The Empire Of The Tsars And The Russians The Country And Its Inhabitants

Author : Zenaide Ragozin
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781499391237
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (912 download)

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Download or read book The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians: Volume 1 written by Zenaide Ragozin and published by . This book was released on 2014-05-20 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the preface:"THE work herewith offered to the English-reading public is forbidden in Russia. The English or American reader will wonder at this: he should not. The Anglo-Saxon who wishes to judge of Russian matters must begin by divesting himself of American or British ideas. For a book to become officially naturalized in the domains of the Tsar, it is not enough that it should breathe the spirit of sympathy with the great Slavic people and respect for its sovereign. Autocracy, like faith, has its noli me tangere. It cannot allow either its acts or its principles to be discussed. And this is just what this book does, with a freedom obviously incompatible with the autocratic system. It would, therefore, be unreasonable to complain of the ostracism decreed against these volumes; it rather claims the author's thanks, as being tribute to his sincerity from the Russian censure. Indeed, he can boast a rare good fortune-that of being able to freely express all his friendliness towards Russia and her people, without a doubt being cast on his independence of spirit.One thing I cannot too much impress on my readers, and that is that we are not justified, we Westerners, in applying to Russia the same notions and the same rules as to Europe or America. To do so would be the height of ignorance and unfairness. Yet this is the very error into which most foreigners fall. They suffer themselves to be imposed upon by the geographers, who assure them that Europe extends to the flat-topped ridge of the Ural and to the peak-crowned steeps of the Caucasus. All this college ballast must be thrown overboard, these conventional limits be done away with. Russia is neither Europe nor Asia; she is a world by itself, situated between Europe and Asia, and, in a way, belonging to both. The Russian Empire-I trust I have succeeded in demonstrating thus much-is indeed, in a sense, a European state, as it is a Christian one; but it is not a state of our time. If it does belong to Europe, it is to a Europe of another age, not to our modern Europe. If one would really understand Russia, one should, to look at her, recede some three or four centuries into the past. To imagine, on the faith of the almanacs, that Russia as she is and the Emperor Alexander III. belong to the end of the nineteenth century, is, in spite of all chronological tables, a gross anachronism. The Tsar Alexander Alexàndrovitch, crowned in the Kremlin of Moscow, is not so much the contemporary of Queen Victoria as of Queen Isabel of Castile. The uprightness of his intentions, the loftiness of his character are beyond all doubt, but neither he nor his people live in the same intellectual atmosphere with ourselves."