way and that alone—the +affectionate, respectful, and sympathetic interest +in the religious life and worship of those +who differ from us and those not in communion +with us, that unity lies, and I feel +sure there is no other. The religious life of +a man, or people, is his life as it is influenced +by the creed he professes and the worship he +offers.</p> + +<p>We are not thinking at the moment of a moral +life, for a moral life is led by many who, as they +would express it, “make no religious profession.” +It is open to us to question whether they are +not more influenced than they are aware by +the religion of those about them, which is in +the very air they breathe, for there is such an +influence as “religious atmosphere”; or we may +think also that they have more religion than they +suspect; but they themselves would disclaim all +this. Some live, as John Stuart Mill lived, +frankly without religion, yet leading a blameless +and irreproachable moral life. Then as a contrast +there are the lives of religious people leaving as +far as moral values are concerned much to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> +desired, and probably, in many cases, most of +all by themselves.</p> + +<p>Religious life, however, is creed and worship +translated into daily life and expression, effort +and achievement; and accepting that definition I +unhesitatingly claim for the Russian people that +they are one of the most religious peoples in +the world. Their religion is the desire and +effort to know <span class="smcap">God</span>. “This is life eternal, +to know <span class="smcap">God</span>, and <span class="smcap">Jesus Christ</span> Whom He has +sent.” The Russian has not been fully taught +as yet the ethical and moral side of this +knowing <span class="smcap">God</span>, though he is ready for it, but +only its mystical side. He seeks the knowledge +of <span class="smcap">God</span>, quite simply, as a spiritual +experience.</p> + +<p>It will always be found that when races have +received civilization and Christianity suddenly, +as the Russians have done, while they astonish +and charm by their spiritual fervour and deep +earnestness, they disappoint by their want of +consistency in moral life. But spiritual fervour +and great earnestness arising out of a real need +for <span class="smcap">God</span> and a deep sense of His meeting that +need “fulfilling minds and granting hearts’ +desires,” and a real sense of communion with +the Great Eternal in <span class="smcap">Christ</span> in beautiful and +uplifting worship, afford the best of all founda<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>tions +for building up moral conduct permanently +and well.</p> + +<p>To the Russian, as to the ancient Hebrew, +moral law will only lastingly and effectually +appeal when prefaced by “<span class="smcap">God</span> hath said.” His +religion is <span class="smcap">God</span>; the knowledge of the Most +High as revealed in <span class="smcap">Christ</span>. And he is one of +the most consistently religious persons in the +world, for he must have his religion everywhere, +and, just as the Hebrew felt it must be, “when +talking with his children, when sitting in his +house, when walking by the way, when going +to lie down, and when rising up, written upon +the posts of his house, and on the gates.” The +mystical or spiritual temperaments of the two +peoples are much the same. Russians have a +passion for <span class="smcap">God</span>. They never want to be away +from the sense and consciousness of His presence. +Only when they have gained some sense of this +spiritual endowment of the Russian race will +my readers be able to see where their religious +life corresponds with our own, and where it +widely diverges from it. We have spoken of +this war as a righteous war; the Russians as +a religious one! They have brought their +religion into it as they have never done into +any war before. A Russian officer, for instance, +gave a very picturesque account of the great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> +battle of the Vistula last October, and ended +with these words: “My company was the first +to cross the river, which seemed to boil from the +bursting of the shells. Afterwards nine companies +rushed the enemy’s position. A priest +with long, streaming hair, and holding high a +cross amid a hail of bullets, stood blessing the +soldiers as they ran past.” That is the true +Russian, his religion everywhere and in everything. +There is nothing in life, throughout the +year, however secular it may seem to us to be, +which does not have that blessing by the priest. +The war has had it from first to last. All +through mobilization, in the families from which +the bread-winner was to go, there would be special +little private services such as I have described in +my last chapter. On the day when the conscripts +were to depart from the village there would be +the Liturgy in church, with all who could be +present, and others outside. There would be, +it has been described for us, the solemn reading +of the Holy Gospel in the open-air, the book +resting upon a living lectern; and as they rode +away the last thing the departing men would see, +as with those nine companies on the Vistula, +would be the cross lifted high by a priest, with +his long hair streaming over his shoulders, or +out upon the wind.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> + +<p>It would be just the same all through the long +journeys: the sacred <i>ikons</i> were carried, the priest +marched steadily along, or sat in the railway +carriages with the soldiers, and always with his +cross. The soldiers of course saluted their priests +as they saluted their officers, and for a time it +was a little puzzling to decide how this salute +should be suitably returned in such a war as this. +For a priest to raise his hand to his cap did not +seem to belong to his sacred office, and so it was +decided he should touch his cross instead. Quite +apart from the regular and official services, the +priest would be always fulfilling his part in +bringing God home to his countrymen, until the +very end when he stood blessing them, as we +have been told, as they rushed past him to +attack, many of them to return no more. There +is something very inspiring in the thought that +the last earthly object many of them saw as they +rushed on to death was the Cross of Him Who +had robbed death of all its terrors, and brought +Immortality to light.</p> + +<p>One of my great reasons for looking to the +Orthodox Church of Russia to give us our first +opportunity, in seeking to promote the larger +unity of Christendom, is, as I had occasion to +say at a large public meeting in London last +year, that, like ourselves, they wish to have the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> +New Testament sense of the presence of <span class="smcap">Christ</span>. +I cannot use any other phrase to express my +meaning. It is to me the whole spirit of their +worship, not only at the Holy Communion, +where one would expect it, but at all the other +services as well. Litanies form a very important +part of their worship, and as one hears that +softly repeated “<span class="smcap">Lord</span>, have mercy” (<i>Gospodi +pomilui</i>) again and again from the choir, it is as +if they were all conscious of speaking straight +to their <span class="smcap">Lord</span> with the feeling that He is there +Himself to grant their prayer. No other refrain +that I have ever heard has the same appealing +note of real and moving faith.</p> + +<p>I have attended the “all-night service” at +S. Isaac’s, in Petrograd, on Saturdays at 6 p.m. +It lasts two hours in cathedrals and churches, +but all night in monasteries and convents, and +some of us going to S. Isaac’s for the first time +would almost wish that it could be “all night” +there also. The glorious richness of the men’s +voices, their deep rolling basses and sweet tenors, +the silvery trebles of the boys—there is no organ +or other accompaniment—when heard as a new +experience makes one involuntarily think to +one’s self “I have never heard prayer and praise +expressed like this before.” Whether one is +behind the screen, where I was conducted at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +once, or standing with the choir before it—there +are no seats in a Russian church—noting +their picturesque uniforms like those of officers, +and their profound reverence, or moving amongst +the congregation, and looking towards the screen, +the same impression is given everywhere and by +every one, “We are praising Thee, O <span class="smcap">God</span>, we +acknowledge Thee to be the <span class="smcap">Lord</span>. Thou art +the King of Glory, O <span class="smcap">Christ</span>.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 615px;"><a id="image013" name="image013"></a> +<img src="images/image013.png" width="615" height="420" alt="Interior of a Russian Church." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Interior of a Russian Church.</span> +</div> + +<p>The screen separates the sacrarium from the +body of the church, and is a carved partition +painted and gilded, and in the cathedrals and +great churches, is covered with silver and +gold <i>ikons</i>, often richly jewelled, and with +numerous lamps and tapers burning before them. +At each side of this screen is a narrow door +through which people seem to pass at will, to +and fro, for there is a great feeling of freedom +in a Russian church, and every one does just +what he feels led to do. No ladies, however, +may ever pass behind. In its centre are folding +doors which are only used for ceremonial +purposes, and are called “The Royal Gates.” +In the Liturgy it is a moment of deep solemnity +when they are opened wide, and the priest passes +through carrying the bread and wine for consecration. +This is “The Great Entrance.” At +the evening service on Saturday night also there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> +is an entrance, when the deacon carries the +Gospels through, before which the gates stand +open wide for a little while, and the congregation +may look straight through. Immediately +within stands the altar, a perfectly plain, square +structure with nothing at all upon it but a large +copy of the Four Gospels, and behind it is +the seven-branched candlestick. It has an extraordinary +effect upon the worshipper who has +only just come to Russia when the Royal Gates +are thrown open thus, and, with incense filling +the air, the seven lamps on the great candlestick +come into view. It is for a moment +as if one was back in the days of Zacharias +and Elisabeth, waiting for him to come forth +through the gates to bless us, as he did on that +memorable occasion after the announcement of +the birth of S. John the Baptist. It is, however, +only for a moment that the Temple fills +the mind, for on looking up the representation +of our <span class="smcap">Lord</span> is there in the great window above, +where He seems to look down upon us in love +and blessing, and “The same yesterday, to-day, +and for ever,” seems to have new and blessed +significance.</p> + +<p>Russian worship to me is just dominated by +the very presence of <span class="smcap">Christ</span>. All the meretricious +surroundings, the lights and glittering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> +and jewelled <i>ikons</i> have not the least power to +diminish the joyous, thankful sense of it. He +is in the midst of us “gathered together in +His Name.” Every one seems to feel it, every +one seeks to realize it. They are there for +that! That is why the beautiful voices keep +singing “<i>Gospodi pomilui</i>” or “<span class="smcap">Lord</span>, be merciful +to us.” We feel it is real worship, and +I can only hope that many of my readers +who have not had the joy of it in that +special way may yet have the opportunity +afforded them. There are Russian churches, of +course, in England, and I have happily and +helpfully worshipped in the Russian church in +Paris at 6 p.m. on Saturdays; but Russian +worship can only be truly known and fully +shared in Russia.</p> + +<p>This “New Testament sense of the presence +of <span class="smcap">Christ</span>,” as I have called it, is no doubt +promoted by the extraordinary veneration given +to the Gospels, both in their external and +internal form. There is an intense feeling of +close personal attention as the deacon carries +them through the Royal Gates. They are +always beautifully bound, rimmed and clasped +with gold or silver, and often sparkling with +diamonds and other precious stones. A beautifully +bound copy—in ordinary churches the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +best they have—rests upon the altar, in its +very centre, with a silken covering, and when +the priest comes to celebrate he first kisses it, +and then, lifting it up and setting it upon end, +and laying the corporal where it has rested, +with the chalice and paten upon it, proceeds +to the Liturgy. The consecration takes place +on that part of the altar where the Gospels +have lain before, and where they will again be +laid when the service is over.</p> + +<p>The four evangelists always appear painted +upon the Royal Gates, together with a representation +of the Annunciation, our <span class="smcap">Lord</span>, and +the Holy Virgin, on either side. This is never +departed from. In every church which follows +traditional lines there are the four huge pillars +holding up the whole structure—typifying the +four evangelists again. Upon the roof they are +set forth in the four cupolas, which are always +there at the corners, while a fifth rising above +them typifies our <span class="smcap">Lord</span> over and above and +dominating, yet supported by, them. Then +there is nothing in the ordinary services to +compare with the reading of the Holy Gospel +to the people, nor is any special or private +ministration complete without reading some +portion of these, the most important parts of +the sacred Scriptures.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is easy to see, therefore, how it comes about +that the Russian sense of the living <span class="smcap">Christ</span> is +essentially that which is realized by His Apostles +and described in the New Testament.</p> + +<p>Last year no less than three writers, as different +from each other as they could well be, writing +of visits paid to the Holy Land—Mr. Robert +Hichens, the novelist, in <i>The Holy Land</i>, Sir +Frederick Treves, the well-known and eminent +surgeon, in <i>The Land that is Desolate</i>, and Mr. +Stephen Graham, in <i>With the Russian Pilgrims to +Jerusalem</i>—all alike show us that no one had +made the same impression upon them as the +Russians who had come to realize their <span class="smcap">Lord</span> +in the very place where He had lived our +human life. They all so clearly felt that those +simple-minded folk, as they followed traditions +and visited one place after another from Bethlehem +to Calvary, and wept where He had wept, +and prayed where He had prayed, looked over +the places and the waters upon which His eyes +had rested, crossed themselves reverently again +and again where He had suffered, and sung <i>Te +Deum</i> and <i>Alleluia</i> where He had risen, were +looking not at the things which are seen, but at +the things which are not seen, believing with all +the strength of their great and simple hearts +that “the things which are seen are temporal,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +while the things which are not seen are +eternal.”</p> + +<p>To the devout Russian the so-called good +things of this life are unsubstantial and swiftly +passing experiences, while the great and only +realities worth thinking about seriously are those +spiritual experiences of the Apostles as they +went in and out with <span class="smcap">Christ</span> and companied +with Him, which are now described in the +Gospels that we may have the same “even to +the end of the ages.” If Russia gives, as we +pray she may, a lead to Christendom in the +direction of unity, she will have a wonderfully +uplifting and apostolic contribution to offer to +the common stock of our Christian heritage.</p> + +<p>And yet with all this wealth of very real +spiritual experience there goes also a sad +deficiency of moral conduct. “But that vitiates +it all,” some of my readers may exclaim. No; +it does not. We, with our very different +temperament, have come to substitute morality +for religion and the ethical for the spiritual, +whereas for the “whole man,” as even Ecclesiastes +tells us, <i>both</i> are necessary. Morality is +not religion at all while the spiritual faculties +are absolutely quiescent and the soul knows no +need of <span class="smcap">God</span> nor cries out for Him. A deep +sense of the spiritual and a longing and effort<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +to attain touch with the eternal is religion, +although an imperfect morality impairs and +cripples the adequate witness, the full unfettered +enjoyment of it. And, as another writer has +lately done in the political sphere, I would plead +for the Russians that “they did not get a fair +start.”</p> + +<p>I have already described the rough-and-ready +way in which they were converted to Christianity, +never having anything like our opportunities of +instruction from the first. I have never heard a +Russian sermon! The vast majority of the clergy +have never been trained to preach, and would not +be able to do so if they tried. The people are +not taught at all in church, except by what is +read to them in Scripture, or what they read for +themselves. Let Englishmen give them “fair +play” all round, both in political and constitutional, +and also in moral deficiencies; and +let us remember that it was to a body of real +and earnest Christians—“saints” and “faithful,” +he himself calls them—that S. Paul found it +necessary to write and caution against “the +lusts of the flesh, foolish talking and unseemly +jesting, covetousness and uncleanness, lying and +stealing.” If it was necessary to write those +fifth and sixth chapters of the Ephesians to +a body of Christian believers of whose sincerity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +an Apostle had no doubt, we may well have +hopeful patience with a great body of our fellow +Christians whose want of consistency in conduct +provokes such ready criticism. It is well known +how a mystical people like the West Indians +(I have described it at length in a former book, +<i>A Bishop among Bananas</i>, in chap. v) resent +being accused of theft when helping themselves +to “<span class="smcap">God’s</span> gifts,” as they call them, in the shape +of fruit and fowls, when they would not dream +of taking money, clothing, or other material +things, or would consider themselves thieves if +they did. And so it interested me to learn the +other day that the Russian peasant views thefts +of the same kind of things in much the same +way, drawing in his mind a distinction between +that which <span class="smcap">God</span> gives for all and that which man +produces for himself. It is imperfect reasoning, +we know, as there is no real distinction between +what a man produces by cultivation and what +he manufactures; but we can understand an +untrained and rather childlike mind making such +a distinction.</p> + +<p>The devout Russian peasantry in this stage +often seem to illustrate our <span class="smcap">Lord’s</span> words +concerning things revealed to “babes” which +even the “wise and prudent” seem to miss. +Sir Donald M. Wallace again tells the story in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +<i>Our Russian Ally</i> which he told in his <i>Russia</i>—it +will bear constant repetition—as an instance +of real spiritual insight in a simple and untrained +mind. “I remember once asking a common +labourer,” he says, “what he thought of the +Mussulman Tartars among whom he happened +to be living; and his reply, given with evident +sincerity, was—‘Not a bad sort of people.’ +‘And what about their religion?’ I inquired. +‘Not at all a bad sort of faith—you see they +received it like the colour of their skins, from +<span class="smcap">God</span>.’” He assumed, of course, in his simple +piety, that whatever comes from <span class="smcap">God</span> must be +good. It necessitated a very special spiritual +experience and real vision before a Christian +Apostle could say the same thing, “Of a truth +I perceive that <span class="smcap">God</span> is no respecter of persons”; +but that common labourer in this little incident +had taken in the same wide outlook, in a perfectly +normal way, from his ordinary surroundings and +the religious influences which make up such +an important portion of his life.</p> + +<p>The lesson is learnt early. I was, one morning, +in an elementary school in Siberia, just before the +work of the day began, to speak to the children. +They opened with prayer, but how different from +prayers in our own schools! The master and +teachers did nothing except pray with the rest. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +a sign that all was ready a boy of twelve stepped +out and took his place before the <i>ikon</i> in its +corner, and then bowing with that inimitable +grace which belongs alone to the Russian when +at prayer, and making the sign of the Cross, he +gravely led the simple prayers of the whole +school, all singing softly and reverently in unison. +It was all inexpressibly touching and appealing, +and to be treasured up with those other things +of which one says, “I shall never forget.”</p> + +<p>The sign of the Cross is always made very +slowly and solemnly, quite differently from other +Churches, and from right to left upon the breast, +and it is always accompanied by a slow and +reverent bowing of the head, and is repeated +usually three times. It is the special sign during +the public services that a worshipper is just then +feeling his or her own part in it. People do not use +this devotion at set times during service, but just +when they wish, and as the spirit moves them. +I have been in the S. Isaac’s choir when all the +men and boys were singing a hymn, and suddenly +a man near me would stop, bow, and cross +himself devoutly, and then resume his hymn. +No one would take the least notice, but all would +go on singing as before. Then a choir-boy, after +a moment or two, would do the same, his companions +continuing to sing till their turn of being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> +moved within came also. I have seen soldiers in +the ranks do just the same when bareheaded at +an outdoor service. There is so much spontaneity +and elasticity and liberty in Russian +worship. They do just as they feel “led by +the Spirit” to do.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 661px;"><a id="image014" name="image014"></a> +<img src="images/image014.png" width="661" height="423" alt="The Cathedral at Riga." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Cathedral at Riga.</span> +</div> + +<p>One of the most interesting experiences I had +last year was attending on the Feast of the +Epiphany—the appointed day for that and +similar services—the blessing of the Neva. +The ceremony takes place just outside the +Winter Palace at Petrograd. Diplomatists and +other visitors who wish to look on, stand within +at the windows, but I much preferred to be +outside, even though it was bitterly cold and +we had to be bareheaded. There was a magnificent +and bewildering gathering of Russian +ecclesiastics, gorgeously vested. Priceless <i>ikons</i> +were carried, and beautiful banners of rich +embroideries, the whole effect being strangely +Eastern in character. A few only could enter +the small <i>kiosk</i> on the river’s bank where the +water, brought in a silver basin, was blessed. +But the thrilling thing that day was the glorious +singing, chant and refrain, which so richly +filled the air, stirring the very depths of one’s +being, and the innumerable rows of deeply +attentive soldiers in their long grey coats, whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +frequent bowings and devout crossings all +through the ranks showed that, though they +were there officially, they were there to worship +also. The Emperor walked from the palace +amongst others and returned to it, bareheaded +like any common soldier, with a perfectly plain +overcoat like the rest, and nothing whatever +to distinguish him from the crowd. He was +unattended and moved quite freely with the +rest, and could not be recognized except by a few +of us standing near the door, who were already +familiar with his appearance. There was but little +cheering in consequence, though he acknowledged +it in that modest and unaffected way +which always distinguishes him. It was then +that I saw the Grand Duke Nicholas for the +first time, the generalissimo in the war, a +magnificent man. He had certain announcements +to make, or directions to give, and +his grand voice rang out on the clear air so +that every one could hear. “A real leader +of men that,” one felt instinctively without +dreaming how soon one would have cause to +remember the thought, under tragically altered +circumstances.</p> + +<p>We cannot possibly attach too much importance +to the fact, admitted on all sides and in +the most unexpected quarters, that this great race,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +coming so very closely into our lives, uniting +their destiny in some measure with our own, +is above all others a distinctly religious people. +Russia, as must be ever becoming more and +more evident, is to be our ally in a way hitherto +entirely unknown to our race and nation. +Thoughtful observers have seen it coming for +some time, and are not taken at all by surprise, +but the idea is still new and not altogether +welcome to many. There is no doubt at all +about it in my own mind, and I shall return +to it more fully in a later chapter, that while +we shall still remain the friends of France and +act the part of true “friends in need” should +occasion again arise, and look with a friendly +eye upon other nationalities, and even—how +much I hope it—make up our quarrel with +Prussia and the German peoples she has influenced +against us, yet with Russia our relations +are already altogether different, and our +two empires are rapidly beginning to realize that +they are coming together in an entirely different +relationship, to knit up true and enduring ties +of brotherly unity with each other, not for +selfish purposes at all, but for a great work +together for civilization and for <span class="smcap">God</span>. We +Anglo-Saxons are a deeply religious people at +heart, though with our temperamental reticence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> +and reserve we speak least about the things +of which we feel the most. The Russians are +also a sincerely religious people, and they, on +the other hand, bring out most readily, spontaneously, +and naturally, the things which mean +most to them. We are unlike each other in +temperament, yet absolutely like each other in +our view of the deep things of <span class="smcap">God</span>. Thus +complementary to one another, we have a real +intelligible hope of a lasting friendship. We +should have no hope at all of any such +tie between ourselves and them if they did +not share our serious view of human life +and responsibility, and base that view upon +a firm belief in <span class="smcap">God</span>. We should feel at +heart that we had no real confidence in their +stability, grit, and powers of staying and +lasting out.</p> + +<p>Surely the one thing that has come out during +the war is the supreme importance of <i>morale</i>. +Napoleon went so far, I have seen it stated, +as to say it counted for an army, in proportion +to its numbers, as three to one. I remember +too how the military correspondent of the <i>Times</i>, +in one of his most interesting articles on the +Balkan War, when it was drawing to a close, +explained the disastrous defeat of the Turkish +army by the gradual loss of <i>morale</i> they had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +sustained by the decay of religion amongst them +under the régime of the Young Turks. Prayers +had been largely given up by the troops, who +no longer had the ministrations of their spiritual +leaders, and <i>morale</i> had gone in consequence. +Then had come disaster. He contrasted with +all this the tremendous fervour of the Balkan +League, and described a picture he had recently +seen in a French illustrated paper. Two French +officers were shown looking at a Bulgarian +regiment on their knees, their priest praying +for them and blessing them before they went +into action. “What would one of our generals +get,” said one of the French officers to his +friend, “if he ordered such a thing as that?” +“He would get the victory,” quietly said the +other.</p> + +<p>I am expecting great things from Russia, and +for us through Russia, for civilization and for <span class="smcap">God</span>, +and what I have written is being ever more and +more widely felt by others also, and even expressed +in daily papers, where at one time we should +not have expected such a thing to be thought +of in the midst of a great war. “That Russia +is one of the most truly religious countries +in the world is proved by the crowds which +filled and overflowed in all the churches +yesterday when thanksgiving services were held<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +in celebration of the victory, <i>nor is it possible +to doubt the sincerity and devotion</i> of the worshippers. +The firm belief in the divine ruling +of the world is to be found among <i>all +classes</i>.”<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>The Daily Mail</i> correspondent at Petrograd, November +12, 1914.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">His Imperial Majesty the Tsar</span></h2> + + +<p>One interesting figure has held the attention +of the Continent of Europe for many long +years, appealing to the imagination and baffling +comprehension, but will never fill the same place +again. Another, however, is coming forward very +possibly in his stead, without any wish or intention +of his own, and that other is the Emperor +of Russia. He will do so, I believe, just as the +German Emperor has done, because history +affords him the opportunity, and because, like the +Kaiser, he too is a man who cherishes thoughts +of great purposes for his people and ideals for +himself.</p> + +<p>It affords me the greatest pleasure to write +about the Emperor—he is not usually spoken +of in Russian society as the Tsar—for I +shall always feel most deeply grateful to him +for his great personal kindness at my first +audience with him, and the great encouragement +he gave me at the very beginning of my +work abroad.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 408px;"><a id="image015" name="image015"></a> +<img src="images/image015.png" width="408" height="636" alt="Her Imperial Majesty the Tsaritsa." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Her Imperial Majesty the Tsaritsa.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have already explained the quaking spirit in +which I crossed the frontier. It so happened that +Russia was the first country I visited when +appointed to take charge of the jurisdiction, and, +as to so many others, there was something forbidding +to me in the very name of Russia. I knew +at that time also that my visitations would bring +me, as they have done, into contact with other +sovereigns, and with great personages in other +countries, and here at St. Petersburg I was to +begin with the most unknown and, as one +thought of his vast empire, most overwhelming +of them all. And then—but let me describe an +audience at the palace at Tsarskoe Selo, for it +will probably interest many a reader, and also +explain how very different from a somewhat +perturbed anticipation was the pleasurable reality. +I have taken care to satisfy myself beforehand +that I shall not be transgressing any of the rules +of court etiquette, nor be guilty of any breach of +confidence in so doing.</p> + +<p>Audiences abroad are always arranged through +the British Embassy or Legation. Court dress +is worn in Russia, even though the reception +itself is perfectly informal, but, as court dress +for a bishop consists in being robed as for Easter +services, in red chimere, etc., there was no difficulty +in providing it even for one who has to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +carry everything in a couple of bags, and for +months at a time.</p> + +<p>Tsarskoe Selo—“The Tsar’s village,” the words +mean—is a little over half an hour by rail from +Petrograd, and I was instructed to start from the +Imperial Station in Petrograd, and there walked +over rich carpets, through saluting soldiers, to +the imperial train, most beautifully and comfortably +arranged with smoking, writing, and reading +compartments. Upon arrival at Tsarskoe Selo +imperial carriages are always waiting for those +expected, with coachman and footman on the +box, wearing bright scarlet cloaks edged with +white fur and very smart cocked hats of red +and gold.</p> + +<p>It was a typical Russian wintry day with a +tremendous blizzard blowing, and blinding snow +falling. Sentries were stationed at intervals +through the streets of the village, saluting all +the imperial carriages as they went by, although +no occupant could be seen; and having passed +through it we entered the park and soon drew +up at the door of the small palace where the +Emperor always resides, and which, white itself, +looked that day like a fairy palace rising up amid +the snow.</p> + +<p>Nothing could be more strikingly different +from that white world without, however, than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +the warmth and richness of colour within. On +every side there were brilliant and unfamiliar +liveries and dazzlingly rich uniforms. An official, +of huge physique, wearing several medals, with +a broad gold band round his head, from which, +on its right side, stuck out a curious bunch of +dark feathers, in velvet and lace dress, and with +breeches and silk stockings—there was no one +the least like him in the crowd of attendants—at +once came forward and led me away to a +dressing-room in which to leave my furs and +change into my robes. He then conducted me +through one beautiful room after another, each +one richly furnished and adorned with beautiful +china, paintings, <i>ikons</i>, trophies, and presents from +different parts of the empire, until at length we +reached a small room where a number of officers +in brilliant uniforms were seated and evidently +in attendance.</p> + +<p>One of them, the Conte de Grabbé, at once +came forward and welcomed me, chatting +pleasantly until a servant, very quietly attired +like an English butler, came out from a room +opposite and, holding the door open, signified +that I was to enter.</p> + +<p>There was no introduction or announcement +of any kind, and, as I entered, the Emperor was +already standing there to meet me, smiling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +pleasantly and encouragingly, with extended +hand.</p> + +<p>“It is very kind in your Imperial Majesty,” +I said, “to allow me to come and see you in +this informal way.”</p> + +<p>“It is very kind in you to come and see us, +bishop,” he replied, so cheerily and unaffectedly, +that away went every bit of diffidence and sense +of constraint, and, to my great relief and gratitude, +I found myself talking as naturally as to +an intimate friend. I say “gratitude” because, +being put so entirely at ease, able to say all that +it was in my mind to say, and ask anything +that it was in my mind to wish to know, +enabled me to get a clear idea of the Emperor’s +attractive personality, and even, as he spoke quite +freely, of some at least of the opinions and +principles which must rule his conduct and shape +his policy and government.</p> + +<p>“He gives you confidence,” a diplomatist who +had had many official audiences with him said +to me one day, and that exactly describes the +effect he produces. He talked freely of all +things before the public mind just then—of the +approaching Coronation of King George, for +whom he expressed a more than cousinly regard +and respect; of domestic duties and family +life as the ideals which shape the destinies of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +races; of the Russian Church, particularly +asking if its dignitaries had welcomed me; of +our English Church; of travelling; of my own +impressions of Russia and other things. It was +quite astonishing afterwards to recall the ground +we had covered in that interview. And before I +left he inquired:—</p> + +<p>“When will you be coming to Russia again, +bishop?”</p> + +<p>“Next year, sir,” I said; “for I believe I am +to go to Siberia.”</p> + +<p>“Siberia! How interesting! I’ve never yet +been to Siberia. Then you’ll come and tell us +all about it when you return, won’t you?”</p> + +<p>“I shall be much honoured, sir.” And praying +God’s blessing upon himself and the imperial +family, for which he thanked me as simply and +modestly as any other layman would have done, +I withdrew, feeling that it had been one of the +most helpful and memorable interviews I had +ever had.</p> + +<p>I have been often asked if the Emperor is +not very much like our King, and it is a somewhat +difficult question to answer. As he stood +there that morning, in a simple pale blue uniform, +well set up and looking extraordinarily young +and boyish, and smilingly happy—so entirely +different from one’s expectations—it did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +occur to me to see any such likeness, but an +old courtier said to me, in speaking after +luncheon of “the resemblance which is so +much talked of”—</p> + +<p>“There is no resemblance to be noticed when +their two Majesties are together, nor would there +be any striking likeness seen between their portraits +in colours, but in photographs or anything +that is black and white, just bringing out light +and shade, then the similarity is most remarkable, +you might easily mistake one for the other.”</p> + +<p>This puts one’s own impressions very clearly. +There is a well-known photograph, circulated +as a postcard in Germany, and from a German +negative, of which I have a copy, in which the +two Emperors are shown in conversation on the +imperial yacht. Any one seeing it in English +hands would certainly think that it was our King +and the Kaiser, and be quite astonished at learning +it was not.</p> + +<p>The Emperor received me the first time in +a very comfortable but simply furnished study, +and the last time, when, in accordance with his +invitation, I went to tell him about my two +missions to Siberia, in his billiard-room fitted up +as a study or library, and in which he led me to +the kind of window-seat which we know so well +in English country houses, looking out upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +park. Afterwards luncheon was served for me +in the <i>Grand Palais</i> of the Great Catherine, a +most magnificent and immense palace a little +distance away, full of interesting souvenirs of +Russia’s past.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 410px;"><a id="image016" name="image016"></a> +<img src="images/image016.png" width="410" height="644" alt="His Imperial Highness the Tsarevitch Alexei." title="" /> +<span class="caption">His Imperial Highness the Tsarevitch Alexei.</span> +</div> + +<p>It is well known how many and different +rumours have been circulated during the last +two years about the heir to the throne, and it +seems rather a pity that the simple truth has +not been announced and made fully known +from the first, for I am assured on the best +authority in Petrograd, that the Tsarevitch suffers +from a skin affection not unknown, unfortunately, +to members of our royal family, which, as he is +a very high-spirited boy, difficult to watch and +caution, has in moments of exuberance and violent +exertion caused him to receive injuries which for +a time have been disabling.</p> + +<p>When last at Tsarskoe Selo, before taking my +leave I took out some puzzles from my pocket, +made of wood and steel, quite inexpensive, as I +thought it likely they would be most welcome +because most unfamiliar, and handing them to +the Emperor, said:—</p> + +<p>“I have brought the Tsarevitch a present, sir, +and I bring it out with much hesitation, for it is +a very simple one, and I know he must have had +many beautiful and costly gifts this Christmas.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Not at all,” he said; “we bring him up very +simply, and he loves puzzles. He and I used up +all we could get, especially those jig-saw puzzles, +while he was ill. These, I see, are new.”</p> + +<p>“I hope,” I said, “that he is now better?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” he said, “he is; he’s quite well now—quite +well,” he repeated with emphasis.</p> + +<p>The Emperor speaks English perfectly, fluently, +and with ease, and I have been told that it is the +language most generally, if not always, used in +the ordinary daily life of the imperial family.</p> + +<p>I have taken up some time in giving these +personal impressions, but I think it is quite +worth while to do so just now as the Emperor +was so particularly gracious and kind, and thus +enabled me to form some idea of what he is, +just as a man and a father in his own home; +and that I know will appeal to my own countrymen +when wondering what is likely to be his +policy and aim as a ruler of a vast empire.</p> + +<p>A man can only <i>do</i> what he <i>is</i>, whether he be +in the highest or the lowest positions in the +world; and he always brings out, sooner or +later, what he is at heart. It must therefore +be a very great source of confidence to us all +just now, when we believe that the providence +of <span class="smcap">God</span> has brought the British and the Russian +Empires together, not for temporary, but for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +enduring objects, to know, as I feel we may +consider that we do know, that the Emperor +of all the Russias is a man we can all respect +and trust, precisely as we respect and trust our +own Sovereign—as one whose ideals are those +of domestic duty and family life on the one +hand, and the real interests and well-being of +the labouring and toiling millions of his people +on the other.</p> + +<p>A somewhat scandalous book was written last +year which I won’t mention by name, lest curiosity +should lead those who have not read it to do so, +which gave a most unfavourable impression of the +Emperor and the imperial family. It was not, +however, written by an Englishman; and, without +questioning in any way the writer’s <i>bona fides</i>, +I am bound to say, and very confidently and +energetically, that I have never yet met one of +my own countrymen who has had to do with +the Emperor of Russia, financially, diplomatically, +or in audience, who has not expressed himself to +me about him in the same appreciative terms +as I have here used myself.</p> + +<p>Take, for instance, what Sir Donald Mackenzie +Wallace has written only a few months ago.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> +“The antiquated idea that Tsars are always +heartless tyrants who devote much of their time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> +in sending troublesome subjects to Siberia, is now +happily pretty well exploded, but the average +Englishman is still reluctant to admit that an +avowedly autocratic government may be, in certain +circumstances, a useful institution. There +is no doubt, however, that in the gigantic work +of raising Russia to her present level of civilization, +the Tsars have played a most important +part. As for the present Tsar, he has followed, +in a humane spirit, the best traditions of his +ancestors. Any one who has had opportunities +of studying closely his character and aims, and +who knows the difficulties with which he has had +to contend, can hardly fail to regard him with +sympathy and admiration. Among the qualities +which would commend him to Englishmen are +his scrupulous honesty and genuine truthfulness. +Of these—were I not restrained by fear of committing +a breach of confidence—I might give some +interesting illustrations.</p> + +<p>“As a ruler, Nicholas II habitually takes a +keen, sympathetic interest in the material and +moral progress of his country; and is ever ready +to listen attentively and patiently to those who +are presumably competent to offer sound advice +on the subject. At the same time he is very +prudent in action; and this happy combination +of zeal and caution, which distinguishes him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +from his too impetuous countrymen, has been +signally displayed in recent years. During the +revolutionary agitation which followed close on +the disastrous Japanese War, when the impetuous +would-be reformers wished to overturn the whole +existing fabric of administration, and the timid +counsellors recommended vigorous retrograde +measures, he wisely steered a middle course, +which has resulted in the creation of a moderate +form of parliamentary institutions.”</p> + +<p>I am not alone, therefore, in the very favourable +impression I have formed of the Russian +Emperor as a man whom the best of my own +countrymen may respect as one like-minded with +themselves in his views of life and conduct, and +his own countrymen thoroughly trust as a constitutional +ruler who, though determined, as he +will be advised by his most trusted counsellors, +to go cautiously, yet is convinced that a good +government’s one and chief concern is the +well-being of those who are governed, and +especially of those who form the lowest class +in its social scale.</p> + +<p>Like Sir Donald Wallace, I too could give +instances of the Emperor’s straightforward and +generous action which show the essential right-mindedness +of his nature in a very striking way, +if it were possible to do so without breach of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> +confidence. Especially was this the case in a +particular instance of which I know, when it +was a question of putting his own interests, and +even dignity, in a very secondary position. It +was one, indeed, in which no great ruler could +be expected or asked to do so, but when he +learnt himself what was involved he at once did +so subordinate his own interests, and has earned +in consequence the lasting gratitude of all concerned, +and their entire and loyal confidence.</p> + +<p>The Russian people are intensely loyal, and, +as the overwhelming majority are of the peasant +class, their loyalty is of that simple, fervid, and +trusting character which is seen in their family +and village life. They do not speak of the +“Emperor” so much as of “The Little Father,” +and that is how they feel towards him. He is +the father of his people and they are his +children. If there is anything they object to in +legislation it is always put down to officialdom, +just as our own Colonies, before the days when +they began to “think imperially,” used to vent +all their displeasure upon “Downing Street” +when unwelcome legislation took place, and +never upon Queen Victoria (or her government), +for whom they had the greatest respect +and affection. The Russian peasant too murmurs +loudly at times against the governors and their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +subordinates when he is requested to do something +that he does not like, but with a solacing +reflection to himself that “The Little Father +would put everything right if he only knew.”</p> + +<p>There is disaffection and serious disloyalty +in other quarters, and I shall try my best to +describe it and what may very possibly be some of +its causes, in my chapter on “Russia’s Problem,” +but the dangerous disaffection, probably already +beginning to pass away, is confined to a few of +the largest towns, and does not in any way +affect the overwhelming majority of the Emperor’s +subjects, who are entirely devoted to +him and patriotically loyal.</p> + +<p>This ought to be remembered also when we +are thinking over future relations between our +own people and theirs. The Russians are not +a downtrodden and oppressed people struggling +to throw off the yoke of a harsh and despotic +rule, but are contented, loyal, and law-abiding. +They do not, however, show their loyalty by +any outward expressions such as the “All +Highest,” and others with which we have been +made familiar in the addresses and letters of +Germans of high rank, office, and birth, during +the war. No such terms exist or are thought +of amongst the subjects of the Emperor of +Russia. The word Tsar occurs, I believe, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> +the National Anthem, and Tsaritsa is used +occasionally, while there is no such word as +Tsarina in the language. But neither Tsar, +Emperor, Tsaritsa, or Empress are used, I am +told, amongst the ordinary people. They speak +of “<i>Gosudar</i>” and “<i>Gosudarina</i>” which mean +Lord and Lady, or Sir and Madame, and in +such general use are these terms, I believe, that +a man writing a business letter to a tradesman +would begin “Gracious Gosudar.” The Tsarevitch +Alexis is spoken of amongst the people +by a word in perfectly common use, which is +no more than the ordinary word for “heir.” +Loyalty and great respect, it would seem, are +quite consistent with great familiarity of thought +and expression.</p> + +<p>The Emperor is probably spoken of more +frequently as Nicolai Alexandrovitch—“Nicholas, +son of Alexander”—than by any other title, and +I feel sure that the Grand Duke Nicholas, Commander-in-Chief, +and his doings at head-quarters, +have been spoken of all over Russian plains and +Siberian steppes this winter as familiarly and as +proudly as of some one who had gone from +their own village. “Ah! Nicolai Nicolaievitch! +What a man he is! How well he has fought +this war! How proud we are of him!” etc., +etc. I was told lately of a touching incident<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> +which occurred at a great service in Russia (the +translation of the remains of a great saint) at +which the Grand Duchess Serge was present, +and, when she arrived, had gone quietly up +to a gallery pew, arranged for her and other +great ladies. Soon afterwards an old peasant +woman, to whom she had once shown a kindness, +arrived, and at once began to inquire:—</p> + +<p>“Has Elizabeth come yet?”—the Grand +Duchess’s Christian name—“I want Elizabeth. +She told me when next I came where she was to +be sure and ask for her. Where’s Elizabeth?”</p> + +<p>The Grand Duchess in her exalted gallery +caught something of what was going on, and, +hearing her own name, at once came down.</p> + +<p>“Here I am, little mother!” And then +with “Dear Elizabeth!” the old woman threw +her arms about her neck and began her story.</p> + +<p>Such a thing is only possible in Russia, and +yet it is the one country in the world where +we have always been led to think that between +the highest and the lowest there is that “great +gulf fixed,” which if not bridged over in this +life by sympathy and love, has little hope of +being passed in the world to come.</p> + +<p>Rank and position and high office if worthily +filled need no buttressing up. Least of all +need those who hold them give themselves airs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +Their office is enough in itself; and last year, +when I had a large party of German youths to +take about London, and by the kindness of +those concerned took them to see one or two +great places where they were most courteously +and graciously received—they were the sons of +working men in Frankfurt—I was more than +pleased to hear one of them say to his friend, +“I notice that in England the higher the rank +the less the pretence.” So it is in Russia. The +more exalted the position the more unaffected +and simple the one who fills it!</p> + +<p>The Grand Duchess Elizabeth, daughter of +our own Princess Alice, is probably the best +known and the best loved woman in all Moscow, +indeed in all Russia, and hereafter will, in +all probability, have “Saint” prefixed to her name. +Many do not hesitate to use it even now. Her +sad experiences appealed most powerfully to the +people’s sympathies when she was so tragically +widowed a few years ago. Her husband, the +Grand Duke Serge, Governor of Moscow, had +become extremely unpopular with certain classes, +and it was well known that his life was in +danger; but he knew no fear, and drove out +constantly in an open carriage in which the +Grand Duchess insisted upon accompanying him. +It is said that at length a letter was written to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +him advising him to leave her behind if he +valued her life, and adding significantly, “We +have no quarrel with her, nor anything against +her.” She was, therefore, from that time left +at home, his secretary asking to be allowed to +go in her place. Again the same kind of letter +was received, and he too was left behind; and +the Grand Duke, who was no coward, determined +to go alone. And then, on the first +morning he did so, and not far from his own +door, the fatal bomb was thrown, and did its +work so effectually that there was nothing left +to be seen! He was literally “blown to +atoms.” Every one in Moscow is said to have +heard the terrific explosion, and knew at once. +“They have him at last!” The Grand Duchess +heard also and rushed immediately to the scene. +It may be questioned whether any other woman +has ever had such an ordeal as that to face! +She had just seen her husband drive away from +his home, and in a few moments there was +nothing left! I believe a finger with his signet +ring was subsequently found, but that was all.</p> + +<p>Moscow, which had always respected and +admired her, at once gave her whole-hearted +sympathy, which soon became a deep and true +affection as they learnt that she had determined +to give her whole life and income to their poor.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> + +<p>She founded the first order which has been +introduced into Russia for women’s work +amongst the sick and poor. When I was last +in Moscow, she explained to me its character, +and it seemed to me to be a blend of the +Tertiaries of S. Francis and the deaconesses +of the primitive church, though the latter is the +model she has wished to follow. She told me +she had ninety-six sisters in the order now, +and that whilst some sick were brought into +their own wards many were visited in their +own homes. It is this visiting work that she +hopes most to develop as time goes on. She +is, of course, by Baptism and Confirmation a +member of our own Church, and is full of +interest and sympathy towards it, and usually +attends the Abbey service when in London, +though she joined the Orthodox Church of +Russia during her married life. This, she told +me, was without any influence being brought +to bear upon her, and entirely from conviction +that it was best for her own religious life in +her adopted country.</p> + +<p>She wore the simple and grey habit of her +order, and it was difficult to realize that she +was a princess of the blood, and sister-in-law +to the Emperor himself, as she spoke so simply +and humbly about her work, and what she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> +hoped still with the blessing of <span class="smcap">God</span> to do. +She does not cut herself off, however, from life’s +ordinary relationships, for when later at Tsarskoe +Selo, I told the Emperor that I had been able +to see her and hear about her work, he said, +“She is coming to spend a fortnight with us +this very afternoon.”</p> + +<p>That is what one meets everywhere in Russia, +the unconventional and the natural. The superior +of a new order, which is an entirely fresh departure, +would be expected in any other country +to give up everything else in the way of social and +family relationships. But in Russia, if a perfectly +natural thing like a visit to near relations suggests +itself as desirable the visit is duly paid.</p> + +<p>It is so always! The splendid and the +simple, high rank and humble birth seem to find +themselves close together, the rich and the poor +unite so easily in a common interest. “A +gorgeous imperial procession was passing through +the palace hall,” writes one who saw it at Tsarskoe +Selo as a specially grand function, “and +two or three maid-servants appeared at the +head of a little staircase to look on, wearing +print dresses. No one told them to go away.”<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> +No one would think of it.</p> + +<p>The Emperor loves the simple folk he governs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +and showed it plainly when in the earlier part +of his reign he moved freely amongst them, +standing next to peasants and workmen in +Moscow, when he stepped into a church to +pray. And after he returned from our own +country, from the marriage of King George, I +read the other day, “somebody asked him what +had impressed him most. ‘The crowd outside +Buckingham Palace waiting to see Queen +Victoria drive out,’ he said. ‘There they +waited, hour after hour, and at last a little black +carriage came out of the palace-gates. Very few +of the people in the crowd could see the Queen, +but they knew that she was there, and they +went away satisfied. One day it will be like +that in Russia.’” And the writer adds: “I +do not think the Emperor’s prophecy is likely +to be realized in his lifetime; but a day will +come when his subjects will forget the mistakes +that have been made in his name, and recognize +that they owe to him great reforms.” I fancy +in subsequent editions, for his book well deserves +to have them, he will alter those words into +“I feel sure that he will live to see it, and not +have long to wait.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 449px;margin-bottom:1em;"><a id="image017" name="image017"></a> +<img src="images/image017.png" width="449" height="640" alt="Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Elizabeth—The +Friend of the Poor." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Elizabeth—The +Friend of the Poor.</span> +</div> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> <i>Our New Ally.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Rothay Reynolds, <i>My Russian Year</i>.</p></div> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">A Paternal Government</span></h2> + + +<p>Two years ago, when I was in conversation +with one of our leading diplomatists, who +has a very intimate knowledge of the Russian +people, their Emperor and governing classes, +I asked him, “Do you not think that the Russian +government is the most paternal in its aim and +character of all the governments in Europe?”</p> + +<p>“Of course I do,” he replied; and rather +excitedly added, “But when I even hint at such +a view of Russian methods to our own countrymen +here at home they regard me as if I had +taken leave of my senses, and look at me with +an incredulous and pitying eye.”</p> + +<p>It is no wonder that this should be so when +our own people still, for the most part, look +upon Russia as the land of the knout and +banishment, with an oppressive and despotic +government which on the least suspicion seizes +upon unoffending victims and consigns them to +Siberia and the mines, where, chained together, +they drag out their lingering existence in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +unfamiliar and degrading toil. No words are +wasted, it is believed, upon the weak and +ineffective, but the lash comes stingingly down +upon their shoulders. Harsh legislation is the +rule, it is thought, and if perchance people rise up +in masses against it, as they do from time to time, +the dreaded Cossack sweeps through the streets, +and, at terrible cost to human life, clears them. +Again and again I find this is the prevailing idea +of Russia, as I am asked if I am not afraid to +travel there; and something like it, I have +candidly admitted, was my own impression +before I went there and saw things for myself. +But nothing could be more unlike the actual +reality.</p> + +<p>The relations of the governing and governed +in Russia are really paternal on the one hand +and filial on the other, and I hope that I may +be able to induce my readers to believe that is +true of the greater part of the whole population.</p> + +<p>In the first place, the knout is long since +gone. No such thing exists now, except as a +curiosity, in the whole of Russia, nor has it been +used officially since the days of the present +Emperor’s <i>great grandfather</i>!</p> + +<p>Next there are the convicts. It is now twenty-five +years since Mr. Harry de Windt, the well-known +traveller, disproved the lurid accounts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> +which had been given a short time before of +the horrors of Siberian prisons. In his book +of 1903 he says, “I have always maintained that +were I sentenced to a term of penal servitude +I would infinitely prefer to serve it in (some +parts of) Siberia than in England.” When he +puts these words in brackets he is thinking, of +course, of the severity of climate and distance +from frequented routes, and not of the treatment +of the prisoners. He tells at length—space does +not permit me to quote freely as I would like +to do—how even criminal convicts are well +cared for; and that even the murderers and +murderesses amongst them, for there is no +capital punishment in Russia, are lodged in +wards which are clean and well warmed; that +there is a comfortable infirmary connected with +a prison, and even a home close at hand, +supported by private subscription, for children +of the prisoners.</p> + +<p>Mr. Foster Fraser also, in his book on <i>The +Real Siberia</i>—perhaps one of the best known +of modern works on that part of the empire—tells +us that having been more “thrilled” as a +boy by what he had read about Siberian prisons +than by Red Indian stories, and knowing that +people, the world over, were in the habit of +saying, “Only Russia could be so cruel,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> +a civilized country would shrink from such +barbarities,” determined to go and see for +himself, and, as is usual with those who go +to Russia full of prejudice and dread, the scales +fell from his eyes when he visited Irkutsk prison. +He found to his surprise that, “It was not +the gloomy, sullen-stoned, slit-windowed, iron-barred +structure such as are our prisons at home”; +and he describes at length a system which will +compare favourably with any other prisons in +the world, as to discipline, but surpasses them +all in friendliness and freedom from constraint. +“What attracted me was the informal +relationship between governor and prisoners. +The men talked without any restraint, made +requests and even jests.” But the climax of +his experiences of “Siberian horrors” came +when he asked to see the women prisoners, +and was taken to the “best house in the +place,” where, on going into the yard, he saw +some women “sitting about, and some children +playing with a kitten.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll send for the matron,” said the governor.</p> + +<p>“Is this the prison?” I asked in some amazement.</p> + +<p>“Yes—this is the only prison we have in +Irkutsk for women.”</p> + +<p>“It was just a large-sized ordinary house,” he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +goes on, “abutting on the street, but not a single +soldier to see. I couldn’t help laughing,” he +adds, for the women, who numbered about forty, +and had twenty children with them, represented +offences which ranged from petty theft up to +murder, the five or six murderesses being much +the same as the others in appearance and +character as far as could be seen. Mr. Fraser +felt it was absurd to call such a place a prison, +and asked:—</p> + +<p>“Do you really mean to say that these women +don’t go away?”</p> + +<p>And then his amazement was complete when +he was told that one had surprised them very +much, a little while before, by going off, but had +surprised them even more by coming back after +a day or two and telling them that she had +wanted to see a man she was rather fond of +and have a week-end with him, as men visitors +were not allowed on Sundays, the visiting day!</p> + +<p>It will be conceded, I think, by my most +prejudiced reader, that Russia does not seem +to be unduly harsh in her dealings with even +her worst type of criminals!</p> + +<p>Next let me speak of “politicals,” as we may +call them. It is nearly two years ago since +a meeting was organized in London to protest +in the name of civilization—very strong language<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> +indeed was used in the preliminary circular—against +Russia’s treatment of her political +prisoners; and one who holds very high office +in London, and whom it was specially desired +to have present, did me the honour of asking +my advice about attending it, as I had just +returned from Siberia. I replied at once, and +pointed out how very difficult and delicate the +work of embassies and legations is made when +such meetings of protest are held in the countries +they represent, and that we should deeply resent +meetings of a similar kind being held in other +countries with respect to methods of our own. +We are open to criticism ourselves at times, +every one will admit! I gave it as my opinion +also that the statements of the circular were +greatly exaggerated. Wishing later to be assured +that this was so, I questioned a Russian of high +rank in diplomacy, who at once said:—</p> + +<p>“Suppose you go and see for yourself the +next time you are in Siberia. Visit any mines +you wish, or prisons either, and the Russian +government shall afford you all facilities.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 584px;"><a id="image018" name="image018"></a> +<img src="images/image018.png" width="584" height="413" alt="Characteristic Group of Russians." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Characteristic Group of Russians.</span> +</div> + +<p>This I am hoping to do this very year, if all’s +well, and so, though I have seen convicts for +myself in Siberia, yet what I have to say here +now is not at first hand, but still it will be on +the best authority in every case, and when I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> +can I will give names. It was quite a revelation +to me as I listened, on my first visit to Russia, +to the statements I heard on all sides whenever +banishment to Siberia was mentioned.</p> + +<p>“But surely you know what that means? +No? Well, for ordinary political offenders +who are either suspect or actually giving offence, +and making government difficult, all that it +means is that they have to go and live in Siberia, +where their wives and families follow them. +Their property is not seized nor income forfeited. +It can all be realized, and so they can live as +comfortably there as in Russia. There are people +indeed who prefer to live in Siberia after they +have gone there. After a few years or so, if +they like to escape they can do so, and no one +interferes. They can live where they please, but +they must not return to Russia.”</p> + +<p>That did not seem a very hard fate, nor can +it be said to be a very undeserved one, for every +one must feel that the government of a country +so vast is beset with difficulties and must, in the +present state of its population, be firm, and not +hesitate at strong measures against those plotting +against it. I know myself, in a recent case too, +which caused much excitement in this country, +warning after warning was given to enable the +offender to leave the country before arrest took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> +place, and even after the sentence unexpected +indulgence and clemency were shown.</p> + +<p>Let me now quote straight from Mr. Foster +Fraser’s book, written by one who tells us frankly +that he “went to Siberia with the average +Britisher’s prejudice against things Russian, but +with eyes open,” and determined to see things +for himself.</p> + +<p>“The political prisoners are given the best part +of the country to live in, namely, in the west. +Other prisoners are exiled nearer to the icy +regions according to the gravity of their offence. +The political prisoners may practise handicrafts, +and, by special permission, medicine. A +‘political’ is not identified with the criminal +any more than a debtor is identified with a felon +in England. Such offenders do not travel with +other prisoners in a gang. A ‘political’ may +be on a train going into exile; but no one knows +it besides himself and the members of the police +travelling in the same carriage. Politicals get +about £1. 10<i>s.</i> a month from the government, +but this varies according to the district to +which they are sent. Wives who accompany +their husbands are allowed 36 lb. of bread a +month, but must submit to the regulations of +the <i>étape</i>. If all goes well with a ‘political’ he +gets permission to settle in some Siberian town<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +with his family, but any allowance from the +government then ceases. He is just the same +as any other resident, save that he can never +leave Siberia. If he wishes to farm, the government +will give him a plot of land and money to +work it. But this money must be paid back by +instalments.” He states, as will be seen, “he +can never leave Siberia,” but what, I fancy, was +really meant by his informant was “never return +to Russia.” We can hardly think, in a land +where the executive is so indulgent as to allow +a dangerous criminal to “week-end” with a +friend, that they will be less considerate to a +political of good character wishing to go to a +better climate and letting it be understood that +Russia would not be the place selected. There +is the human touch about everything in that +country of spacious and large ideas, and it is not +lacking either in the treatment of political +offenders or with other criminals and felons also.</p> + +<p>Mr. Harry de Windt is not only explicit but +even amusing and entertaining as he tells us +what he found at Yakutsk, which is quite remote +enough from civilization, on the great Lena post +road, to make one feel that the lot of the banished +there must be sad indeed; but at the same time +we can enter a little, perhaps, into his feelings of +amazement when he found that “the political<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +exiles there seemed to be no worse off, socially, +than any one else, for they moved about in +society and were constantly favoured guests +of the Chief of Police. The exiles, however, +were not permitted to take part in the private +theatricals I have mentioned, a restriction which +caused them great annoyance. Their loud and +unfavourable criticisms from the stalls on the +evening in question were certainly not in the +best of taste, and, to my surprise, they were +not resented by the governor’s staff.” This incident +will show that, in Yakutsk at any rate, the +“politicals” are treated not only with leniency +but with a friendly courtesy, which on this +occasion was certainly abused. Mr. Olenin, an +exile whose term of banishment was expiring, +told me that he had no fault whatever to find +with Yakutsk as a place of exile, so much so +that he had resolved not to return to Russia at +the end of his sentence, but to remain here and +complete an ethnological work upon which he +was engaged. I don’t think that “harshness and +barbarity” are words that can be appropriately +used for a discipline that permits attendances at +“private theatricals” where politicals are so +much at ease that they indulge in loud and +unfavourable criticisms in the presence of the +governor’s staff, and go out as favoured guests<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +to dinner parties given by the Chief of the +Police!</p> + +<p>A few months ago, however, I had my last +and great surprise as to Russia, in learning—what +strangely enough is not yet known to +many Russians of experience and official rank—that +convict labour in mines is entirely abandoned +now, and has been for some years! It was +found to be both unprofitable and impracticable +as modern ideas of mining advanced. It was +clearly a great waste of time to march gangs +to the “pit’s mouth,” as they call it in our +own mining districts, and remove their chains +before sending them down, putting them on +when they came up again. Then no blasting +is now done without dynamite; and that, clearly, +was a dangerous substance to hand over to +criminals. Again, they are of all classes, and +but few could ever have worked in mines before, +and not having either technical knowledge or +experience, their work would be unprofitable. +Convict labour below ground has been given +up for some time in consequence. Prisoners +now, when sent out to Siberia, are only required +to work above ground, though they may go into +the mines if they choose, and have fitness for +the work, and can be trusted. They are all +allowed and encouraged to hire themselves out,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> +receiving the market price for their work, and +so being able to obtain little comforts for themselves. +As far as I have been able to consider +the experiences of reliable authorities, I feel +convinced that when able to see for myself I +too shall say I would far rather serve a term +of imprisonment with hard labour amongst the +convicts of Siberia than in Dartmoor or Portland. +There is far more of the human touch in the +former, and a man does not suffer in his manhood +in the same way there as he does in the English, +French, Belgian, and Central American prisons I +have known.</p> + +<p>How, then, are we to account for all the well-known +stories of miseries and sufferings associated +with that lone, and in winter very terrible land? +Most of us read in our youthful days <i>Elizabeth, +or the Exiles of Siberia</i>, and since then have +always spoken of “the Siberian mines,” and +“banishment” with bated breath! How have +such impressions so gained ground that the very +name of Russia has taken us straightway out of +Europe into Asia to thoughts of the severest and +most hopeless criminal punishments in the world? +I should say that the explanation is to be found, +very possibly, in the methods used before arrest. +What is called “administrative procedure” has +long been the usual way of dealing with suspected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> +political offenders. A man or woman is arrested, +and without public trial is removed to Siberia, +and there required to live under police supervision. +Arrests are made at any time. “A man +may be seated quietly at home with his family, +in his office, or at some place of public entertainment, +when a touch upon his shoulder summons +him away.” There are no press reports of his +trial or examination, which is conducted in private, +nor any appeal from it, and there have been, and +perhaps are still, cases where a suspected offender’s +family remain in ignorance of what has happened +to him, or where he is. The thought of such +a disappearance from the midst of family and +friends is enough to chill any heart, and even if +Russia does consider it necessary to deal thus +summarily with those who are enemies of social +order and the well-being of the State, without +being unduly harsh in her treatment of them +when they are exiled, one may very well hope +that what have been called the “underground +methods” of her police may soon be entirely +laid aside. It is still consistent, I submit, with +the aim of a paternal government to remove at +once, and with no uncertain or hesitating hand, +those who are considered the most dangerous +elements in its social life, and the enemies of its +stability and well-being.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was in Siberia, however, that I learnt the +positive side of Russia’s care for her peasant and +working population. There I found, as soon as +I looked into the working of a great company, +that it was necessary to have a Russian engineer, +in addition to the one employed by the staff, +who is held responsible by the governor of the +district for the inspection of all machinery and the +arrangements made for securing those employed +from unnecessary risk and danger. A police +officer of a superior class is attached to the staff +also, not only to maintain order, but to receive +any complaints and transmit them if serious to +higher authorities. The government distinctly +interferes in order to guard the interests of its +working class, and though sometimes the presence +of another engineer or the police official may +seem irksome, our countrymen recognize loyally +that the government have no wish to be vexatious, +but only to fulfil their duty to their own people.</p> + +<p>Then next I found, also in Siberia, how extraordinarily +kind and helpful all officials are to +colonists, who are not always easy to deal with +when travelling or settling down in a new country. +They take things for granted and expect much, +and yet are never disappointed; officials of +every class, and especially on railways, being +unfailing in patience, tact, good-nature, and good-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>humour. +The working folk on a train, in their +third or fourth classes, are always treated with +indulgence and kindly consideration.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 501px;"><a id="image019" name="image019"></a> +<img src="images/image019.png" width="501" height="588" alt="A Group of Russian Peasants." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A Group of Russian Peasants.</span> +</div> + +<p>I read the following in the <i>Statist</i> last year, +finding later that it was contributed by a friend +of mine:—</p> + +<p>“Government emigration offices are situated +all over Russia in Europe. These supply would-be +settlers in Siberia with information as to water +supply, timber, fuel, distances from market, etc. +Intending settlers choose some of their number, +at the expense of the government, to inspect the +different tracts of land parcelled out for settlement, +and select areas considered suitable for the +settlers. This may take a whole year, and the +deputed settlers return and report to their fellows. +A petition is then sent in to the government—say +that 100 men want to go to such and such +a place. Then the government marks on the +map that this land has been apportioned to the +applicants, and it is set aside for them accordingly. +The land is given free up to 275 acres per head. +Each man thus has his own land. He cannot +sell it, and it cannot be mortgaged either, though +he get into debt. The land is his as long as he +cares to work it. For special purposes, horse +and cattle breeding, the government now permits +larger areas up to 10,000 acres to be acquired,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> +and helps settlers in this connection by providing, +for breeding purposes, thoroughbred stallions and +Jersey bulls. The government send the settlers +down passage free, and as the people are simply +peasants, doctors and nurses are provided to +look after them and treat them for sickness, etc. +Further, the settlers are given in certain cases +a sum up to £20 to reach their destination. +They are allowed, carriage free, to take one cow, +implements, and other goods for their purposes. +The government gives them free timber for +house building, though the settlers have to cut +it themselves. Should the settlers be short of +money or funds for buying horses, ploughs, etc., +they can get a credit through the Land Bank up +to £20, which they have to pay back in instalments +spread over a long period.”</p> + +<p>Does not a government which thus develops +its country and moves its working population in +vast numbers from places where they are not +doing well to other places where they may do +better well deserve to be called “fatherly” in +its care for their interests?</p> + +<p>It is well known to those who have been +watching Russia’s progress that she has of late, +and especially last year, been drawing upon her +enormous revenues and taking advantage of +her unexampled prosperity, as one of the best-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>informed +journalists in Europe<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> has stated, “for +public works, railways, and canals, factories, +schools, post offices, model farms and reform +measures for the improvement of the lot of the +working man.” It was in the interests of her +working poor that one of the most costly and +far-reaching experiments ever undertaken by a +government, at great financial sacrifice to itself, +was launched just before war was declared—the +legislation concerning <i>vodka</i>.</p> + +<p>It surely is an inspiring thought that we and +our new friend may tread the path of social +reform together just when it has become alike +the need and opportunity of our time! There +is nothing so certain than that it is along this +path that our two sovereigns will gladly lead +us. We in our country have never before had +King and Queen visiting the manufacturing +districts of their realm, acquainting themselves +with every detail of daily work, going simply +and naturally into homes, and sharing the humble +fare of the working classes. We have never had +a king before—without reflecting upon any who +have preceded him we may say it—who has +gone amongst his soldiers and sailors, as one of +themselves, crossing over to the front that he +might see how they did, and show them that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +was determined to know for himself the conditions +under which they were so nobly doing +their duty, so that they should not only have +his leadership but all the sympathy he could +give them.</p> + +<p>It has been just the same in Russia. There, +at last, has come the great departure from precedent +and tradition for which the Emperor has +always longed and felt to be possible since he +came to London and said, “Some day it will be +like that in Russia!” The “some day” has +come at last. One felt it when he went into +the Duma last year at the outbreak of the war, +and, on his own initiative alone, addressed its +members informally on the task of serving their +country together. Other things have followed in +quick succession! The Empress and her daughters +became nurses at once as soon as the wounded +soldiers began to be brought in. They wore the +uniform, and were addressed as Sister Olga or +Sister Tatiana like every one else, although the +Russian Court has been held to be the most exacting +and punctilious court in Europe. Again and +again the Emperor has been to the front, endearing +himself to his soldiers, to whom it is known +that he equipped himself in a common soldier’s +uniform, before he passed it, with kit, rifle, and +boots complete, and tramped miles across the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> +country that he might know what it was like to +be on the march.</p> + +<p>Does it make no difference to Ivan Ivanoff to +say to himself on the march when he thinks of +his Emperor, “He knows what it’s like, for he’s +done it himself? Somewhere he’s thinking about +his soldiers, and he <i>knows</i>.” He was photographed +in their uniform, just as one of themselves, and +the photograph was distributed amongst the troops. +“<span class="smcap">God</span> save the Tsar!” is the one clamorous cry +of the streets in Russia to-day, we are told. The +Emperor and Empress show themselves in a +balcony in Petrograd as naturally as King George +and Queen Mary show themselves at Buckingham +Palace when the crowd ask for them.</p> + +<p>Such a thing has never been seen, or even +thought of, before in Russia. The last time the +Emperor came up from the Crimea to the capital, +there were soldiers within speaking distance of +each other along the entire length of rail, keeping +watch and guard. Soon he will go about +unattended, and without escort; and as it was +with Queen Victoria, so “it will be like that +in Russia.”</p> + +<p>Again, I want to dwell upon this link between +us, and its tremendous promise for the future. +The two greatest rulers in the world, closely +and affectionately related, have the same ideals<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> +of what rulers should be, and want nothing better +than to lead and serve their people; and <span class="smcap">God</span>, in +His providence, has given them at the same time +both the power and opportunity for doing this +splendid work together.</p> + +<p>Never, probably, has the monarchical principle, +in its best aspect, been so intelligently accepted in +both empires as now. A near relation of the +Emperor’s, though much his senior, was telling +me once of a recent visit he had paid to England, +and of some of his experiences in the East End, +where, under the guidance of a detective, he had +visited some of the worst haunts.</p> + +<p>“And do you know, bishop?” he said, “I +learnt from that detective that everybody in +London showed their respect for King Edward, +at his death, by going into mourning; and the +very thieves <i>stole</i> black to mourn him with the +rest! There’s the monarchical principle, going +down even to the lowest classes in the nation!”</p> + +<p>“But, sir,” I ventured, “I don’t think that +men of that class would be thinking of him as +a ruler, but as a sportsman.”</p> + +<p>“No! no!” he maintained. “It was the +monarchical principle going down to the very +lowest of the people!” And I am sure he +thinks so, and tells the story to enforce it.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that the monarchical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> +principle, as we understand it, makes rapid progress +in Russia. The Emperor has always been +an autocrat, but his worst enemy could not accuse +him of ever having been merely despotic; and +surely, though gradually, he will be less and less +an autocrat, and more and more constitutional in +his rule. He meets the needs and satisfies the +ideals of his people, as he embodies in his person +government and rule. If any one thinks that +Russia has a seething revolutionary spirit longing +for expression and an outlet, I can’t help feeling +that they are utterly and entirely mistaken. Serious +discontent and unrest prevail; but, as I will try +and show later, it is directed against the social +order rather than against the Emperor himself. +Plots to kill him have been plots to overturn the +social order, and nothing more.</p> + +<p>Even political exiles in Siberia never blame him +for their condition, as Mr. de Windt tells us: +“I never once heard members of the imperial +family spoken of with the slightest animosity or +disrespect; and once when the Emperor was +mentioned one of the exiles burst out with a +bitter laugh—</p> + +<p>“‘The Emperor! You may be quite sure the +Emperor does not know what goes on, or we +should not be here a day longer.’”</p> + +<p>The people are wholly loyal, and regard their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +ruler as embodying a government which is in their +own interests as being his children. There can be +no doubt that this is the feeling throughout the +empire, however difficult it may be for some +classes in our community to believe it.</p> + +<p>For instance, as it has been pointed out,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> +“When not long ago in the House of Commons +it was debated whether or no the King +should pay a visit to the Emperor of Russia, +and some one suggested that were the visit to +be cancelled the immense majority of the Russian +people would regard it as an insult, and +that the Russian peasants bore no ill-will towards +the Emperor, but rather complained of the results +of a system of government which in the last few +years has undergone, and is still undergoing, +radical change.” When such arguments were +brought forward some of the Labour Members +nearly burst with ironical cheers. Here, they +thought, was the voice of officialdom, Torydom, +and hypocrisy speaking. Now turn to the facts. +When Professor Kovolievski was elected a member +of the first Duma in the government of +Karkov as an advanced Liberal Member, he, +after his election, asked some of his peasant +electors whether he was not right in supposing +that had he said anything offensive with regard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> +to the Emperor at his meetings there would +have been no applause.</p> + +<p>“‘We should not only have not applauded,’ +was the answer, ‘but we should have beaten +you to death.’”</p> + +<p>There is nothing of the merely sentimental +in this feeling that their government is, and +ought to be, paternal in its character. Every +Russian peasant drinks it in from the first, for +he gets his training in the <i>Mir</i> of his native +village. It is there he learns what family and +social rule really mean, and they are identical. +His home is ruled by his father, the village +by the elder; and everything is as constitutional +and as democratic as it can be, or is anywhere +else in the world. The children have their +rights, but look up to and obey their father. +They are free and responsible in village life, +but yield to their elders. It is natural, therefore, +and no other view is even possible, for men +brought up in such surroundings to look outside +the village and regard the State as a whole +in the same way. There too they feel that +they have full rights, and yet are under a firm, +unquestioned, and paternal rule—the rule of +him who, while rightly called their Emperor, yet +is better known to themselves and loyally loved +as their “Little Father.”</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Dr. E. J. Dillon.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The Hon. Maurice Baring.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">The Steppes</span></h2> + + +<p>Amongst all the interesting experiences of +an unusually varied and adventurous life, +since, in the very middle of my Oxford course I +had, for health’s sake, to spend a couple of years +ranching in the River Plate, my long drives +across the steppes stand out in bold and pleasing +relief.</p> + +<p>They were necessitated by a Mining Camp +Mission in Siberia, for the steppes form a large +part of the eastern portion of the Russian Empire, +and do not belong to Russia proper at all, lying +beyond the Volga and the Urals. It is in that +part of Asiatic Russia that the development of +the empire’s vast resources is taking place with +special rapidity, and our own countrymen are +bearing a hand in it and playing no unworthy +part.</p> + +<p>I believe the word “steppes” is given to that +undulating but level country in the provinces of +Ufa and Orenburg, about two days’ and two +nights’ journey by train east of Moscow, inhabited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> +by the Bashkirs, the descendants of those Tartar +hordes who nearly overwhelmed Russia at one +time, and possibly Europe itself, and were called +for their relentless cruelty “the Scourge of +<span class="smcap">God</span>.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 655px;"><a id="image020" name="image020"></a> +<img src="images/image020.png" width="655" height="367" alt="Consecration of Burial Ground in the Siberian Steppes. (See page 178.)" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Consecration of Burial Ground in the Siberian Steppes. (See page <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.)</span> +</div> + +<p>They are a fierce-looking race, even now, +though peaceable enough, and it seems strange +to find them so near to Moscow still, and to see +them at their devotions when driving past their +mosques on a Friday. They are great agriculturists, +and a delightful sight is presented by +their vast tracts of tender green wheat and oats +shooting up as soon as the winter is over, and +even while, in out-of-the-way hollows, snow still +remains. The earth is black and very rich in +character, and the seed, sown often before the end +of September, lies nearly seven months under +the protecting and fertilizing snow. As soon +as this has gone and spring comes, the young +crops shoot up with amazing speed and strength. +Late frosts are terrible disasters, of course, under +such circumstances.</p> + +<p>But the <i>real</i> steppes, which resemble the veldt +of Africa, or the pampas of South, and the prairie +of North America, are those vast level plains, +partly agricultural, partly pasture, and partly +scrub and sand, which lie another day and night +still further east, and extend for thousands of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> +miles to the south till they reach nearly to the +borders of Turkestan. These are the steppes I +know best. There is also a pastoral steppe of +large extent and of agricultural character just +above the Black Sea.</p> + +<p>If the reader will refer to the map he will see +what a huge portion even of the great country of +Siberia is taken up by the Kirghiz Steppes, and +as they are extraordinarily rich in minerals, so far +as one can judge from enterprises already successfully +started, produce large crops, and sustain +innumerable flocks and herds, it will be seen how +much they are likely to count for in the progress +of Russia. The Kirghiz, familiarly called the +“Ks” in the mining camps, are a Tartar race, +like the Bashkirs, and, like them also in religion, +are Mohammedans; but while I saw mosques +amongst the Bashkirs filled with praying congregations, +I never saw either mosque or prayers +amongst the Kirghiz, nor their women veiled. +They are small in stature, very strongly built, +rather like the Japanese, and splendid horsemen. +A Kirghiz when mounted seems part of his horse +as he dashes across the steppes at full speed with +the merest apology for reins and bit, ready to +pull up in the twinkling of an eye.</p> + +<p>They struck me always as very friendly, though +I have read that others have not found them so.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p> + +<p>That they are very hospitable every one admits. +A traveller, it is said, can go thousands of +miles across the steppes without a rouble in +his pocket, and want for nothing. Everywhere +he will be hospitably entertained. A Russian, of +course, asks nothing better than to have a guest, +and considers himself honoured in being asked to +take him in for a meal or for the night; and the +Kirghiz are Eastern in their reception of guests +as well.</p> + +<p>In the steppes governments of Ufa, Orenburg, +and Akmolinsk the population must be nearly +seven millions, of which the great majority are +the nomadic Kirghiz, living in tents in the +summer, and taking their flocks and herds away +to the south and into villages, where they can +have roofs and walls during the seven months—at +least!—of terrible winter.</p> + +<p>The tent is a most comfortable abode, though +not much to look at from outside. It has a +wooden floor, with a rug or skins upon it, is +circular in its area, but has no pole of any kind, +being built up very neatly and ingeniously upon a +framework of canes and laths until it is in shape +like a well-spread-out low and evenly-rounded +haystack. It has a movable top in its centre, +which affords ample ventilation. Inside it is +lined with felt, which has often prettily em<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>broidered +draperies fastened upon it; and outside +the canework it is well covered over with +stout canvas securely lashed into its place. It +will be seen that no obstacle is presented to the +strong winds which continually blow over the +steppes, as there are no “corners” such as are +spoken of in Job i. 14, which shows us that tents +were raised upon four poles in early Israelitish +days as they are still amongst the Bedouin tribes +of North Africa and Arabia.</p> + +<p>The beautifully and symmetrically rounded +<i>uerta</i>, as the Kirghiz tent is called, receives every +wind that sweeps over it, and never makes the +slightest movement. At least twenty people +could be, and often are, gathered inside when +some festivity is afoot, though each family as a +rule has its own tent. They are extremely attractive, +and when I once went to see an American +family, engaged in preliminary mining work, I +found them with one of these tents for their +living-room, set up with sideboard, dining-table, +easy-chairs, etc., and another opposite to it fitted +up as a most comfortable bedroom with brass +beds and all the usual furniture, the little cookhouse +also being not far away. Breathing in the +marvellous air of the steppes, I thought I had +never seen the “simple life” presented in a +more alluring form. I have longed, indeed, ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> +since to have a month of it some time, and get as +close to Mother Nature as it is possible to do in +these busy days.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"><a id="image021" name="image021"></a> +<img src="images/image021.png" width="650" height="392" alt="Outside a Kirghiz Uerta." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Outside a Kirghiz Uerta.</span> +</div> + +<p>The descendants of Jonadab knew what they +were about, and what was good for them, when +they determined to keep to their pastoral life, +and hold on to all their tent-dwelling traditions; +and as for wine, no one need ever feel the need +of such a stimulant in the invigorating air of +those great plains.</p> + +<p>Amongst the Kirghiz one feels an extraordinarily +biblical atmosphere, and is back again in the days +of Abraham and the patriarchs, and the “women +in the tent,” of whom Jael sang after the great +victory. The men are attired much as Isaac and +Ishmael, and Jacob and Esau were, and the +women very probably keep the traditions of +thousands of years in wearing their pretty nun-like +head-dresses of white, which leave their +pleasant faces free and uncovered.</p> + +<p>These Kirghiz hardly ever use money. They +grow “rich in many flocks and herds,” and if +they sold would immediately buy again. Some +of them, however, are very well off, and I was +told that one, who lived simply with his wife in a +<i>uerta</i> on the steppes, had sent his only son to +complete his education in Paris, and get a medical +degree at its University. For this he would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +to sell off some of the increase of his flock, and +send the proceeds to his son.</p> + +<p>Let me now explain how I came to be amongst +these tent-dwelling folk at all. During my first +visit to Petrograd I was asked one evening by a +member of the Russia Company if I could appoint +a chaplain to go out to Siberia once a year or so, +and visit the scattered little groups of our own +countrymen who are there, but, at that time, had +never seen a clergyman nor had a service since +coming into the country.</p> + +<p>“There are unbaptized,” he said, “and unconfirmed, +and even those who need to be married +with the service of their Church, who through +no fault of their own, but through circumstances, +have had to go without it. There are people +who have been in Siberia all their lives, and some +who have been there forty and fifty years, and +never once had any ministration of their Church. +Can nothing be done?”</p> + +<p>This, of course, was a strong and direct appeal, +and, after considering for a short time, it seemed +impossible to appoint a chaplain for work of +which one knew nothing, and so I proposed to +go myself, which I found later was what it was +hoped and expected that I should do. Accordingly +in 1912 and again in 1913 I carried out +this intention, and found that it practically took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +the form of a Mining Camp Mission; for, +though I visited one or two other British communities, +yet the most interesting part of both +years’ experiences was in going to the mines +situated, except in one case, in the very heart of +the steppes. Each, though employing thousands +of Kirghiz and Russians, is managed by a British +staff of between twenty and thirty, and is the +property of a British company with its board of +directors meeting in its offices in London.</p> + +<p>I will describe two of these journeys, for without +knowing something of the steppes and of +those who live there, and indeed taking in something +of their spirit, it is impossible to feel that +one really knows Russia.</p> + +<p>Four days and nights from Moscow brings one +to Petropavlosk (Peter and Paul’s town), and it +is from there, in a southerly direction at first, +and then heading towards the east, that the great +Spassky Copper Mine is reached, for which a +drive of a thousand miles, there and back, is +necessary. I had not realized till just before I +set out that I should have to drive on day and +night without stopping for anything but food and +to change horses, as there were no Russian rest-houses +on that route, and the Kirghiz tents were +impossible owing to the great number of living +beings, other than human, which inhabited them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> +It was no light thing to undertake, as it meant +leaving on Tuesday and getting in late on Saturday +evening, and this only if all went well. Some +people can sleep under such conditions during +the night. I don’t know how they possibly can, +for there are no roads in any true sense of the +word, and none of the vehicles which cross them +have springs.</p> + +<p>The manager of the mine had kindly sent down +the usual <i>tarantass</i>, which, hooded like a victoria, +is a very stout cart, lashed securely upon poles, +and drawn by three horses or <i>troika</i>. There is +no seat inside, but hay is placed over the bottom, +and pillows and cushions on the top, and there +one reclines during the day, and lies down at +night. It all sounds very comfortable and even +luxurious, but as there are no roads, and only the +roughest of tracks with fearful ruts and soft +places where water lingers, with sometimes a +sloping bank down to a stream, and, as the wild +driver keeps his horses at their full speed, one is +hurled violently and roughly about the whole +time, sleep, for me at least, is beyond my wildest +hopes from start to finish.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 437px;"><a id="image022" name="image022"></a> +<img src="images/image022.png" width="437" height="552" alt="Tarantass with its Troika for the Steppes." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Tarantass with its Troika for the Steppes.</span> +</div> + +<p>For the first day or so I had the greatest +difficulty to avoid biting my tongue in two as I +was thrown about and it came between my teeth, +and I used to look with amazement and envy at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +my Kirghiz conductor, on the box beside the +driver, swaying about in all directions like a tree +in a hurricane, but sound asleep. His name was +Mamajam, and on our arrival he brought his +little daughter Fatima to see me, and another +youth named Abdullah, completing the Arabian +Nights impression he had already given me.</p> + +<p>There is no regularity in the arrangements for +changing horses along the steppes. Sometimes +one would drive about twenty <i>versts</i> (twelve and +a half miles) and then change, while at others we +would go on as far as sixty, or even eighty, <i>versts</i> +(fifty miles) without any change at all. The +horses are very strong and hardy, and are never +allowed either food or drink until the journey is +over; and, with the horses, the driver is changed +also, as every man brings and understands his +own. It was a wonderful study in character, +temperament, and dress, for the men were extraordinarily +different from each other, though all +most attractive and interesting; the Kirghiz more +so than the one or two Russians we had.</p> + +<p>We carried our food, chiefly tinned, with us, +but there was an abundance of eggs, butter, and +white bread always to be got, and, most welcome +sight, always the steaming <i>samovar</i>, with its +promise of cheering and comforting tea. It is +astonishing how one’s ordinary food can be cut<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +down in quantity when necessary. We gradually +came down to two meals a day, and on the return +journey these only consisted of eggs, bread and +butter, and tea; and yet the simple life and +magnificent air made one feel always extraordinarily +fit and well and in good spirits.</p> + +<p>The steppes, though vast solitudes as far as +human habitations are concerned, are full of life +and movement, and the most is made of the short +summer. Caravans are continually meeting the +traveller as he goes south or north, or crossing +his route from east to west, or west to east, +carrying tea from China, timber and other articles +of commerce, travellers from town to town, or +from one village to another, or a little band of +colonists seeking land upon which to settle, or +herdsmen in charge of sheep, oxen, or horses. +Perhaps one’s driver catches sight of another +<i>troika</i> going in the same direction, and with a +shrill cry urges on his team; the other, nothing +loath, joins in, and for a quarter of an hour +there is a most thrilling race. There is never a +dull moment night or day, though perhaps the +most inspiring times are those when one has just +changed horses, and has a wild young Kirghiz on +the box who, seeing an opportunity of showing +off, stands up whirling his whip and, shrieking, +yelling, whistling, like a demon, urges his horses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +to their utmost speed, making the dust and earth +fly in all directions. It makes one feel that it is +good to be alive.</p> + +<p>The air is most transporting at that height, +four thousand feet above sea-level; the whole +steppes in the early summer are strewn with +flowers, larks are singing overhead, streams are +flowing on every side, there is a clear horizon as +at sea, though now and then there is hilly ground, +the sky is ever delightfully blue and without a +cloud, and the sun shines brightly, though not +too fiercely, from morn till eve. Nothing could +be more delightful than that first experience, +especially as one thought of the object of one’s +journey and the services of the coming Sunday. +Then the wonderful nights, beginning with the +sweet, bell-like sounds of the innumerable frogs +after the birds had ceased. As I did not sleep I +saw and enjoyed all that the nights had to give, +and we had the full moon. First the golden +sunlight gradually died away and the silvery light +of the moon appeared, that in its turn, after what +seemed an extraordinarily short time, giving place +to the dawn, which shows itself sometimes more +than an hour before the actual sunrise. Night on +the steppes, like the day, is also full of movement, +for many of those who travel long distances prefer +to let their horses and bullocks feed and rest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> +during the long day, when they enjoy their +pasture best, getting their own rest also at the +same time, basking in the sun, and continuing +their journey through the night, which is never +really dark.</p> + +<p>My second night out, just after midnight, I +was startled at seeing a camel come into view in +the moonlight on my right, going in the opposite +direction and dragging a small cart, but making +no sound upon the grass. It looked quite spectral +in the moonlight, and was followed by another, +and yet another; then came a bullock, then a +horse or two, one after another, then more camels, +all with carts and in single file. Not a sound +could be heard, and only at intervals men walked +beside them. It went on and on, the strange, +silent procession, and I could not think what +manner of caravan it could possibly be. All the +carts were small, carefully covered over, and +evidently had small loads, though requiring +powerful creatures to draw them; and then +all at once I understood. It was smelted copper +being taken down to the railhead from which +I had come, and from the mine to which I +was going! I then began to count how many +had still to pass me, and reckoned up a hundred +and six, so that there must have been nearly three +hundred in all. They take three months to go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> +down, load up with stores, and return, and yet I +was told that such transport was cheaper than +sending by rail will be when that part of the +government of Akmolinsk is connected with the +great Trans-Siberian line running from Petropavlosk +both to Moscow and Petrograd.</p> + +<p>Another time I should take the opportunity +afforded by a pause when changing horses in the +night to get a few hours’ sleep in the <i>tarantass</i> in +the open air, which would, of course, make all the +difference, and which would then be quite possible. +But if I had done it on this occasion I should +have had to lose a Sunday instead of arriving on +the Saturday evening. I was well repaid, for +though nothing more than a notice was sent +quickly round, “The bishop has come, and there +will be services at the manager’s house to-morrow +at half-past ten and at six, and Holy Communion +at half-past seven,” yet at half-past seven every +one of our countrymen was there and received +Communion except the wife of one member of +the staff ill in bed. The manager’s two little +boys were there to be present at the first early +Anglican celebration of Holy Communion ever +taken beyond the Urals. A beautiful <i>ikon</i>, flowers, +and two lights adorned the temporary altar. +Others than our own countrymen attended the +other services. It was a glorious day to have, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>cluding +as it did attendance at the Russian Church +in the morning when our own service was over.</p> + +<p>This great mining property includes Karagandy, +where the coal is, and to which I came first; +Spassky, where the smelting-works had been set +up, some forty miles further on; and Uspensky, +where the mine itself is, some fifty miles further +still. From Spassky I went to Uspensky by +motor-car, and spent three days there with the +foreman of the mine and his family. I went down +the mine also to make acquaintance with the +Kirghiz who are at work there, and knocked off +for myself some specimens of the rich ore.</p> + +<p>The foreman and his family—two girls and +two sons of between twenty and thirty—had been +in New Zealand, in the Backs, and it was no new +thing for them to have a bishop stay and give +them services. The wife was a particularly good +and devout woman, and in all the years she had +been there had never once had the happiness +of attending a service of her own Church. The +two young men were shy fellows, but the manager +having first prepared the way, I took them in +hand, and, finding they were ready to come to +a decision in life, instructed and confirmed them. +On these missions, as with Philip and the eunuch, +we cannot lose such opportunities; and I shall not +forget the Celebration, early on the day I left,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> +when that whole family received Communion +together. I know what a joy, such as she +had never expected, it was to that good woman +thus to have family unity; and, as she died +suddenly before the year was over, I shall always +feel that my long journey across the steppes was +fully worth while if it were only for the happiness +it had brought her in enabling her for once in her +life to receive Communion with all the members +of her family.</p> + +<p>I had another most interesting experience before +leaving Spassky and the Akmolinsk Steppes. +Some little time before my arrival, two of the +staff had lost their lives in the smelting-works +and been buried in a little plot of ground with +two monuments placed above them. One of +the memorials was of pure copper, the other +of stone, and there was a wooden railing round +the small enclosure. The manager asked me to +consecrate this little plot of ground with a larger +space added to it, so that they might have their +own little <span class="smcap">God’s</span> acre.</p> + +<p>As soon as the Russian priest heard that this +was to be done he immediately asked if he and +his people might be present and share in the +service? And to this, of course, we readily +agreed. It was impossible, however, to draw +up any joint service, as we were ignorant of each<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> +other’s language, so I arranged that he should +say a few prayers first and that I should take +our own service afterwards. This he was very +glad to do, and, robed in his vestments as for +the Liturgy, he prayed for the departed, singing +with his people, present in great numbers, +a touching little litany, and finishing with the +offering of incense. As I looked at all those +fellow Christians of ours and their priest, and +then outside at the great circle of the vast steppes +stretching away in all directions, so suggestive +of greatness of spirit, I felt most deeply moved +as I took the censer from him and, offering the +incense as he had done, led the way, censing the +boundaries of the new burial-ground marked out +by stones. Our little community followed singing, +“O <span class="smcap">God</span>, our help in ages past,” every line of +which helped us all to realize a little at least +of that large-hearted view of life and of death +which no other passage of Scripture gives us +with the directness and grandeur of Psalm xc.</p> + +<p>The people looked on at this simple little procession +with the closest attention and sympathy, +and then, after an address—an entirely new +experience for them in a religious service—I +proceeded to the consecration of the ground. +I should fancy it is the only instance, as yet, of +clergy of the two Churches actually sharing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +a service together; and that was especially in +my mind as I took the good priest’s censer to +offer, just as he had done and from the same +censer, “an oblation with great gladness,” feeling +to the full “how good and joyful it is for +brethren to dwell together in unity.” I should +say of that service also that it was quite worth +while taking that long journey across the steppes +to have it.</p> + +<p>The prevailing idea of Siberia in this country +is, as we all know, that it is a terrible waste of +ice and snow, a land of mines and of convicts, +ravaged by packs of wolves; and this is not at +all an incorrect impression of the greater part +of it and for the longest period of the year. All +that is wrong in the impression is that it leaves +out the five months of the year in which there is +the glow and charm of the tropics, with growth +and upspringing life and beauty on every hand. +The steppes are a paradise of singing birds and +blooming flowers and flowing streams, where the +air is joyous to breathe, invigorating, quickening, +and inspiriting beyond description. These are +the Siberian Steppes I have known and traversed +and loved, and long and hope to see again.</p> + +<p>But I am keenly alive to all the real and ever-present +sense of peril which the winter brings +with it as soon as it comes, and which it keeps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> +steadily before the mind till it is over for all who +have to meet it and struggle against it. I have +heard men speak of the terrible blizzards and the +appalling cold; of the deadly gloom, when the air +is so full of snow that they can hardly see a hand +before their faces, and they wander uncertainly +for a whole day and night together until they +give themselves up for lost, to find after all, when +the storm is over, that they are only a few yards +away from their own doors, or in the middle of +the street from which they had started.</p> + +<p>They instantly drop their voices on the Kirghiz +Steppes when they begin to speak of winter, and +on some faces there comes at once that beaten +look which, whenever it appears, is testimony that +the man has measured himself against the sterner +forces of Nature or of human life, and has failed.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 655px;"><a id="image023" name="image023"></a> +<img src="images/image023.png" width="655" height="404" alt="Inside a Kirghiz Uerta." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Inside a Kirghiz Uerta.</span> +</div> + +<p>Tolstoi’s <i>Master and Man</i> gives a very clear +and convincing account of what a snowstorm may +mean for even experienced travellers. There the +scene is laid in Russia, and between one village +and another in a country often traversed; but +the vast spaces of Siberia in that long, gloomy +winter must be specially fraught with dangers +and terrors during those swiftly rising and deadly +<i>boirams</i>, as the wind-storms are called, which +completely obliterate all landmarks while they +last, and which are not to be met with anywhere<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> +else in the inhabited parts of the world. At +Spassky they told me of a Kirghiz horseman +who had been found one morning, during the +preceding winter, just outside his home, horse +and rider rigid in the snow and frozen stiff, both +of them dead for hours. They had struggled +against the <i>boiram</i> as long as they could, the +man probably urging on his horse to the last, +and both giving up the struggle together as the +awful frost took possession of them, so swiftly +that there was no falling off for the one nor +sinking down for the other. And, if they had +only known it, or the blinding storm had +permitted them to see, they were at the very +door of their home and within reach of warmth +and food and shelter.</p> + +<p>I remember once saying to friends that I +supposed when travelling in winter they could +make themselves very comfortable by packing +themselves in with “hot-water foot-warmers.” +“Hot-water foot-warmers!” they exclaimed. +“Why, the frost would have them and destroy +them completely almost before we had left +the door.”</p> + +<p>Then the wolves are there also! Siberia has +not changed in that respect from the weird land +of which we have read as long as we can remember, +and is still the haunt of the most fierce and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> +untiring enemies which man and beast alike have +to fear when they are the hunters and not the +hunted. The fair Siberia of the glorious summer +knows no wolves. Then there is food +enough and to spare always within reach, and +there are homes and family life even for wolves +to think of and be happy about. There is no +need then, though they are gregarious by nature, +for them to join together. Each can fend for +himself, and have enough for all his family and +to spare. Not a wolf is to be seen except very +rarely, and the traveller never even thinks of +them with fear as, singly, sleek, and well fed, +they slink away immediately as soon as seen. It +is altogether different when winter comes, and +hunger, even famine, gets a grip upon them +because so many other creatures are hibernating. +Then the quarry must be of different character, +and nothing is too strong or big for a huge pack +well led. Once they have been driven by stern +necessity to combine together and choose their +leader they will stick at nothing and attempt +almost anything.</p> + +<p>A friend of mine, born in Petrograd, tells us +of an old travelling carriage of his father’s, in +which he and his brothers and sisters, when +children, used to play.</p> + +<p>“It was raised very high from the ground,”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +he says, “only to be reached by a small ladder, +so as to be out of the reach of wolves.”</p> + +<p>Just the same stories are told after every +winter as those of which we have so often read +in prose and verse; and, out of the many told +me as happening quite recently, I select the +following:—</p> + +<p>Three winters ago a wedding party went from +their village, in the Altai, where the ceremony +had taken place in the morning at the home +of the bride, to the village where the bridegroom +lived, and to which he was now taking back his +newly-wedded wife. They were a hundred and +twenty in number, and made a large party, with +their horses and sledges, and were not afraid; +but an unusually large pack of wolves was out +that afternoon, and, soon scenting them, gave +chase. Party after party were overtaken, pulled +down, and, with horses as well, devoured. The +bride and bridegroom and best man were in the +front sledge with good horses, and kept ahead +till they were quite close to the village, when +they too were overtaken by a few of the strongest +and swiftest of their pursuers. To save themselves +the bridegroom and best man threw out +the bride, and thus stopped the pursuit for a +time sufficiently for them to gain the village. +It was a shocking thing to do, but when the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> +villagers began to question and help them out +the awful explanation was forthcoming! The +two men had gone mad with fright, and had +not known what they were really doing. In +that terrible hunting down, with the shrieks and +despairing cries of their friends, as they were +overtaken, ever ringing in their ears as they +urged their own terror-stricken horses forward, +it is little wonder that their minds gave way.</p> + +<p>Let there be no mistake, therefore, about the +steppes. The reader may keep the new impression +(if it is new) that I have endeavoured to +give of a most beautiful, rich, and fertile country; +and which I am hoping to be visiting again while +this book is being read, finding, I hope, this +country of the wolves story rejoicing in all the +glow and beauty of summer. But still, for +nearly seven months of the year, that Siberia +is the old Siberia still, fast bound in the grip +of an appalling frost, waging, in its storms, a +never-ceasing battle against human enterprise +and effort; and the haunt of those insatiable and +savage creatures which seem to stand out from +all other creatures in being devoid, when in +packs, of all fear or dread of man.</p> + +<p>The steppes above Turkestan, which I visited +last, are milder in climate than those of Akmolinsk. +Great parts of them are sand, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> +a sage-like scrub, dear to the heart of camels; +and they have a drier and even more invigorating +air than that of the northern plains. Across +these I travelled my five hundred miles in a +Panhard motor-car, with a wild Russian chauffeur +who knew no fear. He dashed across a country +which practically had no roads and resembled a +rough Scotch moor, with an <i>élan</i> that the most +daring French chauffeur might envy. He was +a fine fellow, Boroff by name, and carried me +on as before, day and night, and again with +sunshine for the one and moonlight for the +other. “The devil’s wagon” is the name the +wondering Kirghiz have given the motor-car from +the first, but it is the last description it deserves. +My journey of under twenty-four hours from the +railhead to the Atbazar Mining Camp, if I had +had to go by camel, as I expected might be possible +until my actual arrival, would have taken me +some twelve days, or even more.</p> + +<p>All the transport in these steppes is by camels, +and I could not be satisfied until I had made +a small expedition upon one, and shall, perhaps, +have to do the same again; but modern appliances +are not to be despised, and no one can wish +for a better experience of the steppes than to +make the journey in the middle of summer and +in a good modern motor-car.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Russia’s Problem</span></h2> + + +<p>The Social Problem, as it presents itself to +thoughtful people in Russia, really demands +a book to itself. No doubt it will come before +long, and from some experienced pen. It is +only possible for me just to touch upon it +in this chapter, which one must write; or else +even this very general view of Russia’s life +of to-day would be utterly inadequate and +incomplete. And, in so doing, I shall have +to try and show how different it is in Russia +from the same problem as presented in other +countries in Europe.</p> + +<p>It is well known, for instance, that the great +question for ourselves waiting for solution at +some early date is the social question. What +was called for us the “Triple Alliance” in the +world of labour, the Union of the Railway, +Transport, and Mining Workers was completed +just before war broke out; and, though with +a patriotism beyond praise all needs and desires +of their own are put aside for the present, our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +workers will give expression to their wishes at +no distant day after peace comes. Even before +this book is in print the masses in Germany, +grimly silent so long except for the ever-increasing +votes for their socialistic representatives, +silent even during the disillusionment which +has come to them these last six months, may +have at last spoken out. We are told that +their leader, Herr Bebel, who is said to have +known the German character through and +through, declared that the first serious defeat +experienced by Germany “would produce a +miracle.” Social unrest is still universal.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 651px;"><a id="image024" name="image024"></a> +<img src="images/image024.png" width="651" height="345" alt="Russian Service at the Atbazar Mine. (See page 178.)" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Russian Service at the Atbazar Mine. (See page <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.)</span> +</div> + +<p>We find it, therefore, as we should expect +to do, in Russia; and more general, perhaps, +and more acute than at any other previous +time, just before the war was declared. This, +it may be remembered, is stated to have been +one of the reasons why the curt and hurried +ultimatum was presented at Petrograd, where +it was thought that social troubles and dangers +were so serious that it would be impossible +for the government even to think of going to +war. We have been told,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> though it was probably +not known outside Russia at that time, +what a good turn Germany really did to the +Russian government and the Russian people<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +by turning their thoughts from their own +grave difficulties to the dangers which threatened +them from without. At that time, we +are assured, not only Petrograd, but every +big manufacturing district of Russia, was shaking +with revolt of a peculiar kind, and civil +war on the point of breaking out. In Petrograd +there were barricades already erected, at +least 120,000 were on strike, tramcars had been +broken up, attacks upon the police had taken +place, factories were garrisoned in expectation of +attack, the Cossacks were everywhere—openly +in the streets, hidden away in places most +threatened. The police arrested those who were +supposed to be leaders, but it made no difference, +for the people needed no leading. They +were all so thoroughly in the movement. Indeed, +we are told, “things seemed to the +Russian government to be as bad as they +could very well be; and orders were actually +given for the severest possible repressive measures, +which would, perhaps, have involved a +large-scale battle, probably a massacre, and +certainly a state of war in the capital.” It +would have been “Red Sunday” over again, +only this time infinitely and more ominously +worse. A great calamity was narrowly escaped.</p> + +<p>Now there is this to be noticed about this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +Russian upheaval, and this social bitterness and +discontent expressing itself in the way with +which we are only too sadly familiar, and which +claims our attention as being so entirely different +from similar movements of our own. The Russian +workers made no demands, had no special +grievances nor complaints which they wished +to make known. In all strikes one has previously +heard of there has been some hardship +or injustice to bring forward, some claim or +request to urge. Here there was nothing of +the kind. “They were not on strike,” we are +told, “for higher wages. In no single case did +the men make a demand from their masters. +In no single case had a man gone on strike +because of a grievance which his master could +put right. No concessions by the masters could +have brought the men back to work. The only +answer they returned when asked why there was +a strike was that they were dissatisfied with their +lives, and that they intended to disorganize the +State until these things were altered.” It is clear, +therefore, that the social unrest, and the activity +which has so long resulted from it, have not +a very definite aim as yet. Hence the Nihilist. +He is dissatisfied, embittered, smarting under a +sense of wrong; and while he does not see +how he can put things right, feels that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +must do something, and so destroys. “That +at least will be something,” he feels, “then we +can begin again.”</p> + +<p>This, we can further see, will be the youthful +<i>student’s</i> view if dissatisfied and discontented, and +without either experience or constructive and +practical knowledge to suggest how the wrong +may be put right. Some of us, therefore, think +that Russia’s greatest social danger arises from +the <i>student</i> part of her population, and that her +great problem—a vital one for her to solve, and +soon—is how to deal fairly and wisely with them, +and, caring for them as paternally as she does +for her peasant population, incorporate them fully +and intimately into her national life.</p> + +<p>It is from the educated classes that social +unrest and discontent have proceeded in Russia, +and from them that those agents have come +who have spread wild and daring dreams of +change and revolution amongst the working +classes of the towns, and, although that has +not been so successful, amongst the peasantry +also.</p> + +<p>To some extent their socialistic ideas have +been echoes from Western Europe. I remember +being told, when I first went to Petrograd, “We +usually have your bad weather here about eight +or ten days after you, only we have it worse.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +It would seem that the rule holds good in other +ways also, for Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace +tells us, in one of his three deeply interesting +chapters on social difficulties in Russia, that +during the last two centuries all the important +intellectual movements in Western Europe have +been reflected in Russia, and that these reflections +have generally been what may fairly be +called exaggerated and distorted reflections of +the earlier socialistic movements of the West, +but with local peculiarities and local colouring +which deserve attention.</p> + +<p>He goes on to explain how the educated +classes, absorbing these ideas from abroad, just +as ideas, and not as relating to the conditions +of life in Russia as closely as in England, France, +and Germany, from which they came, have quite +naturally been less practical in the conclusions +they have drawn from them, if indeed they have +pushed their ideas to any conclusion at all. We +are shown plainly by this lucid and well-informed +writer how natural it has been for Western +Socialists to be constructive and definite in their +aims, while Russians could only be destructive. +Nihilism is made clear, and we understand its +origin, while we can equally well understand +what we are so reassuringly told about its present +decline. This does not imply necessarily that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> +Russian thinkers and workers are becoming less +socialistic in sympathy and aims, but more +practical; and that they are learning, just as the +West has taught them, that the only way in +which they can hope to advance their own views +is to use all the legal means which their government, +as it becomes ever more democratic and +constitutional, will increasingly give them.</p> + +<p>But amongst all the different classes who may +be called educated, the university students of +both sexes form the class which most claims our +sympathies, and constitutes, I consider, Russia’s +gravest problem. There are ten universities in +the empire, only one of which contains less +than 1,300 students, while the leading ones far +exceed this number—Moscow having just under +10,000, and Petrograd about 8,500. We can +hardly realize what such numbers mean for the +national life, when over 40,000 men and women +are receiving university education and being +prepared for professional careers. Over 15,000 +are studying law, nearly 10,000 are receiving a +scientific education before taking up work as +chemists, engineers, etc., another 10,000 are +studying medicine, comparatively few only being +left for the teaching profession. There are only +about a hundred divinity students.</p> + +<p>In addition to these there are Russian students<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> +in all the universities of Europe. I have never +been able to ascertain their actual numbers, but +at Geneva, Lausanne, Berne, Leipzig, Berlin, and +other great centres of education I have always +been told, not only that they were there in no +small numbers, but that they were the keenest +and most attentive of all the students in the +class, the first to come, and the last to leave, always +in the front seats, and unflagging in their attention. +They are evidently most eager to learn, +and are turned out from all the universities of +Europe and from their own, extremely well +equipped and prepared for professional work. +Then a vast number of students of this class are +pitiably poor, straining every nerve, putting up +with privations undreamed of elsewhere, in order +to get through the preparation for their life’s +work.</p> + +<p>Many of them, great numbers of them +indeed, must be miserably disappointed. Town +and city life, upon which the professional +classes must rely chiefly in seeking the means +of gaining their livelihood, has not developed +as yet in proportion to that of the agricultural +population; and certainly at nothing like the +rate which would be necessary if all those educated +and trained at the universities were to be +provided with careers and given an adequate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> +opportunity. The supply is far, far greater than +the demand.</p> + +<p>Thus we have in Russia a large class of really +competent, brainy, well qualified young graduates +of both sexes, naturally longing to take their part +in the life, work, and affairs of their country, +urged on also by their poverty to seek and even +demand it; and yet many, it seems to me sometimes +that it must be far the greater number, +must be unable to find it. Here obviously are +all the materials for a real social danger; and +students, therefore, always appear in stories of +plots and conspiracies, always fill an important +place in plays of the same kind, and are always +to the fore in tumults and demonstrations. It +must be so, for they are the one really embittered +class, and to them it must seem sometimes +that there can be no hope for them at all +in the social order as it is, and that its only +possibility for them lies in its being destroyed +and reconstructed.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 636px;"><a id="image025" name="image025"></a> +<img src="images/image025.png" width="636" height="402" alt="A Class of Russian Students with their Teachers." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A Class of Russian Students with their Teachers.</span> +</div> + +<p>In many of our centres of work abroad we +have a <i>foyer</i> where the foreign students can meet, +and at Geneva last year with great difficulty we +had opened a hostel for Russian students when +the war broke out. There one heard the most +touching stories of their poverty, and yet of their +pride and independence, and also of the special<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> +temptations to which their poverty exposed them. +Some landlords, for instance, are not slow to tell +girls that they would live better and more cheaply +if they would temporarily “keep house” with +one of the young men students, and occupy one +room! Our hostel was hurried on last year as +we heard of many instances of this kind, and a +generous friend in Petrograd helped me very +largely in finding the money. Everything was +to be supplied at cost price, and no profits were +to be made, the two English ladies in charge +giving their services. There was a restaurant +also which supplied good food at very moderate +rates, and how moderate may be judged from +the charge made for afternoon tea of a halfpenny! +It consisted of a cup of tea and a small roll of +bread without butter.</p> + +<p>The first time I saw how cheaply the foreign +students at Geneva lived was one festival evening +when they invited me to supper, and when we +had chicken salad with bread and butter followed +by dessert, tea, and coffee, for which the charge +was about fivepence each. The year after that I +entertained them in return and gave them a +Christmas party at which there were fourteen +nationalities present, mainly Slav. Nothing +could have been more interesting than that +gathering, nor could any host have had more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +grateful guests. Last year the Noel Fest could +not be held as there were no students; but I +hope next Christmas may possibly see the war +over, and that we may have a Slav evening party +in Geneva once again.</p> + +<p>It may be well to mention here how there +comes to be a <i>foyer</i> or club for Russians and other +students at Geneva. It is a part of the organization +connected with the World Student Christian +Federation, which had its beginning in the +eighties in the United States of America, as a +movement to promote an interest in missionary +work amongst students. In 1887 a deputation +came over to this country to tell the student +world what was going on across the Atlantic, +and the student foreign missionary union was +the result. Next the Christian Student Movement +extended itself into all our European +countries, and finally the World’s Federation was +accomplished at Wadstena Castle in Sweden in +1895. It is directed by a committee consisting +of two representatives from each national movement, +with Mr. John R. Mott, so well known, +as its general secretary. Its operations now +extend into all the leading countries of the world. +There is a biennial conference, and it is admitted +that one of the most interesting of any yet +held was the one at Constantinople in 1911,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> +which was attended by patriarchs representing +all the Orthodox Churches of the East. It is not +an undenominational movement, but exactly the +opposite—a call rather to all the Churches of the +world to be consistent in their Christian profession +and “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith +they are called.” It is not a society nor +a religious body, but a movement or union, and its +basis, to be accepted by all its voluntary members +and officers, is the declaration, “I desire, in joining +this Union, to declare my faith in <span class="smcap">Jesus Christ</span> as +my Saviour, my <span class="smcap">Lord</span>, and my <span class="smcap">God</span>.” There is no +reason why any Christian in the world should not +join it. Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, +and members of other Churches the world over +can have no possible difficulty in making such +a simple declaration if there is any reality at all +in their sense of membership in <span class="smcap">Christ’s</span> Church; +and there is every reason <i>why</i> a Christian student +should join a movement which is the only one +of its kind to aim at work for <span class="smcap">Christ</span> in those +places where it is most urgently and sorely +needed, and where it is most likely to be truly +fruitful—the universities and colleges of the +world.</p> + +<p>There we have to-day those who have to lead +and guide and guard the course of the whole +world to-morrow. It is in the universities of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> +the world that some of those influences which +are most hostile and inimical to true social well-being +are first set in motion, and it is there most +certainly that we must begin if we wish to see +the world made better and won for <span class="smcap">God</span>. The +war has made us long, I hope, for better things +in a way the world has never dreamt of before, +because there has never been anything in all +history which has so focussed attention for the +watching world upon a simple and direct question +of right and wrong. The issue is even more +momentous and significant than that. This +great question of righteousness and unrighteousness +must be answered by every one in the +world according to his belief or unbelief. It is +just a question for us all to settle whether our +own interests, individual or national, or our duty +to <span class="smcap">God</span> comes first. The issue has never been +more simply stated, and the Church of <span class="smcap">Christ</span> +has never in all her history had such a magnificent +opportunity of giving her message, and +proclaiming her mission. I hope, therefore, that +all my readers will take an early opportunity of +learning all they can about the Christian Student +Movement, and satisfy themselves as to its fitness +for helping the whole Church of <span class="smcap">Christ</span> to avail +herself to the full of this <span class="smcap">God</span>-given opportunity +and possibility.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> + +<p>A <i>foyer</i> is a necessary centre for students +wherever a branch of the movement has been +formed, and it would be difficult to speak too +warmly of its value for its members. I have +mentioned this movement here, briefly enough, +I fear, of necessity, because I should think there +is no place where it is more needed, nor, as far +as I can judge, more likely to continue to succeed, +than in Russia. In Petrograd there are already +a number of influential and wealthy Russians +deeply interested in its work amongst the men +students. They include a near relation of the +Emperor, and the work is directed by a number +of extremely competent and earnest Americans. +I had an opportunity of meeting and addressing +them when in Petrograd a year ago.</p> + +<p>The work amongst the girl and women students +is being carried forward very quietly by our own +country-women, who are full of hope. But up to +the present a great deal of caution and wisdom has +had to be exercised, both because the authorities +have so long been accustomed to look suspiciously +at anything which seemed to promote associations +amongst students, and because students +themselves, for reasons already given, have +naturally looked askance at anything which was +obviously working in the direction of law and +order. The movement, more and more, it will be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> +seen, is one of the soundest of modern efforts +in the direction of real social improvement, +because it begins at the right end, with those +who are thinking and pondering life’s problems +before launching out to try their best to solve +them. Nowhere has it been more needed, as +I have said, than in Russia, and nowhere has +it made a better start. The hopeful thing about +Russia just now is that <i>every one</i> is most keenly +and profoundly interested in the social well-being +of the people—on the one hand anxious to +obtain it more fully for themselves, and on the +other really wishful to give and promote it, +even if watchful and cautious lest they should +make mistakes and have to draw back.</p> + +<p>And surely caution is very necessary in Russia. +It is only a little over fifty years since the +emancipation of the serfs. Let any one think +of Russia with a servile population so short a +time ago, and then think of what she is to-day, +and they will form some idea of the extraordinary +social improvement and transformation which +has taken place. Yet with all this caution the +desire to see improvement is general, and no one +is satisfied with the lives of the working-classes +in the large towns as they are. It is well known +indeed, as I have already said, that Russia has +been absorbed in plans for social improvement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> +for the last few years, and was meaning to launch +out into great undertakings this very year. +Those plans are only deferred, we hope, and +will be taken up with greater zest and confidence +than ever when peace comes. Perhaps the delay +will prove to have been an inestimable gain, if +it has made it clearer than before that there are +certain examples it might be well to avoid. A +great deal has been said and written of late years +of the vast superiority of German municipal +government and organization, and certainly no +cities in Europe approach those of Germany for +attractiveness and excellence of arrangements as +to streets, parks, public buildings, and imposing +blocks of flats for private families of all classes. +Germans have been for many years now animated +by the very best spirit of municipal initiative +and responsibility, and have shown a really worthy +civic pride. Railway stations, post offices, walks, +and squares in Germany are beyond comparison +with those of any other country. And yet I am +assured that much is sacrificed for effect and +appearance; and I was astonished to hear, a little +while ago, how miserably inadequate was the +accommodation that even a skilled artisan in +Berlin could afford to have.</p> + +<p>A well-known social authority, Mr. T. C. +Horsfall, writing in the <i>Spectator</i> last December,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> +told us that there is terrible overcrowding in +nearly all large German towns, and that the +overcrowded tall blocks of buildings are themselves +too closely crowded together, and the +effect is bad both for health and morality. The +death-rate, including that of infants, is much +higher with them than with us. And I cannot +help thinking that the effect of giving families +only two rooms and a small scullery, one living-room +and one bedroom for all, must have its +effect upon the morality of a population. Whatever +the cause, we are told that in Berlin 17 +per cent. of the births are registered as illegitimate, +in Munich as many as 28 per cent., in +Vienna over 40 per cent., while in London they +are only 5 per cent.</p> + +<p>“The effect on German town populations,” +Mr. Horsfall states, “especially on the poorer +inhabitants of Berlin, of the conditions existing +in German towns is described in an appeal made +in or about the year 1886 by Professor Schmoller +to his fellow-countrymen to deal adequately and +promptly with those conditions. The appeal has +been reprinted in an important Report published +in 1911 by Dr. Werner Hegemann:</p> + +<blockquote><p class="small">‘The circumstances are so terrible that one can only +wonder that the consequences have not been even worse. +Only because a large part of these poor people have brought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +from their earlier life a store of good habits, of religious +tradition, of decent feeling, into these dens, has the worst +not yet been reached. But the children and young people +who are now growing up in these holes must necessarily +lose the virtues of economy, domesticity, family life, and all +regard for law and property, decency, and good habits. He +who has no proper dwelling, but only a sleeping-place, must +fall a victim to the public-house and to drink.... The +community to-day is forcing the lower strata of the factory +proletariat of large towns by its dwelling conditions with +absolute necessity to fall back to a level of barbarism and +bestiality, of savagery and rowdiness, which our forefathers +hundreds of years ago had left behind them. I maintain +that there lies the greatest danger for our civilization.’”</p></blockquote> + +<p>With such examples as this before her we +must trust that Russia will set about promoting +the social well-being of her people with all her +characteristic independence, and determine that in +their housing she will have only those “great +spaces” which are her characteristic features in so +many other ways. We have to tread this same +road of social reform also when the war is over, +and it is good to think that we may, perhaps, +be able to take it, just as we have carried on the +war, without any party questions or party spirit +connected with it, as will be the case also in +Russia. It is even more inspiring to think, again +let me say it, that we and our new friend may +tread this path together: comparing notes and +making plans together as we go. That would be +indeed an <i>Entente</i> worth the name, when it was not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> +in order that we might make war together, only +that we had come to an agreement, but that we +might help each other’s peoples in all the arts of +peace. Mr. Baring tells us that he was once +drinking tea with a Russian landowner who calls +himself a moderate liberal, and when, in their +conversation, the Anglo-Russian agreement was +mentioned, he exclaimed (and I have no doubt +he expressed the feelings of many others who +desire the social good of Russia as he did so), +“This is the most sensible thing the Russian +government has done for the last forty years!”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 610px;margin-bottom:1em;"><a id="image026" name="image026"></a> +<img src="images/image026.png" width="610" height="393" alt="The English Church of S. Andrew, at Moscow, with the Parsonage." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The English Church of S. Andrew, at Moscow, with the Parsonage.</span> +</div> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> “Anglitchanin” in <i>The Contemporary Review</i>, Nov., 1914.</p></div> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> + + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">The Anglican Church in Russia</span></h2> + + +<p>I welcome the opportunity that this chapter +affords me of defining the position taken +by our Church in Russia, for it is just the same +there as in Germany, France, Belgium, and the +other countries in our jurisdiction. Many English +Churchmen deprecate, while others strongly +resent, our having clergy, churches, and services +on the Continent of Europe at all. They +consider it an interference with the Church of +the country, schismatical in its character, and a +hindrance and impediment to the reunion of +Christendom. Some English clergy come, therefore, +into the jurisdiction of North and Central +Europe from their own parishes, and though +their own Church may have its services there, +ostentatiously attend the services of the Roman +Catholic Church. Young men coming out for +business, girls taking positions as nurses and +governesses, and others coming for health and +enjoyment, are sometimes advised by their +clergy not to go near the English Church, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> +to attend Mass and “worship with the people +of the country.”</p> + +<p>What, I fancy, many of our brethren at home, +clergy and laity alike, fail very often to realize +is the great difference between a temporary +and permanent residence abroad. Many of us +know what it is to spend a holiday in some +simple and beautiful village—in the Black +Forest, for instance—amongst devout and good +people, far away from one’s own Church, and +where it is just as natural as anything can be, +and completes the friendly feeling between us, +to go to church on Sunday and worship with +them. Even in an unfamiliar service we have +our own Prayer Books, and can read Collect, +Epistle, and Holy Gospel, and be in spirit +and touch with our brethren worshipping in +their own churches all over the world.</p> + +<p>There is something to be said, therefore, for +sharing the worship of the people of the place +when passing through or making but a short stay, +though, even in holiday resorts or “Sports +centres,” the opportunities which our Church, +chaplain, and services offer are too precious +and important to be lost or undervalued. +But there is nothing whatever to be said for +leaving a community of our own countrymen, +permanently resident in another land, without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> +the ministrations of their own Church, if they +can possibly be supplied to them; and still less +if, as in Russia and some other places, the people +can find the means of support themselves.</p> + +<p>Will any of our brethren seriously maintain +that, when families have to leave this country +and go to live on the Continent of Europe, +they must leave their own Church and be +received into the Roman or Greek Communion? +Or, if not, will they consider that they ought +to frequent the services of those Churches as +outsiders, never having the experiences and helps +afforded by the sacramental means of grace? It +must be one or the other. If abroad we are not +to attend the services of our own Church, then +the only alternative is either to leave it altogether +or to live the maimed spiritual life of those who +are without the ministry of the Word and Sacraments.</p> + +<p>And, moreover, if it is thought that one of +the pressing duties of our time is to follow our +brethren across the ocean to Canada, though even +there the Roman Church claims to be the +“Church of the country” in its French-speaking +territory, and to give them the ministrations of +religion, why are we not to follow them across +the Channel, when they leave their country for +precisely the same reason, to extend its business<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> +and commercial influence and to serve its interests +in diplomatic, consular, and professional life? To +think at all carefully over the situation is to see +at once that our people in North and Central +Europe have just the same rights (and I don’t +ask for anything more than that) to the services +of their own Church as anywhere else in the +world.</p> + +<p>Take, for instance, this typical case of a friend +of mine living in one of the cities of Europe, and +now retired from business, but still living on +where he is so well known, and where he has +many ways of making himself of use. He was +married young, and his bride went with him to +make her home abroad. They had their own +Church there, and there they took their children +to be baptized and, when old enough, to worship, +be confirmed, and become communicants. There +those children have been married, and from there +gone out into the world to make new homes. +In his house the clergy have been always made +welcome, and have visited them when sick, +counselled them when necessary, and received +much valuable advice in return. Can any one +be heartless enough, or foolish enough, to say +that there ought to have been no English Church +in that place at all, and that he and his young +wife ought to have attended the Church of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +country, and with their descendants been lost to +their own?</p> + +<p>Then there are girls at school, young men +learning the language, governesses, nurses, lads +in the training stables, girls dancing on the stage—these +are well shepherded in Paris—and others. +Are they to feel in after life, “Just at the critical +time, when I needed it most, my Church was not +there to give me the helping hand—and all might +have been so different if it had been!” I will not +dwell upon all the priceless opportunities afforded +us abroad, where touch is more quickly gained, +and more easily maintained, of winning during +sickness and at other times those who have never +been in touch with clergy or Church at home, +bringing them out into the light, gaining them for +the Church, and sending them home to “strengthen +the brethren” there.</p> + +<p>Most of our clergy, from Northern Russia to +Southern France and the Pyrenees, have their +inspiriting stories to tell of the services they +have rendered to the Church at home in this way, +and yet that Church, if some of our brethren +could have their way, would disown them. It +won’t bear seriously thinking of, this objection to +English Church work abroad; and surely it rings +more true to what we feel is the Englishman’s +duty wherever he is, when we read that our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +countrymen, after settling at Archangel in the +sixteenth century, built their warehouses and +their Church at the same time, and wished, in +their adopted country, to worship <span class="smcap">God</span> “after the +manner of their fathers.”</p> + +<p>I have taken a little time to explain our continental +position thus, because it is the same in +every country, is thoroughly understood, and +never, as far as I know, resented. We always +make it perfectly clear that we never wish to +interfere with the Church of the country, nor the +religion of its people, but are there to shepherd +our own. And it is a curious thing that in +Catholic Belgium, as it is called, with people +devoted to their Church, and with a clerical +government such as they have had for at least +the last forty years, our Anglican clergy receive +from the Belgian government the same recognition, +status, stipends, grants for houses, etc., as +are given to the clergy of the country.</p> + +<p>But nowhere is the position of our Church +more fully, sympathetically or affectionately +recognized than in Russia. Nowhere would it +be felt, as there, a grave and responsible neglect +of duty on our part if we were to leave our own +people without the ministrations of their own +Church. They go further than this in sympathetic +feeling, for they consider that there is a special<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> +link and bond of union between our Church and +their own. An anonymous but evidently extremely +well-informed writer about Russia, over +the <i>nom de plume</i> of “Anglitchanin” in a leading +Review<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> a month or two ago, said, in the course +of his article on <i>Russia and the War</i>, “the English +Church is said to be very like the Greek Orthodox. +It is not so in fact, but in Russia it is believed +to be so by <i>all classes of the population</i>. That +is indeed the one thing about England that they +all know. I have known more than one peasant +ask me, ‘Is England beyond Germany—far? or +beyond Siberia? But your religion is like ours.’</p> + +<p>“The origin of this belief,” he adds, “is to be +found in the fact that we are not Lutherans on +the one side, and on the other do not acknowledge +the Pope.”</p> + +<p>They welcome our bishops and clergy to their +services in their robes, and attend ours in the +same way. When the late Duke of Edinburgh +married the daughter of the Emperor Alexander, +the service took place first in the cathedral with +the Russian rite, with Dean Stanley present in +his robes, and then a second time in the English +Church with our own service, with the Russian +clergy present in the sanctuary. The Bishop of +London also loves to describe his reception at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> +the great Troitsky Monastery near Moscow, +where he attended the services in cope and +mitre, and with pastoral staff, and was greeted +by all the clergy present as one of their own +bishops; and the last time I heard him describe +the beautiful ceremonial, he added significantly, +“I should not have been received in that way at +S. Peter’s, Rome”; but who can say what may +be the outcome of this war? There has been a +wonderful drawing together of the French and +English clergy, and perhaps we may soon have +more brotherly relations with the Roman clergy, +even though we do not have inter-communion.</p> + +<p>When four of our English bishops went to +Russia with a large party of Members of Parliament +and business men, three years ago, the +chaplain at Petrograd arranged a choral celebration +of Holy Communion in his church, and it +was attended by some of the highest dignitaries +of the Russian Church, who were present in their +robes and took part in the procession, following +the service as closely and intelligently as they +could. No clergy of our Church have ever gone +to Russia to learn what they could for themselves, +or give lectures, or act as members of deputations, +and come into touch with the Orthodox clergy +and been disappointed with their reception; but, +on the contrary, they have often been quite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +astonished at the warmth of welcome offered +them and the keen interest shown towards them.</p> + +<p>I had no idea until I had read what the <i>Contemporary +Review</i> has told us that there is nothing +so well known about England, throughout <i>all +classes</i> of the population, as the similarity of the +two Churches and the religion they represent; +but I can speak for the archbishops, bishops, and +clergy, that they have a real knowledge of the +Church of England and the character of its services, +and a very sincere wish to be on friendly +and brotherly terms with its members, clergy and +laity alike. And I do not think there is one of +them who would not consider it a great compliment +and most kind attention if any English +Churchman called upon him to pay his respects +and show interest in his church and work.</p> + +<p>Their keen interest in our Church all over the +empire, even in a humble little village, is extraordinarily +different from the almost complete +ignorance and indifference which prevails amongst +our own countrymen as to theirs, except amongst +the members of one or two societies founded to +bring the two Churches into more real unity of +spirit.</p> + +<p>However, this, like so many other things, is to +be entirely changed. We are going to see and +know more than we have ever done before of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> +way in which “God is working His purpose +out” in His Church, as we are being brought into +intelligent sympathy with a simply overwhelming +part of Christendom, as represented by the +Orthodox Church of Russia and the other +Churches of the East.</p> + +<p>Will there be many English Churchmen who +will not be most deeply moved when they read +that the first <i>Te Deum</i>, after all these centuries, +has been sung in St. Sophia, in Constantinople? +It will be a most inspiring thing too to hear that +the whitewash, always peeling off, which covers +up the mosaic picture of our <i>Lord</i>, has been +cleared away, and He is shown looking down in +blessing while the Holy Communion is once more +celebrated in the great Church of Justinian.</p> + +<p>We are all praying that <i>God</i> will bring good +out of evil, and overcome evil with good, as this +war draws on to its close, and many of us from +time to time think of the “good” it will be for +humanity if a more united Christian Church can +be one of its first results. “Who will not pray?” +said Mr. W. J. Birkbeck, the one English layman +who knows Russia, its people, and its Church as +few Englishmen or even Russians know them, +when addressing a great gathering in London +last year, “that this terrible conflict in which we +are engaged will bring the Eastern and English<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +Churches closer to one another? We are mindful +of the considerable advances which have +already been made in that direction, and of +the ever-increasing friendship which has arisen +between the English and Russian Churches of +late years, and more especially during the twenty +years’ reign of the Emperor Nicholas II. It is +known that even in the earliest years of his reign +His Majesty more than once expressed his wish +that the two Churches should get to know one +another more closely, and that this was the best +way to draw the two nations together. It is +known too that Queen Victoria, when she was +told of this, said, ‘Yes, it is not only the best way, +it is the only sure way.’ The visits of Anglican +bishops at various times have all tended to promote +good feeling and mutual understanding, +as did also the visit to England of the late +Archbishop Antonius of Finland, afterwards +Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, on the occasion +of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. The +question of the reunion of our two Churches is +one that cannot be forced or rushed; it will +never be brought about by compromises, or by +diplomatic shams. It will only come about when +the two Churches, after coming fully to know +one another, find that both of them hold the +whole of that Faith which each of them, and not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +one only, and all its members, and not some +only, hold to be essential.”</p> + +<p>I hope it will not be uninteresting now if, as +they are not many in number, I describe briefly the +places where English Church work is carried on +in Russia, and give some characteristic service at +each.</p> + +<p>At Petrograd the British Church, with the +parsonage, library, and a number of other suites +of rooms, is a great block of buildings, formerly +a palace, owned and maintained by the British +Factory, and with a staff of three clergy. The +church is the former ballroom of the palace, and +is a classical basilica, with rows of Greek pillars +and capitals, and a very impressive place of +worship. If I single out one of the beautiful +services I have known I shall choose the Evensong +on the Feast of the Epiphany last year, +when I preached on the last day of my stay, and +had what one might call a Sunday congregation. +It was grand to see that large congregation on a +weekday, so far away from home.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 639px;"><a id="image027" name="image027"></a> +<img src="images/image027.png" width="639" height="373" alt="The Bishop and Russian Chauffeur in the midst of the Steppes on the way to Atbazar." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Bishop and Russian Chauffeur in the midst of the Steppes on the way to Atbazar.</span> +</div> + +<p>Three other places are served from Petrograd—Helsingfors, +Narva, and Schlusselberg. Helsingfors +has a small community of girls engaged +in teaching and nursing, and the one Englishman +who lives there with his wife, a Mr. Reid, is a +Professor of English in the Finn University.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +One has to go there and return during the night, +and during my day there I had a Confirmation in +the Art School, most carefully and reverently +prepared, and in the evening Mr. and Mrs. Reid +had all the girls for a reception, at which I was +able to chat with them individually and speak +to them about the important and responsible +trust they had in being allowed to lay the foundations +of character in young lives. At midnight +they were all on the station to say good-bye, +bright English girls with sparkling eyes and +happy faces. Who could not go away deeply +thankful that they were not allowed to feel in +that remote place that they were forgotten by +their Church?</p> + +<p>Narva is a great manufacturing community +with a large staff of Englishmen, also a long +journey away, and it so happens that they are +nearly all Nonconformists there, but they value +our services, and enjoyed mine with them, followed +as it was by a special evening of music and +recitations, about sixty being present.</p> + +<p>Schlusselberg is a large factory for printing +cotton goods for Asia, half a day’s journey up +the Neva, where we always have an evening +service followed by Holy Communion next +morning. It is the only place I have yet known +where all the community, about forty, have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> +present at the evening service, and next morning +been <i>all</i> present again as communicants, but with +one added to their number, a man who had been +away the night before.</p> + +<p>Moscow has a church and parsonage and large +courtyard, as will be seen in the illustration; +almost startlingly like, it seems in that ancient +capital, to a bit of a London suburb. But as I +saw it on Christmas Eve last year it was Russian +enough, the great courtyard was full of <i>troikas</i> +and sledges, and the clear air musical with tinkling +bells as the people came driving in from far and +near, clad in warm furs, for the service. That +Christmas Eve, with its carols and the old hymns, +helped one to realize what it means to have an +English church and clergyman in a community +like that of Moscow. The chaplain conducts all +the services, does all the work of the community, +and visits over a large neighbourhood outside, +single-handed.</p> + +<p>Warsaw is the next capital to take, much before +us of late, and perhaps with a great place yet to +fill in future history. It is the centre of Christian +work amongst the Russian Jews, as I shall have +to explain more at length in my next chapter; +but there is also a British community to whom +the chaplain ministers, and which perhaps numbers, +all told, about a hundred, with one or two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> +outlying places reckoned in. The service I +remember most at Warsaw, and shall always +associate with it, was the dedication or consecration—the +two abroad mean the same thing—of +their church. We had it on a Sunday morning, +with a very large congregation, and very impressive +it was to take, so far away, as our little +copies of the service told us, “The Order of +Consecration as used in the Diocese of London.” +There were some Old Catholics present, and they +were deeply impressed with the scriptural character +of a service which carried us back to the days +of David and Solomon. I dare say it was true of +all there, as one of them said, that they had never +seen the consecration of a church of their own +before, and had had to come to Russia for it +when they did.</p> + +<p>We have only two other places in our jurisdiction—as +the shores of the Black Sea fall to the +Diocese of Gibraltar—Libau and Riga.</p> + +<p>Libau is a Baltic port in Courland, a German-speaking +place, where there is an extremely small +British community, but where there are a fair +number of British ships in the course of the year. +The establishment consists of two flats side by +side, one of which supplies the chaplain and his +wife with a comfortable home; and the other, +which communicates with it, provides an institute,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> +with papers and a billiard-table, etc., for the +sailors, and a beautiful little chapel opening out +of it. When last there we had a reception, or +social, in the institute, followed by a service; after +which we came back into the institute, and I had +a talk with the seamen and apprentices and one +or two young fellows in the business houses. +I need not ask the reader if he thinks that little +church ought to be there or not.</p> + +<p>Riga is a great port, also on the Baltic, and its +beautiful church, with a great spire, is close to +the banks of the river. It has a splendid +position and is tremendously appreciated and +well supported by a fairly large and prosperous +community. The service to mention here was +my Confirmation on the Russian Whitsun Day +last year but one. Every one comes to a Confirmation +abroad, and it was to us at Riga a real +anniversary of the great gift of the <span class="smcap">Holy Spirit</span>. +It was in the afternoon, and we had had the +Holy Communion at eight and Morning Service +at eleven as at home—but the Confirmation was +at three, and was <i>the</i> service of the day.</p> + +<p>It makes a great difference when a large congregation +can really be brought to pray during +the short space of silence usually kept for the +purpose. They most certainly prayed that afternoon +at Riga, and many told me in touching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> +language what an experience it had been to +them. These are <i>great</i> opportunities abroad. +A man in middle life told me once, also abroad, +what the confirmation of his daughter had been +to him that day after he had been led specially +to pray in the service; and he added, “I’ve +never been at a Confirmation before this since +my own at Charterhouse, and I can only wish +that it had meant more to me at the time.”</p> + +<p>There is one other place to mention, the port +which is historic for us in more senses than one +just now—Archangel. It is not actually upon +the White Sea, but a little distance up the Dvina, +and is frequented by a good number of British +ships in the summer when the sea there is free +from ice. There is a church and a rectory, but +no community at all, and so the Russia Company +send a chaplain there for the summer months to +visit the men aboard ship and hold services for +them ashore.</p> + +<p>The Anglican Church in Russia, therefore, for +I have described every place in which it is at +work, is not a very large community, but I can +claim that it is zealous, earnest, efficient, and +thoroughly representative, and I feel sure that +it will be admitted that it is doing a real and +good work for Russia as well as for ourselves. +I have often brought home to myself the real<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> +significance of an interest or influence by asking +myself what I should do without it. And +if one only just thinks, “What would our +countrymen do in Russia? how would they hope +to knit up real and lasting ties, if their Church +were not there?” there would be, to my mind, +no answer which could be adequately expressed +in words.</p> + +<p>I hope to be able, when the war is over, to +appoint a chaplain whose work it shall be +to travel over those great spaces in European +and Siberian Russia and visit very small communities +where it is impossible for a permanent +chaplain to find enough to do.</p> + +<p>These will rapidly increase now as the country +and its people become better known to us. The +first Church of England Service ever taken in +Siberia is a very good instance to give of such +opportunities. It was in 1912, at Ekaterinburg, +just beyond the Urals, and in the government +of Perm, a large and growing town of 80,000 +people, where our British community is represented +almost entirely by one family named +Yates, paper manufacturers, whose first mill was +built there fifty years ago. It now consists of +Mr. and Mrs. Yates, their brothers, children, +and grandchildren.</p> + +<p>Ekaterinburg is a distributing centre for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +Bible Society, and their agent—earnest, energetic, +and capable—is one of the best-known and +respected Englishmen in Siberia. He it was +who had prepared for my coming, arranged for +me to stay with Mr. and Mrs. Yates, and invited +every one within reach—“I’ve sounded the big +drum,” he said—and with governesses, English +wives of Russians, a young fellow and his wife +teaching roller-skating, and one or two others—some +having travelled long distances to get there—we +must have numbered about thirty in all. +They prepared a little temporary altar in the +large drawing-room, with an <i>ikon</i>, flowers, etc., +and we had Holy Communion, a morning and +evening service, our dinner and supper together, +and a priceless experience of the unity which +thankfulness and fellowship always bring with +them when realized in common prayer and +worship.</p> + +<p>From Ekaterinburg I went a day’s journey to +another town, in a part of the country to which +very few English travellers ever go, and there the +small community consisted of one family only, +though they were three generations. We were +only a dozen altogether, and some might think +it was hardly worth taking up a bishop’s time for +three days to go and see one family. But the +head of that family had been there between forty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +and fifty years, and never had our Church’s +service during that time, nor received Communion. +The grandchildren had never seen or +heard the service before, and they were the +children of a Russian father, attending a Russian +school. I made my address simple so that they +could understand it, knowing that the others +could if the children did, and I had one or two +opportunities of conversation with them, which +they greatly welcomed. Late at night I left, all +the party accompanying me to the station to see +me off; and after we had said, “Good-bye,” +and they had left, the mother of those children +came back quietly and said:—</p> + +<p>“Bishop, I felt I must come back just to tell +you this. In the winter, after having tried so +long to keep my boy and girl English in their +ideas, I felt hopeless and gave up the struggle; +but I want you to know that in the service +to-day I’ve had the strength and courage given +me to begin again.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 653px;"><a id="image028" name="image028"></a> +<img src="images/image028.png" width="653" height="453" alt="The British Community at Atbazar, Siberia, after Morning Service during the Bishop’s Visit." +title="" /> +<span class="caption">The British Community at Atbazar, Siberia, after Morning Service during the Bishop’s Visit. +</span> +</div> + +<p>Is it not worth while to have a travelling +chaplain go about and find such experiences as +that waiting for him in many places? Can +any one possibly think that those who have to +live on the Continent of Europe, because of +some fanciful ideas of intrusion upon the jurisdiction +of another Church, should be deprived<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +of the services of their own, and find, as they +inevitably do find, that they are ever accepting +for themselves a lowered standard and a +dimmer ideal?</p> + +<p>I remember a girl whom I had confirmed in +Switzerland coming at a later visit to tell me +that, after six months of happy life as a communicant, +she had begun to “fall away,” and +now seemed to have “lost all interest.” What +was she to do? On being questioned, it appeared +that at the end of those six months she had gone +to stay with a family in the country, where there +was no English church within any possible distance, +and she said:—</p> + +<p>“I missed the services at first, but I <i>found +gradually that I could do without them</i>; and +so I grew not to mind.” I advised her, +wherever she was in future, when not able +to attend a service, carefully to use the Communion +Office at eight o’clock, and think of all +those who were in church, and realize her unity +with them, and reverently and slowly think over +all the special parts of the service, and she would +find herself eager enough to go to church at the +usual time when opportunity again presented +itself, as she would have wished every time she +was reading the service that she was having the +complete experience. She would not “find that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> +she could do without it.” Spiritual things are +spiritually discerned. And if we drop away +from those means of grace which help us to be +spiritually minded, there will certainly in time +be little, if any, spiritual experiences to show.</p> + +<p>This chapter is not, like the others, concerned +with Russian people and affairs; but I have +ventured to write it because without it English +Churchmen would not be able to understand +fully the influence we are exercising upon Russian +life and thought even now, and which, in far +fuller measure, we are expecting to exercise in +the time to come.</p> + +<p>The Duma (I was assured in 1911 when +calling at the Ministry of the Interior in +Petrograd) have been preparing a Bill for +some time to give the Anglican Church in +Russia a legal status and recognition such as +it has never yet had! We shall be glad and +thankful enough to have it, but I am far more +happy and grateful in the thought of the real +<i>spiritual</i> influence our Church possesses and exercises, +even without that legal status, both in the +permanent chaplaincies and in those distant places +visited from time to time.</p> + +<p>Just as in its legislation, it is not so much the +law as it stands which determines the state of +things social in Russia, as the trend and aim and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> +purpose of every new enactment, and the present +actual life of the people. All that is in one +direction in Russia. Government becomes ever +more and more constitutional. It is the same +with respect to religious life and prospects. +There has been no change whatever in the actual +formal and legal relations of the Russian and +Anglican Churches; but surely and evidently, +in sympathy, mutual knowledge, regard, and +respect, every year, they are drawing more +closely and affectionately together.</p> + +<p>I cannot close this chapter without expressing +my deep and grateful appreciation of the help +and support given to our work by the Russia +Society. It is no longer a trading company but +still possesses large funds and, it seems to me, +they must all be spent in support of our Anglican +Church in Russia. It is impossible even to think +of what that work would be without the help +given to us by the Russia Society, and the +British Factory in Petrograd.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>Contemporary Review</i>, November, 1914.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">The Jews</span></h2> + + +<p>The Jewish question was the first of many +I was called upon to consider after crossing +the Russian frontier, for my first service within +the empire was the Confirmation of a Jew. He +was of the educated class, and particularly attractive; +and as he bowed low over my hand and +kissed it with a singular grace of manner the +western part of Europe seemed already far +away. It was at Warsaw, where, as at Cracow—the +ancient capital of Poland—the Jews form +a larger and more influential part of the population +than in any other European city. It will +surprise many, no doubt, to hear that, though the +Anglican Church has no <i>legal</i> status as yet, our +chaplain at Warsaw has the sole and exclusive +right of baptizing those Jews who are Russian +subjects, and wish to be received into the Christian +Church. <i>Any</i> Jew who wishes to become a +Christian, if in the Russian Empire, must go to +Warsaw and receive Baptism from the Anglican +chaplain, maintained there for many years by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> +London Society for Promoting Christianity among +the Jews.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 435px;"><a id="image029" name="image029"></a> +<img src="images/image029.png" width="435" height="600" alt="The Archbishop of Warsaw." title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Archbishop of Warsaw.</span> +</div> + +<p>This young Russian, with his wife, had travelled +a great distance for his Baptism and Confirmation, +and, if I remember rightly, was leaving +Russia in the course of time. He was able, +therefore, to receive Confirmation in our own +Church, although Russian subjects, if Jewish, +on receiving Baptism from us—it is a strange +anomaly that we hope will soon cease—are +expected to choose whether they will next be +received into the communion of the Lutheran, +Roman Catholic, or Orthodox Churches. None +of these, of course, attract them after receiving +instruction and Baptism in our own Church, and, +on that account, no doubt, many of them have +reverted again to their old religion.</p> + +<p>The passport system in Russia is an admirable +and comprehensive one, and as soon as a Hebrew +Christian abandons his Faith and returns to +Judaism, he is required by law to report it at +once to the local authority, in order that his +passport may be altered; and on his doing so +a notice is at once dispatched to our chaplain at +Warsaw that a pen is to be drawn through his +name in the baptismal register. It was painfully +affecting to turn over the pages of that register, +and see those ominous-looking lines drawn from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +top to bottom of various entries. One could not +see anything like it anywhere else, I suppose. +It carried the mind back to the early days of +the Faith, and to that sad class known as the +<i>lapsi</i> (“lapsed”); to the lament over Demas, +who had forsaken S. Paul and gone back to the +world; and to such promises as “I will not blot +out his name from the book of life.”</p> + +<p>There is much in the work at Warsaw to take +one back thus in spirit to the days of the Apostles. +One felt it a little at the Confirmation itself, +when saying the sentence which accompanies +the laying on of hands, first in German for +the young Jew, and then in English for the +girl who followed him; but most of all on the +Sunday evening, when the services of the day +in the little chapel were all over, and everything +was quiet.</p> + +<p>That is the time always given to “inquirers”; +and they came one after another, that first +Sunday of mine at Warsaw, stealing in, just as +Nicodemus came by night and for the same +reason, sometimes singly, sometimes husband +and wife together, and sometimes a whole family—the +children going off to join the chaplain’s +children, while the parents came to us. When +the room in time was quite full we began by +singing a few hymns in German, after which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +chaplain prayed for guidance and the sense of +God’s presence; and then a most interesting +time followed. He took the holy Gospel for +the day, every one reading a verse in turn—in +German—during which questions were encouraged +if the literal meaning of the verse was not +clear.</p> + +<p>It was a particularly arresting Gospel for those +present to consider, as it included our <span class="smcap">Lord’s</span> +words, “If I by the finger of <span class="smcap">God</span> cast out +devils, no doubt the kingdom of <span class="smcap">God</span> is come +upon you.” There is no more striking symbol +for a Jew than that of the “finger of <span class="smcap">God</span>,” +nor anything more absorbingly interesting than +“<span class="smcap">God’s</span> kingdom”; and I have always thankfully +felt that I was fortunate that night. The +Chaplain of Warsaw is not one who loses or +wastes opportunities, and he did his very best +with that one. It was an extraordinarily interesting +scene as I watched the faces of that little +gathering of men and women gazing with the +keenest and most penetrating of expressions upon +their teacher; and now and then, as he mentioned +psalm or prophecy, taking up their Bibles to find +the passage named. Then, satisfied as to its +apposite character, they would look up again as +eagerly as before. I seemed to be back again in +spirit sharing in one of those Apostolic scenes of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> +the New Testament, when one or another +“preached <span class="smcap">Christ</span> unto them,” and they, as at +Berea, received the teaching “with readiness +of mind, and searched the Scriptures whether +those things were so.”</p> + +<p>Just such little gatherings as that at Warsaw, +and in just such places, to which people came +stealthily yet expectantly, were addressed by +Barnabas and Paul, by Silas and John Mark. +One feels now when listening to a chapter from +the Acts of the Apostles, or reading it, as if one +had been there and seen and heard. It is only +a year since I was once more at Warsaw, and +again it was Sunday evening, with the Holy +Communion, Confirmation, and other services of +the day all over, and just as before the Jewish +inquirers came quietly in, in ones and twos +and threes, only this time the gathering was +larger and the attention keener even than it had +been three years before. The same order was +followed, the singing of hymns in German, +prayer—those present were encouraged to pray +in very simple words—the reading of a passage +from the New Testament, and then its exposition; +but though it was the same faithful teaching of +the Faith, or preaching <span class="smcap">Christ</span>, there was a +difference both in what was said and in the +questions asked. It was no longer the Messiah,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> +or the <span class="smcap">Christ</span> fulfilling Messianic psalm or +evangelical prophecy, but the living <span class="smcap">Christ</span> of +to-day.</p> + +<p>It was a sight not soon, if ever, to be forgotten, +those keen Jewish faces, such as our <span class="smcap">Lord</span> Himself +looked into daily during His ministry, eager, +expectant, hopeful, while questioning again, as in +the Synagogue of Capernaum, how it could be +possible for Him to be not only Way and Truth, +but <i>Life</i>; how He could in any comprehensible +sense be said to <i>live</i> in His people, and how any +one could with any conviction say or sing “And +now I live in Him.” It made one feel that even +there, in far-away and comparatively unknown +Russia, that same Spirit is moving upon the +waters to whom the <i>Quarterly Review</i> gave its +testimony in the October number of 1912, when +it stated at the close of a remarkable review of +modern German and other critical literature +that the net result of modern negative criticism +had only been “to make the living <span class="smcap">Christ</span> a +greater Reality to-day than He has been since +the days of the Apostles.” So it was at Warsaw +that night. They wanted to understand the +<span class="smcap">Christ</span> whom S. Paul not only taught but had +<i>experienced</i> ever since his conversion, and which +enabled and impelled him to say, “I live, yet +not I, but <span class="smcap">Christ</span> liveth in me.”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Jews have had hard experiences in Russia, +and the story of their wrongs would take long +to tell; but let us hope that now there is no +reason for wishing to tell it. We are hoping +that in more ways than one Russia is going to +“forget those things which are behind, and reach +forward to those things which are before,” and +which are worthy of the aims of a great nation. +Few nobler things have been said during the +war than General Botha’s counsel to his fellow-countrymen +when the Beyers and De Wet +revolution had come to a fitting end. He +reminded them that what had happened was +within their own household, and their own affair, +and that the only right course was to let by-gones +be by-gones, and “cultivate a spirit of tolerance +and forbearance and merciful oblivion” with +respect to the errors of the past.</p> + +<p>A year ago, if writing upon Russian life +of to-day, one could not but have touched +upon the hardships of the Jews who have +to live “within the pale” in Russia, and have +been alternately tolerated and persecuted, even +massacred within recent years; and one would +have had to own that there was something +to be said upon the Russian side as well, even +if not agreeing with it. But this is now +no longer necessary. In Russia as in South<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> +Africa we must say, “Let by-gones be by-gones, +and let the spirit of tolerance and forbearance +and merciful oblivion” blot out the errors of +the past for Russian and for Jew. It should be +remembered also that the devout Jew is as +mystical in his religion as the Russian, who must +surely now and then, as he looks toward the +seven-branched candlestick within his own +sacrarium, or listens to the psalms, be reminded +that his devotion has a Jewish source.</p> + +<p>A Jewish Confirmation with none but Jews in +the congregation is a great experience. Twice I +have had it at Wandsbeck, just outside Hamburg, +where, under Pastor Dolman of our London +Society, the work is entirely for and amongst +Jews. At my first visit there were about fourteen +candidates, fine young men from many +countries, one or two being German and Austrian, +and several in uniform. As we entered, the +large congregation, without rising, began to sing +a German hymn, slowly and softly, and at once +the whole atmosphere of the place became +deeply devotional. Everything was in German, +and though I confirm in German I cannot venture +to preach or address in the language; and so in +the address Pastor Dolman stood beside me to +interpret, and so masterly and rapid was this +interpretation that the candidates seemed to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +listening to me, rather than to him, from first +to last. There was no mistaking the spirit of +that congregation, nor the character of the +service. Every one was in it, every one +deeply interested and attentive, and eager to +be spiritually helped. The consciousness of +it seemed to embrace every one present in the +most convincing way, and again seemed to carry +us back to Apostolic days, making one wonder +whether amongst those rugged and strong-featured +men and women there might not be +another Aquila and Priscilla, ready for work if +God should bring it to them; whether amongst +those youths there might not be another +Timotheus ready to gladden the heart of any +one who should see what was in him and take +him in hand for <span class="smcap">God</span>. “Why shouldn’t there +be amongst this eager-looking crowd,” I found +myself thinking, “another Apollos, or even a +S. Paul?”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 414px;"><a id="image030" name="image030"></a> +<img src="images/image030.png" width="414" height="654" alt="A Polish Jew." title="" /> +<span class="caption">A Polish Jew.</span> +</div> + +<p>I shall always be glad also to have visited +Cracow, and taken a service there in what we +shall probably soon be speaking of as “the old +days before the war.” Nowhere, I suppose, in +Europe does the Jew walk the streets of a city +with the same confidence and assurance as he +does in this ancient capital of Poland and burial-place +of its kings. The Jews form a very large<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> +part of its population, fill the foremost places of +commercial importance, and show most unmistakably +in every look and gesture how strong, +whenever it can find expression, is the Jewish +pride of race.</p> + +<p>There is a very small Christian community +both here and at Lemberg—or Luow as we +must call it now—but there are two licensed +laymen to deal with Jewish inquirers, and we +had a celebration of Holy Communion, and +conference together two years ago. I saw then +another side of the Russian or Polish Jew, for +whether he is in Poland proper or that part of +the old kingdom which is called Galicia, or in +the western part of Russia—he is not legally +allowed anywhere else in the empire—the Jew, +of course, is always essentially the same.</p> + +<p>It is most important to keep this from slipping +out of sight when thinking of them. I was +reading a short time ago a most depressing +account of life in some Jewish villages in a +certain part of Russia, of the dirt and degradation +of the people there, their cunning and +greed, their hang-dog expression of countenance, +and disgusting clothing. Every one is familiar +with the stories told of the usurer and the +extortioner who suck the blood of their inexperienced +and unsuspecting victims, and it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +not for me to question their accuracy. We may +all admit that Shylock is a type. But still +environment plays its part, and it would be +difficult to picture any other result from the +treatment which has been meted out to Jews in +Russia than the degradation which has followed.</p> + +<p>A very different picture, however, is given for +us by Mr. Rothay Reynolds, in the report of +a <i>Russian</i> official, sent out by his government +to visit the settlements of Russian Jews in the +Argentine Republic. He made a formal report, +but it was no dry and formal statement, but a +real picture, painted in glowing colours, of the +“change wrought in them by the free and open +life of the new land,” and he described with +enthusiasm the rich farms possessed and admirably +cultivated by the former children of the +<i>ghetto</i>. He drew a contrast between the peaky, +timorous Jewish boys of the Russian pale and +the lusty Jewish youngsters astride half-tamed +horses on the ranche. And the settlers spoke +of Russia as our colonists speak of the old +country, as “home.” No Jew <i>in Russia</i> dreams +of calling himself a Russian, but when he goes +and settles in another land far away, and prospers +there, then he can speak of Russia as “home.”</p> + +<p>There are 6,000,000 Jews in the empire, and +250,000 of them rallied to the colours, we are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +told, at the general mobilization. It may be +claimed, therefore, that they have “done their +bit.” Will this count for nothing after the +war? We are assured by one authority after +another that the war only precipitated the +proclamation of autonomy for Poland, and gave +it wider application and comprehension. We +are told, and I for one believe it, that the +government have been preparing for some time +to give constitutional rule to Finland as well +as to Poland, and that the old idea of “Russifaction” +is entirely abandoned and set aside. +All this is in keeping with what has followed, +in some cases swiftly, in others slowly, but in +all important matters which concern the well-being +of the state, <i>in some measure or other</i>, since +1905. This being so we should expect that the +Jews will also be admitted before long to equal +civil and political rights with other Russian +subjects of the Emperor, and I feel sure the +hopes will not be disappointed. The Jewish +revolutionaries in the past have been the most +dangerous of all, and I believe there has never +been any conspiracy of real moment in which +they have not taken a share; but there again, as +we think of their degradation in country villages, +we cannot but ask, “How could anything else +be expected of them? Treated as they have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +been, their boldest spirits would be sure to plot.” +The Jews with us are loyal and patriotic citizens +and though proud—as they have a right to be—of +their race, they are proud also of their nationality. +So it will be in Russia when she gives +them freedom. None will be more patriotic +than they, amongst all the mixed races which +make up the empire. They have given a foretaste +of this already. A writer in the <i>Contemporary +Review</i> last December (Gabriel Costa), in telling +us something of what “Freeing Six Millions” +would mean, points out that while no Russian +Jewish soldier could hold commissioned rank, +nor aspire even to be the conductor of a military +band—though none could be more fitted—nor be +accepted as an army surgeon, yet when the call +to arms came great numbers of Jewish doctors +were summoned to the front, and obeyed the +call. He also tells us how Jews of all social +grades contributed freely to the Red Cross funds, +whilst—most wonderful of all—the Jews of +Kishineff, where one of the most terrible of all +Russia’s “<i>pogroms</i>” or massacres (the word +means literally destruction) took place, offered +up prayers in its synagogues for the success of +the Russian army.</p> + +<p>It is a very significant and instructive fact of +life that where great issues have to be faced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> +together, whether it is by few or many, those +barriers which have been considered fundamental, +of race, religion, and politics, have a strange way +of disappearing and sinking out of sight. Sometimes +it is disconcerting, but often it is most +encouraging and even inspiring. And so when +Jews are confronted by the tremendous issues +of this war they find that they can pray for those +towards whom but lately they have been burning +with a deep sense of indignant wrong. Russians +and Poles have been at enmity together for +generations now, but in face of the common peril +and the common foe all this is forgotten, and +the Russian officers sent to head-quarters soon +after the invasion of Poland their grateful recognition +of the heroism of the Polish peasant +children who made a regular practice of carrying +water to the Russian trenches, often under fire +and at imminent peril of their lives, while steadfastly +refusing all payment. So with Jew and +Christian. The death of the Chief Rabbi of +Lyons on the battle-field has been told in papers +all over the world since it first appeared, last +October, in the <i>Jewish World</i>. “The Chief +Rabbi was bringing spiritual consolation to the +wounded Jewish soldiers on the battle-field, when +he was called to the side of a dying Roman +Catholic trooper. The dying man, evidently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> +mistaking the rabbi for a priest of his own +faith, begged him to hold the crucifix before his +eyes and to give him his blessing. While +holding a crucifix and whispering words of +comfort to the mortally wounded soldier the +rabbi was shot dead!” No less appealing and +encouraging for those who long to see nationalities +and great races appreciating and admiring +each other’s national temperaments and racial +characteristics are some of the incidents which +Gabriel Costa gives us in his <i>Freeing Six Millions</i>.</p> + +<blockquote><p class="small">“First to attract notice,” he says, “is the exploit of a +Jewish medical student from Wilna, named Osnas, invalided +home on account of wounds received in saving the colours of +his regiment during the fighting in East Prussia. ‘Do everything +that is possible to save the life of Osnas,’ telegraphed his +commander to the hospital authorities. The medical student +has been honoured by the bestowal of the military Cross of +S. George.</p> + +<p class="small">“When events come to be sifted, we shall probably hear of +similar instances of Russo-Jewish patriotism. As for our own +brave soldiers, there can be nothing more convincing, nothing +more gratifying than the emphatic reply of a wounded corporal +of the Black Watch to a ‘voice’ in a crowd of sympathetic +Londoners. ‘And the Jews,’ queried the ‘voice,’ ‘What are +they doing?’ The Highlander replied, without a moment’s +hesitation, ‘Doing? Well, their duty. We had three with +us, and bonnier lads and braver I don’t wish to see. They +fought just splendid.’</p> + +<p class="small">“No less arresting was the avowal of a private of the Berkshire +Regiment. ‘We had ten in our company,’ he said, ‘all good +fighters, and six won’t be seen again. So don’t say a word +against the Jews.’”</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p> + +<p>Why has Russia’s attitude hitherto, then, been, +and for so long, one of rigid exclusion? The +Pale, to which they are limited, includes only +the ten provinces of Russian Poland, and fifteen +provinces in Western Russia, and the arrangements +were made first by the government of +Catherine the Great in 1791, and definitely settled +in 1835. Even there, though by law they are +entitled to live and follow their particular tastes +and callings freely, yet we are told that “harassing +laws restrict their initiative and make even +their right of residence within the Pale itself +become something of a chimera.” Why is this +policy of vexatious exclusion so persistently +followed? We are told that it is because the +Jewish element is a sordid and deteriorating +influence, bad for the local and national life +alike, and a hindrance to the nation’s progress. +This, however, was clearly not the view of +M. de Plehve when, as Minister of the Interior, +he received a deputation of representative Jews +petitioning for an extension of civil rights. He +is reported to have said to them, “It is not true +that the Tsar and myself regard the Jews as +an inferior race. On the contrary, we regard +them as exceptionally smart and clever. But if +we admitted Jews to our universities, without +restriction, they would overshadow our own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> +Russian students and dominate our own intellectual +life. I do not think it would be fair to +allow the minority thus to obtain an advantage +over the majority in this way.” He did not +seem to see that, as those in question were +<i>Russian subjects</i>, the very ability to which he gave +his testimony was being prevented from enriching +the national life. This is a fallacy as old +as history itself, and pursued by that shortsighted +Pharaoh on the Nile of whom it is +significantly said, by way of explanation of his +folly, that “He knew not Joseph!” As we +read the records of Scripture—and the historical +books are for the most part extraordinarily +dispassionate and free from undue Hebrew +bias—we see that neither Egypt, Assyria, +Chaldea, nor Persia had any cause to regret +giving Jews a place in their national life, and +that their fatal mistakes, even with the Jews +themselves, lay in <i>not</i> following Jewish counsels.</p> + +<p>The Jews have what can only be called a +genius for patriotism, and in a way not to be +explained they breathe in this spirit very deeply +towards any nation which bids them welcome, +and offers them a home. During my first service +in Siberia, described in another chapter, at +Ekaterinburg, three years ago, a young soldier +in Russian uniform walked slowly into the room,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> +and took his place with a most wondering expression +on his face. He was, I found, a young Jew, +and had received baptism some time before in +England. The manœuvres had brought him +to that part of Siberia, and to his great amazement +he had heard just before, that in that +unlikely place, there was to be on the following +Sunday a service of the Church into which he +had been baptized. In my conversation with +him afterwards, however, it seemed to me that +I was speaking not to a Jew but to a Russian. +Somewhere, no doubt, he is fighting now, and +as patriotically, I feel sure, as his comrades in +the ranks. Is it good policy to waste such good +material as this, to restrict the national assets in +this way, and keep back its powers of expansion +and development? To ask such questions in +these days is to answer them.</p> + +<blockquote><p class="small">“I have been discussing,” says Mr. Costa in his most +instructive article, “with Jewish folk in London, Russian men +and women of culture and refinement, the prospect of this +dream becoming a reality. They incline to the belief that if +Russia is really in earnest over the matter, and is not propounding +it as a strategical move; if, in our time, she will +hurl to the dust the grim, hope-excluding walls of the congested +Pale, she cannot but open up an era of unexampled +greatness and prosperity. With that wonderful intellectual +force, now held in check, applied to the advancement of +Russian culture and progress, the Empire of the Tsar might +awaken and expand beyond the most ambitious dreams of +its dead-and-gone autocrats.”</p></blockquote><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p> + +<p>Just as we are led to believe that a people +gets the government it deserves, so we may +well be brought to think that possibly, with +respect to this virile and persistent race, the +nation gets the Jews it deserves. As a +policy which is meant to degrade must have a +degraded class as its result, so to give every +part of the nation’s life and equipment full +equality of opportunity is to get the best the +nation as a whole has to give in return. We +are further told by Mr. Costa that while the +Russian conscript fights because he must, the +English Jew fights because he loves to serve +the country which has been all in all to him +and his. And thus “Peer’s son and first-born +of the <i>ghetto</i> grocer rub shoulders in the task +of upholding the nation’s honour. In the +Regulars, Cavalry, Guards, and Territorials, +here you shall find the cream of Anglo-Jewry, +the sons of merchant princes, men who hold +the purse-strings of nations.”</p> + +<p>I suppose there is no country in the world +where so long and so freely, as with us, the Jews +have been able to give their full contribution to +the national life, and who amongst us with any +breadth of view and largeness of heart does not +see what this has meant to us in the past, and is +meaning for us just now?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> + +<p>If any race can truthfully say that they have +never had a chance that race is the Jews. They +have not even had a proper chance of accepting +Christianity. The Christian Church marvellously +soon became their enemy. The nations of the +world, without exception, since the first destruction +of Jerusalem have taken up the same +position of antagonism. All this could only +have one end.</p> + +<p>In the new time to come, let all this be +forgotten, and the nations use all their national +life to the full, and confidently await the +result. Nothing to my mind can withstand the +influence of our Christian religion when it is +presented as the religion of <i>Christ</i> Himself; +and the modern Jew, I for one believe, will +find it as hard to go on kicking against the +pricks as his great co-religionist did when he +encountered the real thing in S. Stephen, and +was already prepared to receive it as his own +experience. Nothing can stifle loyal and dutiful +service in the hearts of her children when a +nation is a true mother to them all. This, in +Church and State, we can honestly claim is our +own aim towards the Jews; let us express the +Emperor’s confident hope once more, and say, +“Some day it will be like that in Russia.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2 class="gap4"><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Our Countrymen in the Empire</span></h2> + + +<p>“There are no two powers in the world—and +there have been no other two in history—<i>more</i> +distinct in character, <i>less</i> conflicting in +interests, and more naturally <i>adapted</i> for mutual +agreement and support than are Britain and +Russia.”</p> + +<p>It is in the full endorsement of these carefully-weighed +statements, from a most experienced +authority, that I wish to write this last chapter. +Looking back upon the past to the days of Ivan +the Terrible and Queen Elizabeth, and reviewing +the situation in the Russian Empire to-day, and, +above all, looking forward to our immediate +future, it seems to me that our countrymen in +Russia have had a real mission to fulfil, and have +done it worthily and well.</p> + +<p>They have, from the first, prepared the ground +for what has come up for a great decision to-day, +our splendid opportunity of having Russia for +a friend. And they have not done it by working +and planning, still less by scheming for it, but,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> +just as we should wish our countrymen to extend +our influence the world over, by being honestly +and consistently true to their own nationality, +and worthily representing British traditions and +ideals.</p> + +<p>There is one testimony, if I may venture +without undue complacency to give it, to the +estimation in which our nationality is held, which +does not suggest that we are really considered, +even by those who have of late so often glibly +said it, to be degenerate and decadent and not +fit to hold the possessions we have, or shape the +destinies of the many peoples who own our +rule. I have never met any one yet, of another +nationality, who did not think it a compliment to +be mistaken for an Englishman. It is not often +that one can make such a mistake, but I have +met Dutchmen and Germans, and Russians also, +who just for a moment or two, from dress, +expression, or speech have made one feel that +they were fellow countrymen. Young Russians +especially, though different in physique, for often +they are built on huge lines and are enormously +strong, after receiving an English education +from a very early age, wearing English dress, +being pleased to meet us, may easily be considered +to be English; and I doubt if there are amongst +them any who would not feel it a compliment to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> +be so considered, while they would resent the +same mistake being made with regard to any +other nationality.</p> + +<p>Englishmen, therefore, it will be admitted, +have kept up the standard in Russia, and not +let down the good name of their own country. +When I was visiting the Troitsk Gold Mine, in +1912—a little short of three days’ and three +nights’ journey, on the other side of Moscow—to +spend Sunday and give them their first +English services, the surveyor, when showing +me over the mine and its workings on the +Monday, told me that those large illustrated +almanacks which we have, with a picture in the +middle and information about Church and parish +round the sides, and which are so often seen on +the walls of the houses of our own working-classes, +are also very popular amongst their own +work-people.</p> + +<p>“They are got up in the Russian style, of +course,” he said, “with a Russian illustration, +and so on; but you will be interested to hear +that a great part of the paragraphs round it is +given up to describing English ways and ideas, +societies and arrangements, and always with +appreciation and approval.”</p> + +<p>It must ever be remembered that people who +cannot leave their own country must judge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> +largely of other countries by what they see of +those who come from them. If English ideas, +manners, and customs are held in favour and +esteem in Russia and Siberia it can only be, +therefore, because English men and women +have worthily represented them there in business +and commerce, by upright and moral conduct.</p> + +<p>It does not usually fall to the lot of a bishop +in these days, many-sided as are his sympathies, +and various as are the claims made upon his time +and attention, to see much of actual business and +commercial life, nor have I seen much of the +working of factories and workshops in the other +countries in our jurisdiction; but in Russia and +Siberia one of the most important parts of a +visitation has been the going amongst the members +of a staff while they were actually at work so +as to get to really know them and their daily +lives.</p> + +<p>Outside Moscow, for instance, are nearly twenty +mills and manufactories; in and outside Petrograd +are some of the largest and best-managed +cotton and thread-mills in the world; at Schlusselberg, +on the Neva, there is a large and +splendidly equipped print-works for Asiatic trade; +at Narva, a day’s journey from Petrograd, is a +huge factory employing some 70,000 people; +and in Siberia are the great mining enterprises,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> +some of them employing from 18,000 to 20,000 +people of both sexes. And in all these places the +staff is composed of our own countrymen, and +numbers, sometimes as many as sixty.</p> + +<p>I have always, in these places, stayed with the +manager, and have had opportunities of meeting +the staff socially and for services, going into +every department in the mill, factory, or mine, +and, as these visits were not short, making friends +and learning their experiences, seeing their outlook +and often acquiring the history of the +enterprise, with all its ups and downs, and successes +and failures, from the very first. Then I +am a guest always at the Embassy in Petrograd, +and am asked to meet all who can be brought +together by kind and courteous host and hostess. +It is the same with the Consul and his wife in +other cities. And above all is it so when I am the +guest of the chaplain, who takes care that I meet +every one in the community who cares about it. +I get thus into close touch with all sorts and +conditions of men, and am compelled to come to +the conclusion that very few can have anything +like the opportunity of really knowing, in a +general way, his own countrymen in Russia as +the bishop who goes amongst them. It seems to +me, therefore, to be a very real duty to give my +tribute to what they have done to make England<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +well spoken of and well thought of throughout +the empire.</p> + +<p>Englishmen have succeeded amongst the Russians +for precisely the same reason that they have +succeeded in building up vast colonies and a +huge empire. They have developed, and not +exploited. There is a way of becoming rich by +exploiting resources at the expense of those +employed. Instances will occur to the reader at +once, and probably are not far to seek. I myself +have seen this degrading process conducted on a +fairly large scale in another hemisphere, while the +most terrible and sinister instance of all is that of +the Congo, out of which King Leopold and his +agents amassed an immense fortune in a few +years, while the natives engaged in collecting the +rubber were reduced from twenty millions to a +little over seven. No more deadly and wicked +<i>exploitation</i> was ever known.</p> + +<p>True <i>development</i>, on the other hand, is cultivating +and bringing into use the resources of a +country and improving the conditions of life for +those who produce them at the same time. We +have been accused again and again, even by +writers of our own, of exploiting India, and of +being indifferent to the true interests of its +people. No one has ever known, for the Hindoo +temperament is vastly different from our own,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> +whether its people did not think so too. But the +war has declared it. When India rose as one +man and asked only to be allowed to give all for +those who had ruled them, then we all knew that +we had been understood all over that vast dependency +of ours as being there not only to get but +to give, not to exploit but to develop.</p> + +<p>Is it not true of Egypt also, where the <i>fellaheen</i> +along the Nile are of the same race in general +habits and employments as their ancestors of +thousands of years ago, though different ruling +races have come and gone, that in all those ages +they have never enjoyed true liberty, and never +reaped the fruit of their labours and toil without +oppression until they came under British rule? +It need not weigh at all with us that this is not +known or acknowledged, as it ought to be in +Egypt. We are not given, fortunately, to worrying +as to what other people think about us. Perhaps +it might be better for us sometimes if we were. +But we know that in time Egypt will learn, as +India has learnt, that we are amongst them not +to exploit them, but to develop their resources +and to improve in every way that is possible their +own character and condition. Thus has it been +also in Russia; and I felt a very thankful man, +proud of my country and nationality, when, a +year ago, I could say to the Emperor of Russia,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> +“My countrymen are in Siberia, sir, not to +exploit but to help to develop Russia’s resources +and its people.”</p> + +<p>“I know it,” he quietly said. And I gave him +the following instance to show him how rapidly +and on what a large scale this is being done.</p> + +<p>Some distance to the left of the Orenburg +line which runs down from Samara to Tashkend +in Turkestan, and not far from Orenburg itself, +only reached at present by motor-car and camel, +is a place called Tanalyk, an English property. +Not much more than a year ago there were there +a British engineer, surveyor, and assistants, with a +little handful of nomads, Kirghiz I should think, +looking on and giving their labour. They were +engaged in prospecting, and drilling for copper. +Now, even in this short time, the preliminary work +of a great mine has been begun, and there are from +eighteen to twenty thousand Russians engaged in +it. Accommodation has been provided, schools +are going up, their church and priest are there, +medical and surgical treatment is within the +reach of all. There are stores where they can +buy everything they need in the way of food, +dress, appliances, all sorts of conveniences and +comforts that they have never seen before, at +prices which give no profit to the company. +Those who used to taste meat perhaps once a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +fortnight can have it daily, for they have good +wages. They are becoming more handy as workmen +and improved in physique, and the next +generation will be better still. Education and +the amenities of life are increasing their self-respect. +The determination of the staff not to +overlook bad work, their wish to see them +improve in character, to set them an example in +their own family life, are all having their effect. +“Is it possible,” I asked, “to put too high a +value on such good work as this which adds to +Russia’s enterprise, wealth, and resources, and +makes all those thousands of men, women, and +children better subjects of your Majesty and +the empire?”</p> + +<p>The managing director of the Russo-Asiatic +Corporation, which began its development with +Tanalyk, and has gone on to other and more +important developments still, told me that when +local option was granted, two years ago, he himself +was given the sole right of deciding whether +those thousands of Russians should have <i>vodka</i> +or not, although it was at that time a government +monopoly, and important as a source of +revenue. He decided that <i>vodka</i> should not be +sold, but that a very light and harmless beer +might be provided for those who wished to have +it. It was only to be sold by one man, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +and if an instance of drunkenness occurred he +was to lose his right to sell. The amount paid +for rent has been spent on a People’s House for +the recreation of all employed at the mine.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 656px;"><a id="image031" name="image031"></a> +<img src="images/image031.png" width="656" height="400" alt="Camels at Work—Summer." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Camels at Work—Summer.</span> +</div> + +<p>Another manager friend of mine told me that +he had helped his people to become more sober +by selling <i>vodka</i> at his own stores at a lower price +than that of the government. It sounds a strange +way of doing it, no doubt, but the sale was +restricted to Wednesdays and Saturdays. When, +therefore, on the other days there came would-be +purchasers anxious to have <i>vodka</i>, with the +plea that there was a wedding or a christening +or some other domestic festivity at which it +would be needed just to complete the enjoyment, +they were always told that they could not have +it except on the stated days. This was not +hardship, for the government shop was open, +though the higher price was demanded there. +This they would not pay and so went without +it, and yet the christening or wedding +passed off no less happily—perhaps even more +happily; and thus, gradually, amongst the +Russian staff, and through them the work-people, +there grew up the idea that the results +of <i>vodka</i> were to be avoided.</p> + +<p>Nothing could be more encouraging than the +experience of the management of this particular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +mine in trying, by example and discipline, +to lift their foremen and subordinates of the +staff out of what used to be thought a perfectly +natural and pardonable weakness, but now +throughout the empire is being acknowledged +as a national sin.</p> + +<p>It will surely and easily be seen by any thinking +reader that this initiative on the one hand, +and responsiveness on the other, promise well +for our future relations with each other, and +explains, perhaps, how the Russian <i>Entente</i> has +passed quite naturally into an Alliance, which +some of us hope and believe will be permanent +and stable for many generations.</p> + +<p>Our <i>Entente</i> with France has been indeed an +<i>Entente Cordiale</i>, and it is now more cordial and +friendly than ever; but it is not easy to conceive +of anything in the future beyond an <i>Entente</i> and +Alliance. We can be real and staunch and +faithful friends as becomes those who are near +neighbours, but little else opens out before us. +Is it possible to think of anything between ourselves +and Germany, even when the war is over +and many years have passed, except the gradual +removal of sadly embittered feelings and outraged +convictions and beliefs? Our ideas of what can +rightly be called world-power and world-forces +are so diametrically opposed that it passes the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> +imagination of man to conceive what great world-purpose +we and they could undertake together, +for some time.</p> + +<p>But directly we think of ourselves and Russia +as side by side, and with confidence in each other, +there is no limit to what we and they may hope +to accomplish together for our own peoples, for +humanity, and for <span class="smcap">God</span>. Not only have we +constitutional and religious ideals in common, +but our own countrymen are already at work all +over the richest and most promising part of their +vast empire, and upon the only right lines any +one can adopt if the object in view is to increase +the resources, character, and ability of a people +at the same time.</p> + +<p>The Englishman of the ordinary and normal +type cannot be content to look upon the man +he employs as merely a wage-earner. He wants, +as he would put it, “to give him a leg-up” +besides, and our countrymen in Siberia have +sought just to give that “leg-up” to their +employs, to better their conditions of life and +educate their children; by precept and example +to give them wholesome recreations; to help +them to see that there is nothing laughable but +everything that is disgusting in such a vice as +drunkenness; and to help them in every way +they can to manly self-respect.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p> + +<p>This is tremendously far-reaching in its results. +The Christian paradox is fulfilled here also. +“To lose is to save, to save is to lose.” To +try and get all one can out of work-people and +give as little, is to have little enough to show +by way of good results. To think not of the +work alone which the wages claim, but of the +man who is to do it; to try one’s utmost to +make him more of a man for his being employed +and to lift up his self-respect, is straightway to +increase the value of everything he does, and of +the work for which his wages are paid.</p> + +<p>The explanation of “dividend or no dividend” +is far simpler than it seems, and the New Testament +contributes to it. If only a little additional +value is placed upon the manhood and womanhood +of those employed, and a little increase +given to self-respect, responsibility, and conscientiousness +where hundreds and thousands +are employed, then it requires no great powers +of insight to see how rapidly what has hitherto +been a failure may become a great commercial +success. I attach the greatest importance to the +fact that our countrymen in Siberia whom it has +been my great privilege to know and make my +friends are conducting their great enterprises as +honourable and chivalrous men, and have, with +public-spirited Russians, like-minded with them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>selves, +laid the foundations of a true Anglo-Russian +friendship and agreement. In this I think +we are extremely fortunate in the opportunity +which world events have brought us, and through +no effort of our own. Our own people at home, +for the most part, are probably not yet convinced +that this is our <span class="smcap">God</span>-given opportunity. I have +already freely owned my former prejudices and +misconceptions, and explained how quickly they +passed away, and I know that others must feel +and think as I used to do myself, and that they +have had comparatively little as yet to clear their +minds, though I trust what is written in these +pages may be a help in that direction. But this +opportunity which has come to us was possible +for Russia’s great neighbour at one time, as she +was told by one of the most far-seeing men of +Europe, but it was carelessly and even contemptuously +refused. Great opportunities for +great nations never return.</p> + +<p>Just as Bismarck pleaded for friendliness with +England and against naval expansion for his own +country, so also he was quite alive to the possibilities +of Russia and its “wonderful materials +for making history if it could take the virility +of Germany into its national character.” The +Emperor William, however, differed with his +great chancellor upon this as upon other policies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> +he advocated, maintaining that the “Sclavonic +peoples are not a nation but only soil out of +which a nation with an historic mission may be +grown.”</p> + +<p>We in this country are not as alive to the +magnificent opportunity which is now afforded +us as are our countrymen in Russia who know +its people and its potentialities. And all grades +of Russian society, from the Emperor and his +Court downwards, also know it, and all who are +intelligent in their patriotism desire it. This is +what a Russian<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> wrote at the beginning of 1914, +when no one was even dreaming of what the +close of the year was to see:—</p> + +<p>“All progressive Russia is united in desiring a +<i>rapprochement</i> with England, because there is a +universal belief that the influence of English +constitutional ideas on Russian internal politics +will be most beneficial to the interests of the +people and to the general welfare of the country. +Being one of the youngest constitutional countries, +Russia is holding out a hand of friendship to the +mother of all constitutions—England; and she +hopes that good relations between them will bear +much fruit. This, on the other hand, explains +to us why all reactionaries in Russia are so up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> +in arms against the <i>Entente</i> with England. There +is also a widespread opinion all over Russia that +English interests require Russia to be a strong +and civilized country with a firmly established +constitutional government. If England wishes +to have an ally that ally should be a strong one, +and Russia cannot be strong so long as reaction +is in full swing. The Russian Liberals hope that +constant intercourse between the two countries +will lead to a better mutual understanding, and +will ultimately improve the state of affairs now +prevailing in Russia.”</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 647px;"><a id="image032" name="image032"></a> +<img src="images/image032.png" width="647" height="289" alt="Camels at Work—Winter." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Camels at Work—Winter.</span> +</div> + +<p>France is Russia’s ally, and well and faithfully +have they both kept the terms of their alliance. +We are a new friend only, but it was the British +flag the populace demanded, at the beginning of +the war, in Petrograd. They went in vast numbers +to the British Embassy, and asked for it; +and our Ambassador (Sir George Buchanan), +though he had only two, handed one of them +down, asking them to take care of and return it. +They received it with the utmost reverence, +bent down and kissed it, as many as could get +near, and then, in procession, went cheering and +singing through the streets of the capital, the +British flag carried high before them.</p> + +<p>During the visit of the Fleet earlier in the +year to Cronstadt a party of <i>moujiks</i> were in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> +boat within the harbour; and, in their excitement +to get near and see all they could of a British +warship, they upset their boat, and were thrown +struggling into the water. Instantly some twenty +of our bluejackets (officers and men) dived +amongst them, and in the shortest possible time +had them safe in their righted boat again. This +made a great impression in Russia, and, though +news travels slowly in that vast country, this +story went everywhere, continually evoking the +comment, “Then it’s true, all that we’ve been +told about them—and their <i>officers</i> dived in to +save the lives of poor peasant folk!” It is a +tremendous link between us and them to feel, +as they do, that, while claiming all the rights +of rank and authority, we feel human ties to +be supreme. And just as we read of the British +officer early in the war lying wounded in both +legs, but lifting himself up with difficulty and +crying, “Now <i>my bonny lads</i>, shoot straight and +let them have it!” so we read of the Russian +officer who addresses his men under similar +circumstances as “little pigeons”—a special +Russian term of endearment. Thus, while +there is leadership in the officers of both +countries, yet towards their men there is, as +boys would say, “no side.”</p> + +<p>We have only now to read and watch the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> +course of events to keep free from prejudice +and suspicion, as we try and discern the signs +of the times, and the forces already at work +will quite naturally and normally bring the two +peoples together in enduring friendship. It is +a most significant thing, surely, that three +writers so utterly different from each other +in their whole outlook upon life as the great +surgeon, the popular novelist, and the independent +thinker<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> should go to the Holy Land +for totally different objects, and <i>all</i> find the +Russians, above all other nationalities, get very +close to their hearts, both for what they were +themselves, and for what it was so evidently +in them to become.</p> + +<p>The most important link of all, however, and +that which I have kept in mind in everything I +have written, between ourselves and Russia, is +that our two races are at heart deeply religious +people. The difference between us is that the +devout Russian <i>shows</i> his religion in every possible +way, while the Englishman, with his characteristic +reserve, seems to hide it or to speak about +it with difficulty. When I was talking last year +with a British officer in a specially responsible +position, and religion came to be mentioned,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> +he said very shyly and with hesitation, “Well, +I have my bit, but I don’t talk much about it, +though it’s everything to me, and I could not +live without it.” It’s “everything” to us and +to the Russians, though our public expressions +of it are so entirely different. And in Russia +once again, as, in former experiences in my +episcopal work, I have found that the religious +men—when they are the real thing—are all +round the best men.</p> + +<p>And thus I come to the end, hopefully confident +about our relations with the Russians and +our work in the world together. This book +was asked of me, and pressed upon me at a +specially busy and harassing time, and as it has +had to be written amidst many distractions and +interruptions its imperfections and deficiencies, +as I well know, are many, yet it has been a +most congenial task to write it. It has been +written throughout with the one desire, while +giving as true a description of Russia and +its people’s life as I could, to lead my own +countrymen to view them with a friendly eye +and a kindly heart. This is essential if we +are to have sound and stable relations with +each other. Treaties and other diplomatic +agreements are indeed mere “scraps of paper” +without it, and when the Prime Minister<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +addressed the deputies from the Russian Duma +at a luncheon given them in the House of +Commons in 1909, he truly and appropriately +said that it is not enough to let governments +sign treaties and agreements, but the nations +themselves must have feelings of friendship +for each other, without which all agreements +and alliances are not worth the paper on which +they are written. I believe—firmly and thankfully +I believe it—that our feelings towards +those of whom I have written are already those +of sympathy and friendship. I am sure it is so +in their feelings towards us, and that we are in +consequence going to find in Russia not only a +new ally but a very faithful one, and a loyal +and true friend for many generations.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Boris Lebedev, in the February number of the <i>Russian +Review</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Sir Frederick Treves, Mr. Robert Hichens, and Mr. +Stephen Graham.</p></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2> + + +<p class="indfirst">Archangel, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Berlin, Social conditions in, <a href="#Page_202">202-03</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Catharine the Great, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Cleanliness of Russians, <a href="#Page_59">59-60</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Climate of Russia, <a href="#Page_31">31-32</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">of Siberia, <a href="#Page_179">179-81</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Convict Labour, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Duma, The, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Ekaterinburg, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">Convent at, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">Bishop of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Elizabeth, The Grand Duchess, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134-37</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">English Church, position of in Russia, <a href="#Page_1">1-2</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205-10</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">relations with Russian Church, <a href="#Page_90">90-93</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210-13</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226-27</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">work of in Russia, <a href="#Page_89">89-91</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175-79</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221-24</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">relations with the Jews, <a href="#Page_228">228</a> sqq.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Germany, contrasted with Russia, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst"><i>Ikons</i>, Ubiquity of, <a href="#Page_21">21-24</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">at the Kremlin, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">“worship of” by peasants, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">in churches, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">the blessing of, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Jews in Russia, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">religious work among, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a> sqq.;</p> +<p class="indsub">persecution of, <a href="#Page_234">234-35</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">as soldiers, <a href="#Page_241">241-42</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Kirghiz, The, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a> sqq., <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Kremlin, The, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Language, The Russian, <a href="#Page_7">7-11</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Libau, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219-20</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Magdalena, Abbess, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Moscow, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">the Archbishop of, <a href="#Page_78">78-83</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">English Church at, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Neva, The, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">the blessing of, <a href="#Page_112">112-13</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Nicholas II, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a> sqq., <a href="#Page_156">156-57</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254-56</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Nicholas, The Grand Duke, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Orthodox Church in Russia, relations with the State, <a href="#Page_71">71-74</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">clergy of, <a href="#Page_74">74</a> sqq.;</p> +<p class="indsub">their relations with the people,<a href="#Page_92">92-94</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">services, <a href="#Page_91">91-94</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101-05</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">arrangement of churches, <a href="#Page_102">102-05</a>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Passport system, The, <a href="#Page_16">16-18</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Peter the Great, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Petrograd, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">English Church at, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Poles, relations with Russia, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42-44</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Riga, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst"><i>Samovar</i>, The, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Siberia, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a> sqq., <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">the prisons in, <a href="#Page_141">141-51</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Steppes, The, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a> sqq.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Students, Problem of, <a href="#Page_192">192</a> sqq.;</p> +<p class="indsub">numbers of, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">at Geneva and elsewhere, <a href="#Page_194">194-95</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Tea, how drunk in Russia, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Tiumen, Abbot of, <a href="#Page_87">87-89</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Travelling in Russia, <a href="#Page_11">11-14</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">by sledge, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">on the Steppes, <a href="#Page_170">170-75</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Tsarevitch, The, <a href="#Page_125">125-26</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst"><i>Vodka</i>, Prohibition of, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</p> +<p class="indsub">attraction of, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256-57</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Volga, The, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16-17</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</p> + + +<p class="indfirst">Warsaw, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a> sqq.;</p> +<p class="indsub">Archbishop of, <a href="#Page_75">75-78</a>.</p> + +<p class="indmain">Wolves, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181-83</a>.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 773px;"><a id="image033" name="image033"></a> +<span class="caption">MAP ILLUSTRATING THE AUTHOR’S JOURNEYS IN RUSSIA</span> +<img src="images/image033.png" width="773" height="534" alt="MAP ILLUSTRATING THE AUTHOR’S JOURNEYS IN RUSSIA" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center gap4"><span class="smcap">Printed by A. R. Mowbray & Co. Ltd.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">London and Oxford</span> +</p> + +<div class="bbox gap4" style="padding:0.5em;"> +<h2>TRANSCRIBERS' NOTES</h2> + + +<p class="gap2">Page viii: In the list of illustrations, page for the Convent at +Ekaterinburg corrected from 87 to 78</p> + +<p>Page 43, 239: Spelling of Russification/Russifaction as in original</p> + +<p>Page 81: intercommunion standardised to inter-communion</p> + +<p>Page 82: anteroom standardised to ante-room</p> + +<p>Page 112: out-door standardised to outdoor</p> + +<p>Page 175: tarntass corrected to tarantass</p> + +<p>Page 180: Tolstoy's standardised to Tolstoi's</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Russian Life To-day, by Right Rev. 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