Russia

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RUSSIA

by Donald Mackenzie Wallace



Copyright 1905


Contents


Preface

CHAPTER I

TRAVELLING IN RUSSIA

Railways--State Interference--River Communications--Russian "Grand
Tour"--The Volga--Kazan--Zhigulinskiya Gori--Finns and Tartars--The
Don--Difficulties of Navigation--Discomforts--Rats--Hotels and
Their Peculiar Customs--Roads--Hibernian Phraseology
Explained--Bridges--Posting--A Tarantass--Requisites for
Travelling--Travelling in Winter--Frostbitten--Disagreeable
Episodes--Scene at a Post-Station.

CHAPTER II

IN THE NORTHERN FORESTS

Bird's-eye View of Russia--The Northern Forests--Purpose of
my Journey--Negotiations--The Road--A Village--A Peasant's
House--Vapour-Baths--Curious Custom--Arrival.

CHAPTER III

VOLUNTARY EXILE

Ivanofka--History of the Place--The Steward of the Estate--Slav and
Teutonic Natures--A German's View of the Emancipation--Justices of the
Peace--New School of Morals--The Russian Language--Linguistic Talent of
the Russians--My Teacher--A Big Dose of Current History.

CHAPTER IV

THE VILLAGE PRIEST

Priests' Names--Clerical Marriages--The White and the Black Clergy--Why
the People do not Respect the Parish Priests--History of the White
Clergy--The Parish Priest and the Protestant Pastor--In What Sense
the Russian People are Religious--Icons--The Clergy and Popular
Education--Ecclesiastical Reform--Premonitory Symptoms of Change--Two
Typical Specimens of the Parochial Clergy of the Present Day.

CHAPTER V

A MEDICAL CONSULTATION

Unexpected Illness--A Village Doctor--Siberian Plague--My
Studies--Russian Historians--A Russian Imitator of Dickens--A ci-devant
Domestic Serf--Medicine and Witchcraft--A Remnant of Paganism--Credulity
of the Peasantry--Absurd Rumours--A Mysterious Visit from St.
Barbara--Cholera on Board a Steamer--Hospitals--Lunatic Asylums--Amongst
Maniacs.

CHAPTER VI

A PEASANT FAMILY OF THE OLD TYPE

Ivan Petroff--His Past Life--Co-operative Associations--Constitution of
a Peasant's Household--Predominance of Economic Conceptions over those
of Blood-relationship--Peasant Marriages--Advantages of Living in Large
Families--Its Defects--Family Disruptions and their Consequences.

CHAPTER VII

THE PEASANTRY OF THE NORTH

Communal Land--System of Agriculture--Parish Fetes--Fasting--Winter
Occupations--Yearly Migrations--Domestic Industries--Influence
of Capital and Wholesale Enterprise--The State
Peasants--Serf-dues--Buckle's "History of Civilisation"--A precocious
Yamstchik--"People Who Play Pranks"--A Midnight Alarm--The Far North.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MIR, OR VILLAGE COMMUNITY

Social and Political Importance of the Mir--The Mir and the Family
Compared--Theory of the Communal System--Practical Deviations from the
Theory--The Mir a Good Specimen of Constitutional Government of the
Extreme Democratic Type--The Village Assembly--Female Members--The
Elections--Distribution of the Communal Land.

CHAPTER IX

HOW THE COMMUNE HAS BEEN PRESERVED, AND WHAT IT IS TO EFFECT IN THE
FUTURE

Sweeping Reforms after the Crimean War--Protest Against the Laissez
Faire Principle--Fear of the Proletariat--English and Russian Methods of
Legislation Contrasted--Sanguine Expectations--Evil Consequences of
the Communal System--The Commune of the Future--Proletariat of the
Towns--The Present State of Things Merely Temporary.

CHAPTER X

FINNISH AND TARTAR VILLAGES

A Finnish Tribe--Finnish Villages--Various Stages of
Russification--Finnish Women--Finnish Religions--Method of "Laying"
Ghosts--Curious Mixture of Christianity and Paganism--Conversion of
the Finns--A Tartar Village--A Russian Peasant's Conception of
Mahometanism--A Mahometan's View of Christianity--Propaganda--The
Russian Colonist--Migrations of Peoples During the Dark Ages.

CHAPTER XI

LORD NOVGOROD THE GREAT

Departure from Ivanofka and Arrival at Novgorod--The Eastern Half of
the Town--The Kremlin--An Old Legend--The Armed Men of Rus--The
Northmen--Popular Liberty in Novgorod--The Prince and the Popular
Assembly--Civil Dissensions and Faction-fights--The Commercial Republic
Conquered by the Muscovite Tsars--Ivan the Terrible--Present Condition
of the Town--Provincial Society--Card-playing--Periodicals--"Eternal
Stillness."

CHAPTER XII

THE TOWNS AND THE MERCANTILE CLASSES

General Character of Russian Towns--Scarcity of Towns in Russia--Why
the Urban Element in the Population is so Small--History of
Russian Municipal Institutions--Unsuccessful Efforts to Create a
Tiers-etat--Merchants, Burghers, and Artisans--Town Council--A Rich
Merchant--His House--His Love of Ostentation--His Conception of
Aristocracy--Official Decorations--Ignorance and Dishonesty of the
Commercial Classes--Symptoms of Change.

CHAPTER XIII

THE PASTORAL TRIBES OF THE STEPPE

A Journey to the Steppe Region of the Southeast--The Volga--Town
and Province of Samara--Farther Eastward--Appearance of the
Villages--Characteristic Incident--Peasant Mendacity--Explanation of the
Phenomenon--I Awake in Asia--A Bashkir Aoul--Diner la Tartare--Kumyss--A
Bashkir Troubadour--Honest Mehemet Zian--Actual Economic Condition of
the Bashkirs Throws Light on a Well-known Philosophical Theory--Why
a Pastoral Race Adopts Agriculture--The Genuine Steppe--The
Kirghiz--Letter from Genghis Khan--The Kalmyks--Nogai Tartars--Struggle
between Nomadic Hordes and Agricultural Colonists.

CHAPTER XIV

THE MONGOL DOMINATION

The Conquest--Genghis Khan and his People--Creation and Rapid
Disintegration of the Mongol Empire--The Golden Horde--The Real
Character of the Mongol Domination--Religious Toleration--Mongol System
of Government--Grand Princes--The Princes of Moscow--Influence of the
Mongol Domination--Practical Importance of the Subject.

CHAPTER XV

THE COSSACKS

Lawlessness on the Steppe--Slave-markets of the Crimea--The Military
Cordon and the Free Cossacks--The Zaporovian Commonwealth Compared with
Sparta and with the Mediaeval Military Orders--The Cossacks of the Don,
of the Volga, and of the Ural--Border Warfare--The Modern Cossacks--Land
Tenure among the Cossacks of the Don--The Transition from Pastoral to
Agriculture Life--"Universal Law" of Social Development--Communal versus
Private Property--Flogging as a Means of Land-registration.

CHAPTER XVI

FOREIGN COLONISTS ON THE STEPPE

The Steppe--Variety of Races, Languages, and Religions--The German
Colonists--In What Sense the Russians are an Imitative
People--The Mennonites--Climate and Arboriculture--Bulgarian
Colonists--Tartar-Speaking Greeks--Jewish
Agriculturists--Russification--A Circassian Scotchman--Numerical
Strength of the Foreign Element.

CHAPTER XVII

AMONG THE HERETICS

The Molokanye--My Method of Investigation--Alexandrof-Hai--An Unexpected
Theological Discussion--Doctrines and Ecclesiastical Organisation of
the Molokanye--Moral Supervision and Mutual Assistance--History of the
Sect--A False Prophet--Utilitarian Christianity--Classification of
the Fantastic Sects--The "Khlysti"--Policy of the Government towards
Sectarianism--Two Kinds of Heresy--Probable Future of the Heretical
Sects--Political Disaffection.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE DISSENTERS

Dissenters not to be Confounded with Heretics--Extreme Importance
Attached to Ritual Observances--The Raskol, or Great Schism in the
Seventeenth Century--Antichrist Appears!--Policy of Peter the Great
and Catherine II.--Present Ingenious Method of Securing Religious
Toleration--Internal Development of the Raskol--Schism among the
Schismatics--The Old Ritualists--The Priestless People--Cooling of the
Fanatical Enthusiasm and Formation of New Sects--Recent Policy of
the Government towards the Sectarians--Numerical Force and Political
Significance of Sectarianism.

CHAPTER XIX

CHURCH AND STATE

The Russian Orthodox Church--Russia Outside of the Mediaeval Papal
Commonwealth--Influence of the Greek Church--Ecclesiastical History of
Russia--Relations between Church and State--Eastern Orthodoxy and the
Russian National Church--The Synod--Ecclesiastical Grumbling--Local
Ecclesiastical Administration--The Black Clergy and the Monasteries--The
Character of the Eastern Church Reflected in the History of Religious
Art--Practical Consequences--The Union Scheme.

CHAPTER XX

THE NOBLESSE

The Nobles In Early Times--The Mongol Domination--The Tsardom of
Muscovy--Family Dignity--Reforms of Peter the Great--The Nobles Adopt
West-European Conceptions--Abolition of Obligatory Service--Influence of
Catherine II.--The Russian Dvoryanstvo Compared with the French Noblesse
and the English Aristocracy--Russian Titles--Probable Future of the
Russian Noblesse.

CHAPTER XXI

LANDED PROPRIETORS OF THE OLD SCHOOL

Russian Hospitality--A Country-House--Its Owner Described--His Life,
Past and Present--Winter Evenings--Books---Connection with the Outer
World--The Crimean War and the Emancipation--A Drunken, Dissolute
Proprietor--An Old General and his Wife--"Name Days"--A Legendary
Monster--A Retired Judge--A Clever Scribe--Social Leniency--Cause of
Demoralisation.

CHAPTER XXII

PROPRIETORS OF THE MODERN SCHOOL

A Russian Petit Maitre--His House and Surroundings--Abortive Attempts
to Improve Agriculture and the Condition of the Serfs--A Comparison--A
"Liberal" Tchinovnik--His Idea of Progress--A Justice of the Peace--His
Opinion of Russian Literature, Tchinovniks, and Petits Maitres--His
Supposed and Real Character--An Extreme Radical--Disorders in
the Universities--Administrative Procedure--Russia's Capacity for
Accomplishing Political and Social Evolutions--A Court Dignitary in his
Country House.

CHAPTER XXIII

SOCIAL CLASSES

Do Social Classes or Castes Exist in Russia?--Well-marked Social
Types--Classes Recognised by the Legislation and the Official
Statistics--Origin and Gradual Formation of these Classes--Peculiarity
in the Historical Development of Russia--Political Life and Political
Parties.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION AND THE OFFICIALS

The Officials in Norgorod Assist Me in My Studies--The Modern Imperial
Administration Created by Peter the Great, and Developed by his
Successors--A Slavophil's View of the Administration--The Administration
Briefly Described--The Tchinovniks, or Officials--Official Titles, and
Their Real Significance--What the Administration Has Done for Russia in
the Past--Its Character Determined by the Peculiar Relation between
the Government and the People--Its Radical Vices--Bureaucratic
Remedies--Complicated Formal Procedure--The Gendarmerie: My Personal
Relations with this Branch of the Administration; Arrest and Release--A
Strong, Healthy Public Opinion the Only Effectual Remedy for Bad
Administration.

CHAPTER XXV

MOSCOW AND THE SLAVOPHILS

Two Ancient Cities--Kief Not a Good Point for Studying Old Russian
National Life--Great Russians and Little Russians--Moscow--Easter Eve
in the Kremlin--Curious Custom--Anecdote of the Emperor
Nicholas--Domiciliary Visits of the Iberian Madonna--The Streets of
Moscow--Recent Changes in the Character of the City--Vulgar Conception
of the Slavophils--Opinion Founded on Personal Acquaintance--Slavophil
Sentiment a Century Ago--Origin and Development of the Slavophil
Doctrine--Slavophilism Essentially Muscovite--The Panslavist
Element--The Slavophils and the Emancipation.

CHAPTER XXVI

ST. PETERSBURG AND EUROPEAN INFLUENCE

St. Petersburg and Berlin--Big Houses--The "Lions"--Peter the Great--His
Aims and Policy--The German Regime--Nationalist Reaction--French
Influence--Consequent Intellectual Sterility--Influence of the
Sentimental School--Hostility to Foreign Influences--A New Period of
Literary Importation--Secret Societies--The Catastrophe--The Age of
Nicholas--A Terrible War on Parnassus--Decline of Romanticism and
Transcendentalism--Gogol--The Revolutionary Agitation of 1848--New
Reaction--Conclusion.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE CRIMEAN WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

The Emperor Nicholas and his System--The Men with Aspirations and the
Apathetically Contented--National Humiliation--Popular Discontent
and the Manuscript Literature--Death of Nicholas--Alexander II.--New
Spirit--Reform Enthusiasm--Change in the Periodical Literature--The
Kolokol--The Conservatives--The Tchinovniks--First Specific
Proposals--Joint-Stock Companies--The Serf Question Comes to the Front.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE SERFS

The Rural Population in Ancient Times--The Peasantry in the Eighteenth
Century--How Was This Change Effected?--The Common Explanation
Inaccurate--Serfage the Result of Permanent Economic and Political
Causes--Origin of the Adscriptio Glebae--Its Consequences--Serf
Insurrection--Turning-point in the History of Serfage--Serfage in
Russia and in Western Europe--State Peasants--Numbers and Geographical
Distribution of the Serf Population--Serf Dues--Legal and Actual Power
of the Proprietors--The Serfs' Means of Defence--Fugitives--Domestic
Serfs--Strange Advertisements in the Moscow Gazette--Moral Influence of
Serfage.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS

The Question Raised--Chief Committee--The Nobles of the Lithuanian
Provinces--The Tsar's Broad Hint to the Noblesse--Enthusiasm in the
Press--The Proprietors--Political Aspirations--No Opposition--The
Government--Public Opinion--Fear of the Proletariat--The Provincial
Committees--The Elaboration Commission--The Question Ripens--Provincial
Deputies--Discontent and Demonstrations--The Manifesto--Fundamental
Principles of the Law--Illusions and Disappointment of the
Serfs--Arbiters of the Peace--A Characteristic Incident--Redemption--Who
Effected the Emancipation?

CHAPTER XXX

THE LANDED PROPRIETORS SINCE THE EMANCIPATION

Two Opposite Opinions--Difficulties of Investigation--The Problem
Simplified--Direct and Indirect Compensation--The Direct Compensation
Inadequate--What the Proprietors Have Done with the Remainder of
Their Estates--Immediate Moral Effect of the Abolition of Serfage--The
Economic Problem--The Ideal Solution and the Difficulty of Realising
It--More Primitive Arrangements--The Northern Agricultural Zone--The
Black-earth Zone--The Labour Difficulty--The Impoverishment of
the Noblesse Not a New Phenomenon--Mortgaging of Estates--Gradual
Expropriation of the Noblesse-Rapid Increase in the Production and
Export of Grain--How Far this Has Benefited the Landed Proprietors.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE EMANCIPATED PEASANTRY

The Effects of Liberty--Difficulty of Obtaining Accurate
Information--Pessimist Testimony of the Proprietors--Vague Replies of
the Peasants--My Conclusions in 1877--Necessity of Revising Them--My
Investigations Renewed in 1903--Recent Researches by Native Political
Economists--Peasant Impoverishment Universally Recognised--Various
Explanations Suggested--Demoralisation of the Common People--Peasant
Self-government--Communal System of Land Tenure--Heavy
Taxation--Disruption of Peasant Families--Natural Increase of
Population--Remedies Proposed--Migration--Reclamation of Waste
Land--Land-purchase by Peasantry--Manufacturing Industry--Improvement of
Agricultural Methods--Indications of Progress.

CHAPTER XXXII

THE ZEMSTVO AND THE LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

Necessity of Reorganising the Provincial Administration--Zemstvo Created
in 1864--My First Acquaintance with the Institution--District and
Provincial Assemblies--The Leading Members--Great Expectations Created
by the Institution--These Expectations Not Realised--Suspicions and
Hostility of the Bureaucracy--Zemstvo Brought More Under Control of the
Centralised Administration--What It Has Really Done--Why It Has Not
Done More---Rapid Increase of the Rates--How Far the Expenditure
Is Judicious--Why the Impoverishment of the Peasantry Was
Neglected--Unpractical, Pedantic Spirit--Evil Consequences--Chinese and
Russian Formalism--Local Self-Government of Russia Contrasted with That
of England--Zemstvo Better than Its Predecessors--Its Future.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE NEW LAW COURTS

Judicial Procedure in the Olden Times--Defects and Abuses--Radical
Reform--The New System--Justices of the Peace and Monthly Sessions--The
Regular Tribunals--Court of Revision--Modification of the Original
Plan--How Does the System Work?--Rapid Acclimatisation--The Bench--The
Jury--Acquittal of Criminals Who Confess Their Crimes--Peasants,
Merchants, and Nobles as Jurymen--Independence and Political
Significance of the New Courts.

CHAPTER XXXIV

REVOLUTIONARY NIHILISM AND THE REACTION

The Reform-enthusiasm Becomes Unpractical and Culminates in
Nihilism--Nihilism, the Distorted Reflection of Academic Western
Socialism--Russia Well Prepared for Reception of Ultra-Socialist
Virus--Social Reorganisation According to Latest Results of
Science--Positivist Theory--Leniency of Press-censure--Chief
Representatives of New Movement--Government Becomes Alarmed--Repressive
Measures--Reaction in the Public--The Term Nihilist Invented--The
Nihilist and His Theory--Further Repressive Measures--Attitude of Landed
Proprietors--Foundation of a Liberal Party--Liberalism Checked by Polish
Insurrection--Practical Reform Continued--An Attempt at Regicide Forms
a Turning-point of Government's Policy--Change in Educational
System--Decline of Nihilism.

CHAPTER XXXV

SOCIALIST PROPAGANDA, REVOLUTIONARY AGITATION, AND TERRORISM

Closer Relations with Western Socialism--Attempts to Influence
the Masses--Bakunin and Lavroff--"Going in among the People"--The
Missionaries of Revolutionary Socialism--Distinction between Propaganda
and Agitation--Revolutionary Pamphlets for the Common People--Aims
and Motives of the Propagandists--Failure of Propaganda--Energetic
Repression--Fruitless Attempts at Agitation--Proposal to Combine
with Liberals--Genesis of Terrorism--My Personal Relations with the
Revolutionists--Shadowers and Shadowed--A Series of Terrorist Crimes--A
Revolutionist Congress--Unsuccessful Attempts to Assassinate
the Tsar--Ineffectual Attempt at Conciliation by Loris
Melikof--Assassination of Alexander II.--The Executive Committee
Shows Itself Unpractical--Widespread Indignation and Severe
Repression--Temporary Collapse of the Revolutionary Movement--A New
Revolutionary Movement in Sight.

CHAPTER XXXVI

INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND THE PROLETARIAT

Russia till Lately a Peasant Empire--Early Efforts to Introduce Arts and
Crafts--Peter the Great and His Successors--Manufacturing Industry
Long Remains an Exotic--The Cotton Industry--The Reforms of Alexander
II.--Protectionists and Free Trade--Progress under High Tariffs--M.
Witte's Policy--How Capital Was Obtained--Increase of Exports--Foreign
Firms Cross the Customs Frontier--Rapid Development of Iron Industry--A
Commercial Crisis--M. Witte's Position Undermined by Agrarians and
Doctrinaires--M. Plehve a Formidable Opponent--His Apprehensions of
Revolution--Fall of M. Witte--The Industrial Proletariat

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN ITS LATEST PHASE

Influence of Capitalism and Proletariat on the Revolutionary
Movement--What is to be Done?--Reply of Plekhanof--A New Departure--Karl
Marx's Theories Applied to Russia--Beginnings of a Social Democratic
Movement--The Labour Troubles of 1894-96 in St. Petersburg--The Social
Democrats' Plan of Campaign--Schism in the Party--Trade-unionism and
Political Agitation--The Labour Troubles of 1902--How the Revolutionary
Groups are Differentiated from Each Other--Social Democracy and
Constitutionalism--Terrorism--The Socialist Revolutionaries--The
Militant Organisation--Attitude of the Government--Factory
Legislation--Government's Scheme for Undermining Social
Democracy--Father Gapon and His Labour Association--The Great Strike in
St. Petersburg--Father Gapon goes over to the Revolutionaries.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

TERRITORIAL EXPANSION AND FOREIGN POLICY

Rapid Growth of Russia--Expansive Tendency of Agricultural Peoples--The
Russo-Slavonians--The Northern Forest and the Steppe--Colonisation--The
Part of the Government in the Process of Expansion--Expansion towards
the West--Growth of the Empire Represented in a Tabular Form--Commercial
Motive for Expansion--The Expansive Force in the Future--Possibilities
of Expansion in Europe--Persia, Afghanistan, and India--Trans-Siberian
Railway and Weltpolitik--A Grandiose Scheme--Determined Opposition of
Japan--Negotiations and War--Russia's Imprudence Explained--Conclusion.

CHAPTER XXXIX

THE PRESENT SITUATION


Reform or Revolution?--Reigns of Alexander II. and Nicholas II.
Compared and Contrasted--The Present Opposition--Various Groups--The
Constitutionalists--Zemski Sobors--The Young Tsar Dispels
Illusions--Liberal Frondeurs--Plehve's Repressive Policy--Discontent
Increased by the War--Relaxation and Wavering under Prince
Mirski--Reform Enthusiasm--The Constitutionalists Formulate their
Demands--The Social Democrats--Father Gapon's Demonstration--The
Socialist-Revolutionaries--The Agrarian Agitators--The
Subject-Nationalities--Numerical Strength of the Various Groups--All
United on One Point--Their Different Aims--Possible Solutions of the
Crisis--Difficulties of Introducing Constitutional Regime--A Strong Man
Wanted--Uncertainty of the Future.




PREFACE


The first edition of this work, published early in January, 1877,
contained the concentrated results of my studies during an uninterrupted
residence of six years in Russia--from the beginning of 1870 to the end
of 1875. Since that time I have spent in the European and Central Asian
provinces, at different periods, nearly two years more; and in the
intervals I have endeavoured to keep in touch with the progress of
events. My observations thus extend over a period of thirty-five years.

When I began, a few months ago, to prepare for publication the results
of my more recent observations and researches, my intention was to
write an entirely new work under the title of "Russia in the Twentieth
Century," but I soon perceived that it would be impossible to explain
clearly the present state of things without referring constantly to
events of the past, and that I should be obliged to embody in the new
work a large portion of the old one. The portion to be embodied grew
rapidly to such proportions that, in the course of a few weeks, I
began to ask myself whether it would not be better simply to recast
and complete my old material. With a view to deciding the question I
prepared a list of the principal changes which had taken place during
the last quarter of a century, and when I had marshalled them in logical
order, I recognised that they were neither so numerous nor so important
as I had supposed. Certainly there had been much progress, but it had
been nearly all on the old lines. Everywhere I perceived continuity and
evolution; nowhere could I discover radical changes and new departures.
In the central and local administration the reactionary policy of the
latter half of Alexander II.'s reign had been steadily maintained;
the revolutionary movement had waxed and waned, but its aims were
essentially the same as of old; the Church had remained in its usual
somnolent condition; a grave agricultural crisis affecting landed
proprietors and peasants had begun, but it was merely a development of
a state of things which I had previously described; the manufacturing
industry had made gigantic strides, but they were all in the direction
which the most competent observers had predicted; in foreign policy the
old principles of guiding the natural expansive forces along the lines
of least resistance, seeking to reach warm-water ports, and pegging out
territorial claims for the future were persistently followed. No doubt
there were pretty clear indications of more radical changes to come, but
these changes must belong to the future, and it is merely with the past
and the present that a writer who has no pretensions to being a prophet
has to deal.

Under these circumstances it seemed to me advisable to adopt a middle
course. Instead of writing an entirely new work I determined to prepare
a much extended and amplified edition of the old one, retaining such
information about the past as seemed to me of permanent value, and at
the same time meeting as far as possible the requirements of those who
wish to know the present condition of the country.

In accordance with this view I have revised, rearranged, and
supplemented the old material in the light of subsequent events, and
I have added five entirely new chapters--three on the revolutionary
movement, which has come into prominence since 1877; one on the
industrial progress, with which the latest phase of the movement is
closely connected; and one on the main lines of the present situation as
it appears to me at the moment of going to press.

During the many years which I have devoted to the study of Russia, I
have received unstinted assistance from many different quarters. Of the
friends who originally facilitated my task, and to whom I expressed my
gratitude in the preface and notes of the early editions, only three
survive--Mme. de Novikoff, M. E. I. Yakushkin, and Dr. Asher. To the
numerous friends who have kindly assisted me in the present edition I
must express my thanks collectively, but there are two who stand out
from the group so prominently that I may be allowed to mention them
personally: these are Prince Alexander Grigorievitch Stcherbatof, who
supplied me with voluminous materials regarding the agrarian question
generally and the present condition of the peasantry in particular,
and M. Albert Brockhaus, who placed at my disposal the gigantic Russian
Encyclopaedia recently published by his firm (Entsiklopeditcheski
Slovar, Leipzig and St. Petersburg, 1890-1904). This monumental work,
in forty-one volumes, is an inexhaustible storehouse of accurate and
well-digested information on all subjects connected with the Russian
Empire, and it has often been of great use to me in matters of detail.