PREFACE
The basis of most of these chapters is composed of letters contributed during the current year to the Morning Post, by whose kind permission they are here republished. They reflect the fleeting ideas, the passing moods of the moment; but as the various moments of which they reflect some kind of image form part of what must constitute an eventful chapter of Russian history, I have thought that it would be worth while to republish them, so as to furnish some kind of record of what people were thinking and saying while the interesting things—which history will relate—were happening, and so as to give a few sidelights showing the attitude of “the man in the street,” during the hours of crisis. Such sidelights tend to show how little even the greatest crises in the lives of States affect the daily life of the average man. The people who cry out that the state of things is intolerable and not to be borne are, for the most part, well-to-do people who work up their indignation towards the end of a good dinner. The people who to the far-off looker-on seem to be undergoing intolerable oppression are themselves lookers-on, and they scarcely look, hardly realise and seldom say anything.
I have endeavoured in these chapters to present impartially the widely divergent points of view of various people; at the same time I have made no attempt to disguise the whereabouts of my sympathies, being mindful of the sage, who, as Renan translates him, says: “Ne sois pas trop juste, et n’affecte pas trop de sagesse de peur d’être un niais.”
These sidelights being the reflections of fugitive phases, I have made no attempt to introduce an element of consistency into them, nor have I in the light of subsequent events tried to modify the effect of the hopes which proved to be illusory or of the fears which were groundless—hopes and fears which I myself shared with those by whom I heard them expressed.
To those who take a serious interest in the Russian evolution I would suggest two valuable books, “The Crisis in Russia,” by Professor Milioukov (London: Fisher Unwin, 1905), and “La Crise Russe,” by Maxime Kovalevsky (Paris: Giard & E. Brière, 16, Rue Souflot, 1906).
“Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russia,” by the same author (Nutt, 1891), will be useful to the student of the past history of Russia. Nor can one too often recommend “L’Empire des Tsars,” by M. Leroy-Beaulieu. Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace’s work on Russia needs no recommendation. All these books, which deal with the past of Russia, will help the student to understand what is happening at present; for without some knowledge of the past history of Russia, what is now taking place cannot but be incomprehensible.
St. Petersburg