. All the Russias: travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. s the wordstrikes the ear! Does any word in any language, except thedear name of ones own land, mean as much to-day? What is Russia? The unfettered, irre-sponsible, limitless, absolute rule of one manover a hundred millions of his fellows—isthat it? The ikon in the corner of everyroom wdiere the language is spoken, theblue-domed basilica in every street of greatcities, the long-haired priests chanting indeep bass, the pedestrian ceaselessly crossinghimself, the Holy Synod,
. All the Russias: travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. s the wordstrikes the ear! Does any word in any language, except thedear name of ones own land, mean as much to-day? What is Russia? The unfettered, irre-sponsible, limitless, absolute rule of one manover a hundred millions of his fellows—isthat it? The ikon in the corner of everyroom wdiere the language is spoken, theblue-domed basilica in every street of greatcities, the long-haired priests chanting indeep bass, the pedestrian ceaselessly crossinghimself, the Holy Synod, whose God-giventask it is to coerce or to cajole a heathenworld to orthodoxy—is tJiaf Russia? Or isit the society of the capital, speaking alllanguages, familiar with all literatures, prac-tising every art, lapped in every luxury, es-teeming manners more highly than morals? Or is it the vast and nearly roadless country,where settlements are to distances like fly-specks to window-panes; where the con-veniences, the comforts, and often the decencies of civilisa-tion may be sought in vain outside the towns and away. The Russian Policeman. 2 ALL THE RUSSIAS from the lines of railway; where entire villages are the preyof disease; where seven people out of every ten can neitherread nor write? Siberia is Russia—five million square miles, in which wholecountries are a quivering carpet of wild-flowers in spring, a rollinggrain-field in autumn, an ice-bound waste in winter, stored fullof every mineral, crossed by the longest railway in the world, andlargely inhabited by a population of convicts and exiles. Central Asia is Russia—a million and a half square miles ofbarren desert and irrigated oasis, the most famous cities of Asiaand the greatest river, a few years ago the hot-bed of Mussulmanfanaticism, probably the cradle of the human race, and possiblythe scene of its most fateful conflict. The Eastern Question is—how will Russia try again to getConstantinople? The Far Eastern
Size: 986px × 2534px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecttolstoy, bookyear1902
