History of Russia

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" Russia evolves very slowly, like an empire that is not of yesterday and that has ample time before it," is one of Nietzsche's remarks before his reason had hopelessly gone adrift in the vast ocean of insanity. This remark of the German poet-philosopher is true enough. What Nietzsche, however, did not know or did not say is that one can hardly speak of any evolution, as far as general civilisation, intellectual culture, and development are concerned, of Russia as a whole. Only a small minority, the so-called intelligentia, has evolved intellectually, not Russia itself. Here lies the fundamental difference between Russia and the rest of Europe.

There is a vast gulf, ever broadening, between the Russian intelligentia and the muyiks. Thought and culture, nay even civilisation, seem to be limited to a select few. The bulk of the people has not only failed to advance from a state in which it was surprised by Jenghiz Khan, but it has actually retrograded to a more savage condition. Revolutions have passed over their heads without in the least affecting them. "The Russian masses," says Leroy-Beaulieu (The Empire of the Czars), "have not felt the breath of either the Renaissance, or the Reformation, or the Revolution. All that has been done in Europe or America for the last four centuries, since the time of Columbus and Luther, Washington and Mirabeau, is, as far as Russia is concerned, non-existent."

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