Class jy^ZiL 
 BookjQ-S 
 
RUSSIA, GERMANY, 
 
 
 AXD 
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION 
 
 BY 
 
 GUSTAV DIEZEL. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICA ROWAN. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1854. 
 

 
..Us 
 
 RUSSIAN NATIONALITY, 
 
 History shows that all great States have risen 
 on the foundations of a distinct nationality, and 
 that their institutions, as well as their development 
 and growth, are dependent upon the tendencies and 
 qualities which characterize this nationality. Even 
 the world-empires which have been founded at va- 
 rious periods, or to found which attempts have been 
 made, have exhibited little else than the sway of 
 one nationality over other nations, their history 
 being* the history of the attempts of the dominant 
 nationality to assimilate the various subjugated na- 
 tions to itself 5 and such empires have become more 
 rare, and indeed more impracticable, in proportion 
 as the various nationalities, established by nature 
 or developed in the course of history, have attained, 
 with the consciousness of their rights, the power of 
 resisting* such assimilation. No states have ever 
 acquired lasting* influence, in the history of the 
 world, or attained a hig'h degree of civilization, 
 except such as have possessed in a homogeneous 
 population, bound together by unity of interests, a 
 never -failing source whence they might constantly 
 draw renewed power of action. 
 
 Nationality must not however be confounded with 
 
unit}^ of race. The most important states of modern 
 times are based upon a nationality which is the 
 result of the fusion of different races. Such fusion 
 of races, which, as regards their natural qualities, 
 mutually perfect and enrich each other, invests the 
 nationality resulting- from it with a superior degree 
 of elasticity and political aptitude. But even after 
 the fusion has taken place the most powerful of the 
 component elements of the amalgam will always 
 endeavour to gain the ascendancy, and to establish 
 absolute sway over the others. Thus in France, 
 long subsequent to the formation of a French na- 
 tionality, the Celto-Eomanic element has continued 
 to re-act against the Germanic element, and has in 
 the course of centuries brought it into ever greater 
 subjection. Thus in England, also, the Saxon ele- 
 ment has always struggled to gain the ascendancy 
 over the Norman element, and the future history of 
 England will be intimately connected with the con- 
 tinuation of the contest. It is this struggle for as- 
 cendancy on the part of one, and resistance on the 
 part of another, component element of one and the 
 same nationality that constitutes the life and strength 
 of a state. 
 
 The history of a state is in a. great measure deter- 
 mined by the character of the race which forms, or 
 of the various elements which are blended, in its 
 nationality, as also by the nature and proportions 
 of the mixture. The nationality gives the measure 
 and the limits of the possible attainments of the 
 
state ; the state can only foster and develop the 
 germs contained in the nationality. Whatever ele- 
 ment is borrowed from a foreign source to enrich 
 and promote the growth of the political life of a 
 state, is of permanent value only in as far as it can 
 be assimilated by the given nationality, and repro- 
 duced by it in new forms. If it remain in external 
 connexion only with the nationality, it will never 
 take root in the soil, and though by artificial 
 means its life may with great care be prolonged for 
 some time, these will not prevent it from pining 
 away, and ultimately withering, or secure it from 
 the dangers of volcanic eruptions. 
 
 The Russian state, which seems to be growing 
 every day more powerful, more oppressive, and more 
 overbearing, as also more threatening' to the inde- 
 pendent development of the Western nations, and 
 particularly of Germany, — is based upon a nation- 
 ality which cannot be considered as constituted by 
 one unmixed and self-sufficient race, nor either by 
 the fusion of various elements. It does not bear the 
 former character, because on all sides we discern not 
 only foreign impulsions, but even foreign elements 
 and institutions; but it does not either bear the 
 latter character, because a real fusion has not taken 
 place, the native and the foreign elements being 
 either hostilely opposed to each other, or merely ex- 
 ternally connected. Does this state of things repre- 
 sent an incomplete fusion likely to be consummated 
 in future, or a hopeless attempt to blend elements 
 
which can never enter into intimate union ? The 
 question seems worth examining-, for on the answer 
 depends the most important conclusions relative to 
 the future prospects of the Western nations. 
 
 The inauspicious experiences of the last few years 
 have already in lnan}^ minds given birth to such 
 painful misgiving's as to our own strength, and to 
 such exaggerated notions as to the power of Russia, 
 that our impending abasement by this power, which 
 is represented as advancing under the form of inex- 
 orable destmy, has been unreservedly prognosti- 
 cated ; and the regeneration of Europe through 
 means of Russia has been pointed out as the last 
 hope remaining to us. On the other hand many 
 persons who either pretend to, or sincerely entertain 
 a very contemptuous opinion of " the colossus with 
 the feet of clay/' treat the matter so lightly, op- 
 posing to the most evident and most incontestable 
 facts nothing- but empty words and hackneyed 
 phrases, that the contrary hopes and fears are only 
 confirmed by their manner of proceeding. It is 
 high time to form a clear conception of the Russian 
 state, with its enormous pretensions and the founda- 
 tion on which alone these can be based, and to con- 
 sider with unbiassed mind what is the position of 
 Western Europe, and more particularly of Germany, 
 in relation to this state. The foundation on which 
 the Russian state may be said to have been erected 
 rather than to have arisen, is the Russian nation- 
 ality. 
 
 ■ 
 
The learned are at variance as to whether there 
 existed a Russian people previous to the founda- 
 tion of the Russian state by Rurik. It is however 
 certain, that the tribe with which the Warsegs 
 (Normans) founded a state, was one of the nume- 
 rous Sclavonic families, which, notwithstanding* their 
 multiplicity, possess in common all essential natural 
 features, and have retained this homogeneous cha- 
 racter in spite of the different historical develop- 
 ments which they have undergone in the course of 
 ao^es. The fundamental trait in the Sclavonic cha- 
 racter is the absence of the consciousness of rights 
 and — no doubt consequent upon this — the absence 
 of an inborn tendenc}^ to civilization. The Sclavonic 
 tribes appear everywhere as chaotic masses, blindly 
 devout, held captive as it were by the powers of 
 nature, sensual, living in the present without a care 
 for the future, devoid of the consciousness of indi- 
 vidual freedom, and therefore blindly obedient, and 
 destitute of the power and the desire to resist 
 despotism. There are two incontestable historical 
 facts which depict the Sclavonic character more 
 accurately than any elaborate description could do. 
 No Sclavonic state has ever been founded except 
 where a decided impulse has been given from with- 
 out, and in none of the states thus founded has a 
 middle class grown up. That desire for individual 
 activity, that love of independence, by means of 
 which the citizen class in Western Europe has 
 worked itself up and thrown off the yoke of barbarous 
 
8 
 
 despotism does not exist among- the Sclaves. This 
 people have in consequence been called an Asiatic 
 people, and if by this it is meant to describe their 
 chaotic, massive, inorg*anic nature, in opposition to 
 the individual, organic, and fully developed nature of 
 the Western races, the ^expression is undoubtedly 
 well chosen. The Sclaves belong* entirely to the 
 same category as the numerous^ Asiatic nations, 
 who lead a rude instinctive life, without any higher 
 aspirations, merely obeying* the impulses and satis- 
 fying* the wants of the moment, but which, when 
 roused by the onward march of some human flood, 
 automatically join the movement, and following* the 
 lead of some conqueror, roam through the world, 
 ravaging*, plundering', and burning along* their pas- 
 sage. Even when organized as states they have 
 not been able to offer any, or at the highest, but a 
 very ineffectual resistance to such national inunda- 
 tions. The Sclaves are soft, gentle, and melancholy, 
 but at the same time cruel and bloodthirsty. 
 Among* no people do heroes shed so many tears as 
 among the Sclaves, and among- no people do they 
 commit such excessive and refined cruelties. A 
 recent writer who says, in praise of the Russians, 
 that although they cut down and destroy, they do not 
 torture, must know very little of Russian history. * 
 Among- the Celts, who in many respects resemble 
 the Sclaves, we find the same apparent contradiction, 
 which in reality is no contradiction at all ; for the 
 
 * Bruno Bauer: Russland und das Germanenthum, p. 13. 
 
9 
 
 softness as well as the cruelty are consequences of 
 their sensual, unfree state. 
 
 The Sclaves are capable of the most patriotic and 
 self-sacrificing* energy, for their undeveloped religious 
 ideas make them see in their countiy, and in the ruler 
 who is the representative of it, the Godhead himself ; 
 and self-devotion is the essential feature in their 
 character. Taken as a mass they are tenacious of their 
 rudeness and barbarism, of their ancient customs and 
 time-hallowed dirt 5 and although active resistance 
 forms no part of their character, they are above all 
 other nations capable of passive resistance, when 
 there is a question of forcing* upon them anything 
 contrary to their nature. They entertain a fanatical 
 hatred of everything* foreign, and are possessed of a 
 national vanity as senseless as it is exaggerated ; and 
 just as in individuals the greatest presumption is 
 sometimes found coupled with the greatest poverty 
 of intellect, so also in nations; and thus we find 
 that among the Sclaves (but more particularly in 
 Russia, where a feudal aristocracy could never be 
 developed as was the case in Poland, where Germanic- 
 Catholic influences prevailed), the pretensions put for- 
 ward in the name of the nation as a whole, and the 
 contempt with which everything foreign is looked 
 down upon, are in proportion to the insignificance and 
 utter self-abnegation of the individual in reference to 
 the state. It is self-evident, and it is furthermore but 
 too clearly proved by history, that in consequence of 
 this absence of general rights, the ruling power in 
 
10 
 
 Sclavonic nations, whether it assume the form of a 
 bureaucracy as in Russia, or of an aristocracy as in 
 Poland, will always be characterized by the most 
 unprincipled and immoral oppression, and that there 
 can be no question of the rights of the individual in 
 relation to the whole ; but that on the contrary even 
 all private rights will be entirely at the mercy of the 
 arbitrary power. The conception of entirely free 
 property, the result of individual activhVy, is quite 
 foreign to the Sclaves, and in like manner as a Rus- 
 sian emperor once said, that in his empire only that 
 man was of importance to whom he was at any given 
 moment speaking, it may be said of the Sclaves in 
 general, that no one can call anything his own ex- 
 cept he on whom the state has bestowed property, 
 and that it is only his as long as the state does not 
 take it from him. This completes the resemblance 
 between this race and the majority of the Oriental 
 nations. In the original, communistic organization of 
 the Sclavonic rural communities, according to which 
 each individual enjoys a life interest only in the 
 land assigned to him, this absence of the recognition 
 of the rights of the individual and of the rights of 
 property, is as distinctly manifested as in the subse- 
 quent establishment of the autocratic power of the 
 Czar, who arbitrarily confiscates the property of his 
 subjects, and binds every holder of such to the state 
 (i.e. to his own person), by service, and thus keeps 
 them in strict dependence on himself; while he has 
 converted the once free peasantry, living in the en- 
 
11 
 
 joyment of community of goods, into serfs, and has 
 taken the greatest portion of the lands under his own 
 administration. On the other hand it is quite natu- 
 ral that this general insignificance of the individual 
 as such, has given rise to a feeling of equality which, 
 from a certain point of view, may be termed demo- 
 cratic. In a country where the individual has no 
 weight except such as he acquires through con- 
 nexion with the state, i.e. with the Emperor, one 
 person cannot assume superiority over another, and 
 all feel themselves on a level ; for he who is some- 
 thing may by the wave of a hand be thrown back 
 into nothingness, and another may be put in his place. 
 This is the democracy of the East, the democracy of 
 slavery — democracy based on a general absence of 
 rights. It is the democracy of fate, not of free 
 men. It is a very common, but a very dangerous 
 error to suppose that (i civilization" or " enlighten- 
 ment" will remodel this slavish character, so devoid 
 of the feeling of personality. When the Sclave does 
 submit to civilization it cannot be denied that he ex-» 
 hibits great aptitude ; he readily adopts foreign 
 forms, much more readily indeed than members of 
 other nations who possess a more distinctly developed 
 individuality, and who, before adopting, first assimi- 
 late and freely reproduce such foreign elements as 
 may present themselves to them ; he then appears 
 smooth and polished, but he is still far from having' 
 acquired inward freedom, he has merely assumed a 
 fair outward semblance under which he conceals his 
 fetters. There is some truth in Bruno Bauer's ob- 
 
12 
 
 serration, " that the atheist prostrates himself be- 
 fore the image of a saint with the same passionate 
 emotions as the Russian peasant/' The conscious- 
 ness of free personality cannot be acquired by cul- 
 tivation, it must be inborn, it is an attribute of the 
 race. Even the most cultivated Sclave always re- 
 mains a Sclave, he never loses his natural charac- 
 teristics, and the absence of recognition of inherent 
 rights being* the essential feature in the nation to 
 which he belongs, the effect of culture on the indi- 
 viduals within the limits of this nation, will only be 
 to inspire a desire to rule over the masses who pos- 
 sess no rights ; and in truth all the strong characters 
 among the Sclaves have ever shown themselves more 
 intent upon ruling over their fellows and benefiting 
 themselves at the expense of their countrymen, than 
 upon the development and realization of the general 
 consciousness of rights. Now if we conceive civili- 
 zation to be the development and realization of the 
 general consciousness of rights, and barbarism to be 
 the suppression of all human rights, we already here 
 come to the melancholy conclusion, that among the 
 Sclaves, cultivation only serves to make barbarism 
 more refined and more oppressive. 
 
 The leading features in the history of a state are 
 generally prefigured in the circumstances of its 
 foundation. It is of great importance as regards 
 the future of the Russian state, that the founders 
 of this state came from the West, and sprang from 
 the same source as the founders of all the Western 
 states. In its infancy the Russian state was thus 
 
13 
 
 connected with the West, whence it derived its 
 being-, and it could in consequence la}' claim to be 
 a member of the family of European states ; this 
 claim it forfeited in the progress of ages by a prac- 
 tical disseverance of the connexion, and a relapse 
 into the Asiastic slough, but subsequently renewed 
 by reknitting the bond in a peculiar manner, and 
 one which has hitherto been singularly successful. 
 
 The Norman Wareegs founded the Russian state. 
 A manly, warlike, liberty-loving' race entered into 
 union with the Sclavonic tribes dwelling* around the 
 Ilmen Lake— some patient, quiet, and peace-loving*, 
 others living* in aimless, unrestrained wildness — and 
 began to establish unity among* them. The idea of 
 unity, the idea of the state, which is the leading* 
 idea in the Russian mind, was thus first awakened 
 by the Warsegs. This impulse from without, given 
 by a superior, earnest race, with high aspirations, 
 was necessary to bring* into existence, at least a 
 rude desire for unity and sovereignty in a people 
 originally incapable of a higher political life, and to 
 render possible the formation of a Russian nation 
 out of the various Sclavonic tribes, under the 
 guidance of the superior race. In this case there- 
 fore a. regular fusion of races took place, similar to 
 the fusion which was brought about by the invasion 
 of the Roman provinces by the German and Norman 
 tribes ; and in like manner as modern Frenchmen 
 count the Germans of the time of the Merovingians 
 and Charlemagne, as well as the Celts of the Roman 
 period and previous to that period, among their an- 
 
14 
 
 cestors, so also the Russians look upon the com- 
 panions of Rurik the Waraeg as being* as much 
 their ancestors as the ancient Sclaves of Novgorod. 
 As to what was the strength of the Norman addi- 
 tion to the Sclavonic mass history leaves us in the 
 dark, but there is reason to believe that it was pro- 
 portionately weak. But even if the Sclavonic blood 
 underwent but an imperceptible change through the 
 Norman admixture, in the political and social insti- 
 tutions of Russia, traces of the Norman conquest 
 were nevertheless visible through many centuries ; 
 and down to the period of Peter the Great, Russian 
 history represents the reaction of the Asiatic-Sclavo- 
 nic elements against the free spirit of the West, a 
 reaction which was in the most cases victorious. We 
 discover here a process of development exactly similar 
 to that exhibited in the history of France, with this 
 difference only that in Russia it has been more 
 speedily brought to a close, and that owing to the 
 wild and rude monoton}^ of its character, it awakens 
 little sympathy, and presents to the thinking minds 
 of the West no such interesting questions in relation 
 to civilization as are involved in the gradual decay, 
 and ultimate overthrow of the feudal aristocracy in 
 France. The factors are however the same, viz. a 
 nobility bent upon extending and maintaining its 
 independence, and a populace reacting, in conjunc- 
 tion with the royal power, against this independence 
 as against something anti-national, and pressing on- 
 ward towards a unity without inequalities. 
 
15 
 
 As in Gaul the two nationalities stood side by 
 side, distinctly separate, until after the period of 
 Charlemagne, and only gradually became fused into 
 a unity ; so also in Russia a somewhat similar state 
 of things may be traced. Until the close of the 
 10th century it was Waraegian princes who ruled 
 in Russia, and these from time to time drew new T 
 supplies of population from the West. Not until 
 the reign of Wladimir did a Sclavonic prince ascend 
 the throne, just as in France the newly formed 
 French nationality ascended the throne for the first 
 time in the person of Hugh Capet. But Rurik and 
 his successors were as much bent upon realizing, 
 internally and externally, the idea of a Russian em- 
 pire, as Chlodowig and the Carolingians upon form- 
 ing their empire, and the national power of the 
 united Warsegs and Sclaves enabled them to do so, 
 in like manner as the united power of the German 
 and Romanic elements enabled Charlemagne to found 
 his Frankish empire, although Charlemagne, it must 
 not be forgotten, had at his command elements which 
 the Wareegs did not meet with in Russia, viz. : the 
 remnants of an ancient civilization. In pursuance of 
 their plan, even the immediate successors of Rurik 
 already pressed forward from the north to the south, 
 and removed their capital from Novgorod to Iiiew * 
 and the same providential impulse which in Western 
 Europe impelled the Normans to make continual 
 incursions into the Roman provinces, until the tot- 
 tering empire fell beneath their repeated blows, 
 
16 
 
 seems to have pointed out to the Warcegs the road 
 towards the Eastern or Byzantine empire, and to 
 have inspired the Russian nation with the fixed idea 
 that it was destined to be the heir to this empire, 
 and to Byzantine civilization. By a remarkable 
 concatenation of favourable circumstances during 
 the last few decenniums, almost every European 
 event, and even such as at first sight seemed to 
 threaten the dignity of the state, has contributed 
 to exalt the position of the Russian Empire in Eu- 
 rope, and to raise it to a dizzy height ; while on the 
 other hand an almost inconceivable delusion, fostered 
 by the unwearying' and systematic exertions of Rus- 
 sian court publicists, has taken hold of public opinion, 
 and that which is an unquestionable sign of the 
 weakness of Russia, has on the contrary come to 
 be looked upon as a proof of unrivalled strength, and 
 as an unfailing* promise of future greatness. Men 
 of brilliant talents and enjo} T ing a well-earned repu- 
 tation have submitted to this delusion, and endea- 
 voured to influence public opinion in relation to it ; 
 and their words have gained the more credit, because 
 of the evident reluctance with which their convic- 
 tions have been expressed. The traditional idea of 
 the conquest of Constantinople b} r the Russians, 
 handed down from the time of the Waraegian princes, 
 is more particularly appealed to in evidence of the 
 unwearying energy of Russia and the indestructible 
 power of the national will, and is represented as a 
 presentiment approaching gradually its fulfilment 
 
17 
 
 with the certainty of fate. If however we disengage 
 ourselves from this idea of fate — which is indeed at 
 variance with the general notions of the West, — 
 and do not beforehand make up our minds that the 
 thing- must come to pass precisely because it is an 
 absurdity, and that Constantinople must be con- 
 quered by the Russians in 1853, because the monk 
 Agathongeles has prophesied it — if we endeavour 
 upon the whole to take an unbiassed view of history, 
 it cannot appear otherwise than ridiculous, to insist 
 upon seeing" in the vain endeavours to reach Con- 
 stantinople made by the Russians from the 10th to 
 the 19 th century, a proof of the vigour of this 
 nationality instead of a proof of its incurable weak- 
 ness, and an indication of the limit which it cannot 
 transcend. 
 
 In the tenth century the Russians — evidently in 
 obedience to an impulsion proceeding* from the Wa- 
 rsegian princes— presented themselves for the first 
 time before Constantinople, and similar expeditions 
 to the South, by means of which the Northern tribes 
 endeavoured to conquer for themselves higher cul- 
 ture and more refined enjoyments, were repeatedly 
 undertaken during the same century, but always 
 without success. It cannot be denied, however, that 
 the Russians made themselves feared by the Byzan- 
 tines, and it is evident from the descriptions of the 
 latter, that the military skill and prudence of the 
 Warsegs, coupled with the blind devotion of the 
 Sclaves, rendered them very dangerous enemies to 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 an empire, which could oppose to them a crafty 
 policy, but no effectual material power. But these 
 very descriptions seem to imply that it was in fact 
 the Normans, not the Sclaves, that the Byzantines 
 feared ; for the expression, " the fair-haired race 
 of Northerns will conquer the State/' (such was the 
 original form of the famous oracle) evidently has 
 reference to Swatislaw and his Wanegian compa- 
 nions. In proportion as the Norman race, in the 
 course of time, became absorbed by the Sclavonic, 
 so did the danger menacing* Byzantium from this 
 quarter decrease. Instead of being* conquered by 
 the Russians, the Greek empire, on the contrary, 
 made a spiritual conquest of Russia, and broug'ht 
 the country into partial political dependence also ; 
 and the Russians having* themselves eventually 
 fallen under the yoke of the Tartars, could not even 
 avail themselves of the death struggle of the empire, 
 which ultimately fell by the hand of a very different 
 foe, who continued to rule for centuries in its ancient 
 capital. And now that after a long decline this 
 power seems about to disappear from the European 
 stage, not compelled by external violence, but in the 
 natural course of thing's, and in consequence of the 
 law of transientness, which seems more particularly 
 inherent in all oriental states, now we are expected 
 to believe that Russia is to be its successor, she hav- 
 ing* been designated as such centuries ago, and 
 having* triumphantly proved her right to the inhe- 
 ritance by the tenacity with which she has clung to 
 
19 
 
 old traditions. Would it not, on the contrary, be 
 more reasonable to say : as in the tenth and the 
 fifteenth centuries Russia was unable to conquer 
 Constantinople, she will probably not either succeed 
 in accomplishing her end in the nineteenth century, 
 because the many unsuccessful attempts made by 
 her prove her incapacity. Instead of reasoning- in 
 this way, we reverse the sentence, and say : as 
 Russia has made so and so many abortive attempts 
 to conquer Constantinople, and still has not re- 
 nounced the hope of once doing* so, she has thereby 
 proved thatshe will succeed in the nineteenth century. 
 A peculiar mode of reasoning*, this, in the en- 
 lightened nineteenth century. 
 
 In the West the Germans conquered for them- 
 selves civilization and Christianity ; they did not 
 merely submit passively to foreign influences ; they 
 acted spontaneously, and the institutions which were 
 born of this conflict between two worlds are mostly 
 their work. The civilization of the middle ages 
 bears their impress, and is the product of their rude 
 but creative power. But we seek in vain in history 
 for the fruits of Sclavonic spontaneity. After the 
 attempts of the Wareegs to conquer Byzantium, and 
 with Byzantium superior culture and a new faith, 
 (L e. higher world intuitions) had miscarried, Russia 
 became isolated, and she had no choice but to sink 
 back into Asiatic barbarism and stagnation, or to 
 accept passively the civilization coming to her from 
 without. The first alternative would no doubt have 
 
 B 2 
 
20 
 
 been adopted had it not been for the ulterior effects 
 of the Waraegian impulse. The Norman element, 
 tending- naturally towards civilization, decided for 
 the latter. Nothing- can be more characteristic of 
 the Sclavonic character than the circumstances 
 attending- the introduction of Christianity in Russia. 
 Wladimir felt that if he wished to secure a future 
 existence to the state which he governed, he must 
 not continue in Pagan isolation amid Christian 
 States. Byzantine Christianity and German-Catholic 
 Christianity offered themselves for his selection • 
 Islamism, also, recommended by the Bulgarians, 
 entered the list of competitors, but was rejected 
 chiefly on account of its prohibiting* the use of wine; 
 even the old dethroned God of the Jews had some 
 hope of being- reinstated in dignity in Russia, and 
 earnestly solicited the vacant office ; but was wisely 
 refused by Wladimir as having been condemned by 
 history. Ten men were selected and sent out to 
 examine the various forms of worship, and they 
 pronounced in favour of Byzantine Christianity, 
 because of its fascinating* effect on the senses, whereas 
 the German form of worship seemed to them to be 
 devoid of the charm of the beautiful. No doubt 
 this decision was also in a great measure promoted 
 by the ineradicable hatred which existed between 
 the Sclaves and the Germans, who as neighbours 
 often came into hostile collision with each other ; 
 and to this national hatred between the two races 
 was subsequently added the religious hatred which 
 
21 
 
 the Ityzantine Church always nourished and will 
 always nourish against Romish Christianity, and 
 which likewise has its root in national antipathies. 
 No sooner had Wladimir himself received baptism 
 and espoused the daughter of a Greek emperor, than 
 he destroyed all the idols, invited the people of 
 Kiew to come down to the Dnieper, in the waters of 
 which they were baptized at his command, and 
 dispatched messengers to all parts of the country to 
 baptize the people and introduce Christianity. In 
 this manner a new religion was suddenly, and with- 
 out excitino- the least outward resistance, substituted 
 for the old. If we compare this mode of proceeding* 
 with the long and violent internal and external 
 struggles connected with the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity among the Western nations, with the pro- 
 longed and repeated wars, in which even the Celts 
 defended their ancient national religion against the 
 Romans, the facility with which Russia was Chris- 
 tianized appears almost incredible \ and it can only 
 be explained by the passiveness of the Sclavonic 
 national character, and the merely external hold 
 which religion has on it. What was in fact the 
 change introduced into the faith of Russia in con- 
 sequence of the establishment of the Christian 
 religion? A change of names, nothing else. In 
 prostrating* himself before the image of the crucified 
 Saviour instead of before the image of Perun, the 
 Russian was equally following an impulse of super- 
 stition, and in the new God of the Chr-stians he 
 
22 
 
 only continued to honour the old Russian national 
 god, in whom is personified the exclusiveness and 
 servility of the national character of the Sclaves. 
 
 The acceptance of Byzantine Christianity by 
 Russia was nevertheless an act fraught with mo- 
 mentous consequences. The Greek Church which 
 in its petrified, dogmatic formalism bears the impress 
 of the East., became in Russia the adequate expres- 
 sion of the predominant Asiatic element in the 
 character of the Sclavonic race, and by means of 
 the clergy who received their inspirations from Con- 
 stantinople; it fostered in the nation that fanatical 
 antagonism to the Western liberty- loving" and Roman 
 Catholic states, which was further kept alive by the 
 interests of Russia as an independent and self- 
 sustaining empire. As such it was necessary for 
 Russia to press onwards, not only in a southern, but 
 also in a northern and western direction, and to 
 endeavour to gain possession of maritime frontiers 
 and of the seas washing the coasts ; in so doing-, 
 however, she came into contact with Catholic-Ger- 
 man civilization, which endeavoured to drive her 
 back into her inland (binnenlandisclie) barbarism. 
 Here we discover the tragic side of the Russian 
 state. Every state, as such, requires a certain amount 
 of culture without which it cannot exist. Even 
 the rudest of the Mongol Chiefs were obliged, after 
 having conquered by wild assault a variety of tribes 
 and territories, to endeavour to introduce some 
 degree of culture into their dominions in order to 
 
23 
 
 secure the stability of their rule. The Russian state, 
 however, is devoid of all the necessary internal con- 
 ditions for the development of civilization, and even 
 the external geographical conditions have to be 
 acquired by means of conquest *. while the obstacles 
 opposed to such conquest will be the greater the 
 more reason there is to fear that it will lead to a 
 rude and barbarous destruction of existing civiliza- 
 tions, based on sound foundations and full of vital 
 energies. This is the inward contradiction from 
 which the Russian state is suffering. It must either 
 expand itself so greatly northwards, southwards, 
 and westwards, that it will necessarily overthrow the 
 independence of almost all the civilized nationalities 
 of Europe, and not only endanger but altogether 
 destroy European civilization, or it must draw back 
 within the limits of its steppes and cease to be a 
 state. The latter determination can of course never 
 be taken voluntarily by the state, but may be forced 
 upon the imperilled nations as an act of self-defence, 
 when they arrive at the knowledge of the internal 
 contradiction just alluded to. For that the internal 
 conditions for the development of civilization are 
 totally wanting in Russia is proved beyond all doubt 
 by history. The people have not the slightest desire 
 to acquire culture, but on the contrary entertain a 
 great hatred and contempt of it. Christianity, far 
 from having* awakened the desire, has strengthened 
 the hatred, and has thus proved in a most remark- 
 able way how little it is capable of engendering* 
 
24 
 
 civilization without the aid of other factors. With 
 the exception of Novgorod and its colonies., we seek 
 in vain in Russian histor}^ for organizations for the 
 promotion of any of the interests of civilization, and 
 the commerce even of this city, in the free constitu- 
 tion of which we trace Western influences, merely 
 consisted in the exchange of raw native produce for 
 foreign manufactures. At a time when in Western 
 Europe industrious cities flourished and a vigorous 
 citizen class arose in the midst of the rudeness of the 
 feudal system, and in spite of the numerous political 
 convulsions, Russian history represents nothing but 
 barbarous struggles for dominion, and efforts of 
 
 OCT / 
 
 unbridled ambition, having none of the higher inte- 
 rests of life for their aim, and supported by a 
 thoroughly degraded population, content in its 
 slavish degeneracy — struggles in which may perhaps 
 be traced a caricatured likeness to the Norman love 
 of liberty, but in which a relapse into all the horrors 
 of Orientalism is much more strongly depicted. 
 How is it possible to deny, in view of the spectacle 
 presented by Christian Russia from the eleventh to 
 the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, that there are 
 nations incapable of a free acceptance of civilization, 
 on whom it can only be forced in the fearful school 
 of political oppression, and then only with doubtful 
 success ! 
 
 The key to the understanding of Russian history, 
 so full of crimes and outrages, must be sought in 
 the absence of the desire for civilization and the 
 
25 
 
 love of enterprise, in the limitation of the industry 
 of the country to the production of the most neces- 
 sary thing's, in the prevailing- lawlessness, which 
 afforded no guarantees to the individual for the en- 
 joyment of that which he mig'ht acquire by his own 
 efforts, and in the passive character of the people. 
 The only active, stirring* element that appears, is 
 the nobilit\ r , established by the Norman conquest ; 
 but this nobility had almost entirely lost its western, 
 Germanic character. That sense of liberty, of 
 honour, of dig-nity, that chivalry, which in the 
 western countries threw a halo of poetry even around 
 barbarism, and which contained within itself the g'erms 
 of the highest culture and civilization, was entirely 
 wanting- in Russia. While in Poland the S clave, 
 that is the Sclavonic noble, was in a certain measure 
 Germanized under the influence of Roman Catholi- 
 cism and Germany, in Russia the Norman nobles 
 became Sclaves, that is to say, they degenerated, 
 and lost all those national qualities, which in the 
 Western countries have put forth fine fruits, in the 
 form of a highly developed civilization. In con- 
 sequence of the passiveness of the subordinate class, 
 and the utter absence of resistance from below, the 
 Russian nobles indulged in a tyranny more un- 
 bounded, more cruel, and more refined, than any of 
 which the feudal aristocracies of the West were 
 ever g'uilty ; while their relations to the superior 
 power could not on Sclavonic soil assume that cha- 
 racter of freedom and reciprocal rig'hts and duties, 
 
20 
 
 on which the Western kingdoms were founded. 
 Their relations to the Grand Dukes, on the contrary, 
 assumed more of a mechanical and accidental cha- 
 racter, which could not fail to engender crimes and 
 outrages on both sides. The feudalism of the 
 West involved a principle of right and morality, 
 although in a rude form ; in the relations of the 
 Russian boyars to those above and below them this 
 principle has entirely disappeared. The peasant is 
 in every case a slave, and his is an aggravated and 
 more hopeless form of servitude than that of the 
 bondsman of the middle-ages ; but the boyar is also 
 a slave — when he does not know how to make him- 
 self feared. Until the 16th century the history of 
 Russia is nothing but the history of a succession of 
 servile insurrections and their gradual suppression ; 
 and one hardly knows what to say, when one hears 
 Russians, and even cultivated, yea revolutionary, 
 Russians, congratulating their nation upon having 
 escaped feudalism, while history clearly proves, that 
 this nation is incapacitated for a social organization 
 based upon justice, such as was the feudal system. 
 
 The only, though weak bond, that bound Russia 
 to civilization, was the Christian religion ; and the 
 idea of Russian unity, of " holy Russia," which had 
 taken deep rooted possession of the minds of the 
 people since the days of Rurik, was the only idea 
 which prevented the state from dissolving into its 
 original atoms. This idea has continued in unabated 
 force up to the present day, and in fact alone con- 
 
21 
 
 stitutes the internal strength of the state j it has 
 stood faithfully by the Grand Dukes in their con- 
 flicts with the resisting* elements in the nation, and 
 has enabled them to prostrate all prominent classes, 
 institutions, or individualities, laying* claim to any 
 kind of independence ; and has made them absolute 
 rulers of a uniform mass of slaves. At first, how- 
 ever, Christianity brought Russia into a state of 
 necessary dependence upon Byzantium. Russia 
 was a spiritual conquest of Constantinople ; the 
 Greek patriarch was the chief of the Russian clergy, 
 and notwithstanding' all the efforts of the Grand 
 Dukes, they never succeeded in making- themselves 
 independent of Constantinople in ecclesiastical mat- 
 ters as long- as the Greek empire continued to exist. 
 This state of dependence was necessary. The Grand 
 Dukes of Russia had no other model than Byzantium 
 on which to form their government, rude and bar- 
 barous as it was, and thence only could they draw 
 those means of government which a state even in 
 the lowest and most imperfect stage of develop- 
 ment cannot do without. This dependence was, 
 however, at the same time a source of strength to 
 the Grand Dukes, as was proved when in the 13th 
 century the Byzantine empire w T as overthrown, and 
 a Latin empire established in Constantinople. 
 
 A few years subsequently to this, Russia also 
 succumbed, but to the Tartars, not to the West, 
 against which their national character and the re- 
 ligious exclusiveness of the people protested most 
 
28 
 
 determinate^, setting* at naught all attempts at con- 
 version to, and union with, Catholicism. For nearly 
 three hundred years the country bore the yoke of 
 the Mongol Khans. The people submitted with 
 slavish resignation ; the Asiatic element in their 
 nature felt bound by a kindred tie to the Tartars ; 
 the princes humbled themselves to the Mong-ol 
 chiefs, and endeavoured by their aid to extend their 
 own arbitrary and irresponsible power; in this 
 school of oppression the Muscovite dynasty gra- 
 dually grew up, and when the Tartar empire fell 
 to pieces — not in consequence of the efforts of the 
 Russian people, but in consequence of the inward 
 decomposition which is the common fate of all em- 
 pires formed mechanically by conquest, and devoid 
 of inward unit}' — this dynasty being- supported by 
 the sense of unity in the people which had again 
 been quickened, and being practised in the unscru- 
 pulous principles of government followed by the 
 Khans, and so well adapted to the nature of the 
 Sclaves, were enabled to enter the lists against what 
 remained of the so-called aristocracy. The struggle 
 which ensued— and which may be compared to the 
 struggle of the French kings against their vassals^ 
 *n as far as in this case also a political unity was 
 to be established — was the most terrible, perhaps, 
 recorded in the history of the world ; and as a great 
 Englishman once declared, that a people that al- 
 lowed itself to be burdened with taxes which it did 
 not itself vote, was quite capable of allowing itself 
 
29 
 
 to be used for the destruction of the liberties of E113:- 
 land, so also it may with much greater right be 
 maintained, that a people which not only tolerated, 
 but applauded such barbarities, and whose most 
 " civilized" members laud the authors of these bar- 
 barities as the benefactors of Russia, is under favour- 
 able circumstances, quite capable of extirpating- every 
 trace of liberty and civilization from the whole con- 
 tinent of Europe. The proceedings of the Czars 
 from the moment they undertook to realize their 
 conception of political unity, give evidence of a truly 
 insane rage against everything' that bespoke inde- 
 pendence, everything- that was not absolutely slav- 
 ish \ and the cruelties which they practised, were 
 mostly as aimless as they were refined. We discover 
 in these rulers a kind of insane hatred against their 
 own nation, because of its inefficiency and its in- 
 aptitude for civilization, and it cannot be denied 
 that this inefficiency becomes most glaringly mani- 
 fest at the very period, when the unity of the state 
 having been restored, the need of elements of civili- 
 zation was most felt by the political rulers. These 
 elements of civilization it became necessary from 
 that moment- consequently long before the time of 
 Peter the Great — to draw entirely from abroad, and 
 more particularly from Germany. All arts, all 
 trades, all handicrafts, in a word, all accomplish- 
 ments required for the organization of the state and 
 of the army, were borrowed from the West, from 
 Germany. From the moment when, after the de- 
 
30 
 
 liverance from the yoke of the Tartars, and the 
 destruction of the boyar aristocracy, a political 
 unity was established in Russia, the existence of 
 the state has been upheld solely by the Germans, 
 and it would long* since have gone to ruin, and 
 broken up, and the people would have returned to 
 that state of Asiatic stag-nation, to which it tends 
 by nature, had it not been for the Western, and 
 more particularly the German elements. Already 
 under Ivan Wassiliewitsch (1 462-1505) architects, 
 engineers, bellfounders, smelters, workers in gold, 
 plrysicians, &c. were invited into the country from 
 Germany and Italy, and already during the reign 
 of the successor of this Czar, the Germans proved 
 that they constituted the true strength of the state, 
 while during the revolutions and disturbances which 
 have since then convulsed the empire, its preserva- 
 tion has also been due to the foreigners, and parti- 
 cularly to the Germans dwelling within its limits. 
 
 It is evident that we have here before us a case 
 which has no equal in the history of the world. We 
 know of nations who, possessing inferior capacities, 
 have been ruled by a foreign race, have mixed with 
 it, and have thus gradually been drawn into political 
 and civilized life. Here, however, we behold the 
 national rulers of a vast but either entirely uncul- 
 tivated, or at the most only rudely and inefficiently 
 cultivated empire, despairing of their own people, 
 towards the degeneracy of which, however, no one 
 had contributed more than themselves, and organ- 
 
31 
 
 izing* a political system principally, yea almost ex- 
 clusively, with foreign elements, and in opposition to 
 the wishes and even to the genius of the nation, 
 which nevertheless recognises in them its natural 
 representatives and absolute masters — we behold a 
 political system the chief aim of which is to keep in 
 subjection the nation which forms the basis of the 
 state. This double character, this self-contradiction 
 in the position of the Czars, is very remarkable. 
 When the Romans ruled in Gaul and civilized the 
 country, they introduced their own liberal laws, 
 their municipal institutions, their own great and 
 creative national qualities, which elevated and civil- 
 ized the people in the conquered country, though 
 not until its national peculiarities had been overruled. 
 The Czars, however, being themselves Russians, could 
 not proceed in this manner. Had Russia been 
 brought under the rule of the Germans or of any 
 other civilized nation, the manner of proceeding- 
 would have been similar to that of the Romans in 
 Gaul. Personal rights, the rights of property, free 
 institutions, would have been introduced into Russia, 
 and the Russian nationality would either have been 
 fertilized b} r them, or would have given way as the 
 Indians give way before the civilization of the 
 Anglo-Saxon colonists. But the Czars themselves 
 being Russians, i. e. barbarians, could not conceive 
 the idea of introducing into Russia along with 
 foreign culture, the free laws and institutions of the 
 foreigners, and therefore the culture which they in- 
 
32 
 
 troduced by force onlv served to make its barbarism 
 more refined. It is not only the artificiality, the 
 hot-house nature of this so-called Eussian civilization, 
 or its entire dependence on the toleration and the 
 support of the Czar, and its antagonism to the genius 
 of Russian nationality, that fills civilized Europe 
 with alarm, but it is the object for which it will ulti- 
 mately be used. The rulers of the Russian nation- 
 ality represent in their person not simple absolutism, 
 such as it is understood in Western Europe, for even 
 absolutism may and does recognize certain rights, 
 and more particularly the rights of property ; but 
 in Russia, the right of property has never been re- 
 cognized. It is not merely an empty phrase when 
 in that country the Czar is denominated the absolute 
 master of the life and property of his subjects, for 
 in Russia property is held by no other tenure than 
 that of service to the state, and may at any moment 
 be withdrawn. 
 
 Communism is an essential characteristic of Rus- 
 sia ; it has its roots in the nationality, it constitutes 
 the strength of the Czars ; and the foreign civiliza- 
 tion, forced upon the country, has not been able to 
 eradicate it, and probably never will be able to do so. 
 For from the first moment of the introduction of the 
 latter, the Russian people felt that this Western 
 civilization was a dangerous enemy of its nationality, 
 and in consequence it shrunk coyly from its ap- 
 proach. Next to their hatred of the bo}^ars, no feel- 
 ing is so strongly pronounced in the character of the 
 
33 
 
 Russian people as their hatred of civilization. Even 
 the commands of their worshipped Czars have not 
 been able to conquer this hatred, and it is in so far 
 justified, as the condition of a people having* no in- 
 ward tendency to culture can only be impaired by 
 having it forced upon them. It is thus to civiliza- 
 tion that the Russian people owe serfdom and its un- 
 equalled spread among' them. On the other hand, 
 however, this ineradicable hatred of civilization 
 would no doubt have been more frequently evinced 
 by deed, were it not that a vag'ue feeling* tells the 
 people that this civilization, so hateful to them, has 
 nevertheless contributed to preserve the state, and 
 with that the independence of the nation. When 
 the power of the boyars had been destroyed and the 
 unity of the state restored, the despotism of the 
 Czars together with its mainstay, the foreign civi- 
 lization, proved to be the sole powers that could save 
 the state, the political unity and the independence 
 of the nation. It was in vain that the ridiculous 
 farce of a Russian national assembly was resorted 
 to in order to reconstitute the state out of the na- 
 tionality itself. What is the use of a parliament in 
 a country where there are no interests, that is to 
 say no rights, no liberties, no enterprise, and no 
 property ! 
 
 The state was on the brink of dissolution, it 
 seemed to be precipitated towards destruction by 
 inward revolutions and external enemies ; for the 
 Russians also make revolutions, although our 
 
34 
 
 politicasters do not seem to admit such eventuali- 
 ties into their calculations, and the Russians make 
 revolutions, not despite their being- slaves, but be- 
 cause they are slaves. The same people who one 
 day prostrate themselves before the Czar, and rub 
 their eyes with spittle to give themselves the ap- 
 pearance of being- moved to tears, are ready to 
 make a revolution on the morrow ; for it is generally 
 the slavish spirit of a people, their fettered intellects 
 and want of a strong- popular will, that g-ive rise to 
 those demonstrations en masse which engender re- 
 volutions. Neither revolutions nor national assem- 
 blies in Russia, could preserve the state, it became 
 necessary to return to the despotic power of the 
 Czars; they alone proved themselves substantial 
 supporters of the nation. But in order to constitute 
 a state and to keep it up, they were obliged to have 
 recourse to the aid of foreig-n elements. 
 
 For a long* while civilization and barbarism stood 
 side by side without any internal connexion, until 
 Peter the Great brought about a union, by com- 
 manding- his barbarians to become civilized, and by 
 insisting-, with all the unscrupulousness and arbi- 
 trariness of autocratic power, upon his command 
 being- carried out. And yet he only half succeeded. 
 Only such persons as were in immediate official de- 
 pendence on the Czar, or who were likely to be 
 placed in such a relation to him, adopted the foreig-n 
 polish, at least outwardly ; the kernel of the nation- 
 ality assumed the position of obstinate, passive re- 
 
35 
 
 sistance, and resolutely and perseveringly refused 
 to adopt even the external symbol of this civiliza- 
 tion, viz. the European costume. However, this 
 opposition did not turn aside the Czars from their 
 object. With Peter the Great the rag-e for the in- 
 troduction of civilization by violent means ascended 
 the throne. He burnt with the desire to raise his 
 people to a level with the nations of Western Eu- 
 rope, or even above them, and the Czar, accustomed 
 to rule despotically, did not in the least seem to 
 understand that the word of command of even the 
 most powerful ruler is of no avail, if it be in oppo- 
 sition to the nature of thing's. The relaxed and 
 mostly unsound political condition of the Western 
 states, the bad passions of the influential classes, 
 which were immediately discovered and correctly 
 judg-ed by his penetrative mind, were not calculated 
 to discourage the hope that Russia was destined to 
 be the heir to our civilization. He maintained that 
 the arts and sciences, having- spread from Greece 
 through Italy to Germany, the turn had at leng-th 
 come to Russia. u Our turn will come likewise," 
 he said, " if you will but stand by me in my earnest 
 undertaking-, and accept the g*ood and renounce the 
 evil, not merely in blind obedience to my commands, 
 but of your own free will. I compare the prog-ress of 
 the sciences with the circulation of the blood in the 
 human body, and I have a presentiment that they 
 will once quit their dvvelling--places in Eng-land, 
 France, and Germany, that they will then abide 
 
 c 2 
 
30 
 
 some centuries with us, and subsequently return to 
 their true home in Greece." However much there 
 ma} r be urged against the comparison between the 
 circulation of the blood and the course of the sciences, 
 the truth of the observation that blind obedience 
 does not suffice to engender civilization, will be ad- 
 mitted by all. Yet there was in Russia nothing- but 
 this absolute popular obedience, which sees in the 
 rule of the Czar the rule of God, and the strength 
 of which, according* to Karanisin, constitutes the 
 strength of the Russian empire. There was nothing 
 but this to which Peter could appeal, and, like his 
 predecessors, but in a much greater measure, he was 
 obliged to supply its deficiencies by means of foreign 
 elements. 
 
 Peter the Great undoubtedly marks a very im- 
 portant period in the history of Russian nationality. 
 This nationality would necessarily have perished in 
 consequence of the progress of dissolution, which 
 commenced as soon as the principle of life and 
 strength in it had been destroyed with the Norman 
 aristocracy, and the political unity had been recon- 
 stituted on the basis of an inept and chaotic mass 
 of slaves, had not Peter with a strong hand gathered 
 together the materials required for the reconsolida- 
 tion of the dissolving elements. But the mode in 
 which he endeavoured to effect the restoration was 
 very peculiar. His predecessors had likewise dis- 
 covered, and practically recognized, that the state 
 could only be kept up by means of foreign ele- 
 
37 
 
 ments, but they had contented themselves with 
 taking- these foreign elements into their service, 
 while they and their people remained in the same 
 condition as before. The foreign elements were, in 
 their eyes, merely necessary external aids towards 
 the advancement of the Old-Russian state, and they 
 wei'e deficient as well in earnest desire as in the 
 strength required for naturalizing* the foreign insti- 
 tutions in Russia, and for reconstructing* the in- 
 stitutions of the country on the same principles. It 
 was herein that Peter differed from them : he forced 
 the nation to familiarize itself with foreign manners 
 and institutions, and to adopt them 5 he endeavoured 
 to revolutionize the nation ; and he being* himself no 
 Old-Russian Czar, surrounded by Byzantine eti- 
 quette and held captive in the bonds of superstitious 
 formalism, but a man who, though still a barbarian 
 had broken with the old forms of the past, and was 
 grasping* with avidity at everything new, every- 
 thing connected with Western civilization, he re- 
 quired that his people also should energetically 
 break with the past, and should precipitate itself, as 
 it were, into Western civilization, to commence 
 therein a new life. He considered it his mission to 
 achieve this; and notwithstanding the obstinate op* 
 position which he met with, and against which he 
 had to struggle his whole life, he never despaired of 
 ultimate success. 
 
 At first a masculine foreign race, the Warnegs, 
 had given an impetus to the Sclavonic people, and 
 
38 
 
 had formed them into a nation. Afterwards, when 
 in the course of centuries and of varying- circum- 
 stances, the effects of this impetus had ceased to be 
 apparent, it was a single individual who g*ave a new 
 impulse to the nation, by introducing- new life into 
 Russia from without. As in the 9th century it 
 was a more highly endowed race, which, by conquest 
 and intermixture, had endeavoured to raise the 
 Sclavonic race out of its natural ineptitude and in- 
 capacity, it was now the example of the civilized 
 "Western states which was to excite the emulation of 
 Russia, and by following- which she was to enter 
 into the ranks of civilized states. Peter, intent upon 
 his plans, entirely overlooked the fact, that althoug-h 
 it is undeniable that states exercise a great influence 
 on each other, no nation has ever attained greatness 
 merely by imitating- another, and that the mind of 
 a nation like that of an individual, is developed not 
 only by the adoption of foreign elements, but also 
 by antagonism to them. 
 
 Peter's command that they should adopt civiliza- 
 tion was obeyed, though most reluctantly, by those 
 who were oblig*ed by their social position to submit 
 to every demand of the all-powerful Czar, that is to 
 say, by the nobles, who were in direct relation with 
 and dependence on the government. An independent, 
 self-relying- aristocracy there had never been in 
 Russia, or at all events it had ceased to exist by 
 this time \ there was only an official nobility^ and 
 this had not the power to resist a command of the 
 
39 
 
 Czar. These nobles intrigued, and even conspired 
 against the innovations ; but after their intrigues 
 had been disclosed, and their plots frustrated, nothing" 
 remained to them but to submit to the will of the 
 Czar. They discarded the Russian costume and 
 donned the garb of Western Europe ; they adopted 
 the manners and customs, in which Peter himself 
 set them an example \ they read European books 
 and newspapers ; and there can be no doubt, that in 
 many directions they evinced great aptitude and 
 docility. A Europeanized society was thus formed 
 in Russia, and if this were the sole object of Peter, 
 he may truly foe said to have attained it. He had 
 dragged his people, or at least a portion of it, con- 
 siderable not only b}^ its numbers but especially by 
 its mental superiority, into European civilization. 
 This seemed enough to secure the future independe it 
 progress of the nation. 
 
 However, so far from this being the case, Russia 
 from that moment became more dependent even on 
 Western Europe than she had been before she had 
 broken with the past. Not only her intellectual 
 dependence was increased, in as much as every pro- 
 gress, every amelioration, that originated in the 
 West, had to be transplanted in an outward, 
 mechanical way to Russia, this country possessing 
 no power of production but merely of imitation ; 
 but even the introduction of foreign, material 
 elements into Russia acquired from this moment a 
 greater development. It was at this period that 
 
40 
 
 numbers of ill-used and adventurous men of talent 
 swarmed from England and France, but more par- 
 ticularly from Germany, into Russia, and rose there 
 with almost fabulous rapidity, and along* a most 
 dangerous path, to the highest positions in the state. 
 Peter not only stood in need of the aid of the 
 foreigners to teach his Russians arts and acquire- 
 ments until then unknown to them, and to instruct 
 and organize his army, which had been remodelled 
 on the European pattern, but more than all, the 
 new Russian state required the foreigners as a pro- 
 tection against the native officials. 
 
 All sincere Russians, and even such as are by no 
 means friendly to the Germans, confess, though 
 very reluctantly, that every Russian official, be it 
 in the highest or the lowest rank, will be guilty of 
 as many peculations and as many acts of extortion 
 and injustice as he thinks will escape detection, and 
 punishment; that the only motive that restrains 
 him from committing any scandalous act, is fear ; 
 and that the punctuality, probity, and incorruptible- 
 ness of the Germans are indispensable to enable the 
 government to carry on the administration of the 
 state, even in such manner as it has been conducted 
 since the time of Peter. Such confessions made by 
 Russians, and by Russians who hate the Germans, 
 and who make no attempt to conceal this hatred, 
 render it superfluous for us to explain the reasons 
 why almost all the important offices in the Russian 
 empire have until very lately been filled by Germans, 
 
41 
 
 The extent to which peculation and bribery exists 
 in the Russian chanceries, and the remarks which 
 various Russian emperors have made upon this state 
 of things, are but too well known. There is no doubt 
 some truth in the assertion that these vices are the 
 fruits of the absolute system of government, which 
 necessitates the creation of a bureaucracy that be- 
 comes a state in the state, and is thus enabled in a 
 great measure to evade even the superintendence of 
 the supreme power. But independently of the fact 
 that this absolute system has its roots in the genius 
 of the people, and could not be supplanted by any 
 government essentially different in form, because of 
 the Russian nation being deficient in the qualities 
 which are absolutely necessary for the success of a 
 parliamentary form of government, it must be ad- 
 mitted that the nefarious practices of which Russian 
 officials are so generally guilty, also have their 
 immediate source in the national character of the 
 Russian people. Naturally, the Russian recognizes 
 neither legal or moral relations, but only brute force. 
 Of such qualities as faithfulness, honour, and native 
 moral rectitude, which the free personality of the 
 German race has imparted to all the Western nations, 
 the Russian, as such, has no conception, and when 
 subsequent education does make him in some mea-^ 
 sure acquainted with them, they nevertheless remain 
 foreign to his nature. Authority alone is imposing 
 in his sight, and as on the one hand he exercises his 
 authority over his subordinates in the most reckless 
 
42 
 
 manner, and avails himself as unscrupulously of the 
 benefits he derives from it, on the other hand he 
 submits with a kind of fatalism, when those above 
 him treat him in like manner. He feels no shame 
 when his peculations are detected and punished ; 
 for he knows that in the most cases, the majority of 
 his judges, though more prudent, do not act more 
 honourably. How a state based upon a bureaucracy 
 so utterly corrupt, can be expected to endure for 
 any length of time, and how it can even be held up 
 to the Western nations as a model for imitation, it 
 is difficult to conceive ! At all events, it is evident 
 why the Russian rulers, since the time of Peter the 
 Great, have so highly appreciated the Germans in 
 their service ; and why they have not been anxious 
 to cause a fusion between the latter and the Rus- 
 sians, by which means they would only be delivered 
 up to more speedy corruption. The minimum of 
 rectitude which is still to be found in the service of 
 the Russian state is contingent upon the presence 
 of Germans in the service ; and Peter, who disco- 
 vered his Russian favourites committing the basest 
 frauds, although he had overwhelmed them with 
 pecuniary favours, in order to strengthen them 
 against temptations, and to keep them in the path 
 of probity, found that, nevertheless, it was Ger- 
 mans alone who devoted themselves with zeal and 
 attachment to the service of the state. Had it not 
 been for the German, Osterman, who with a firm 
 and incorruptible hand steered the Russian vessel of 
 
43 
 
 state through the storms and breakers which arose 
 after Peter's death, there would perhaps at this day 
 have been no Russian state in existence, at least not 
 one deserving* of the appellation. 
 
 The so-called civilization of Russia could thus only 
 be achieved by Peter at the cost of a schism in the 
 Russian nation, and it is this point that is of greatest 
 importance to us in the present investigation. Those 
 Russians who were not in immediate dependence on 
 the government, that is to say, the great mass of 
 peasants and craftsmen, were placed beyond the 
 reach of the Czar's commands, and persisted in their 
 Oriental and Byzantine customs and habits with the 
 greater obstinacy, because the Church on which 
 Peter threw ridicule, regarded hi3 innovations with 
 hatred and suspicion, and was only prevented by its 
 Byzantine impotency from resisting them with more 
 resolution and activity. By his reckless revolution- 
 ary rupture with the past history of his people, Peter 
 placed himself in a most peculiar position to the great 
 mass of this people. He stood opposed to them as 
 an enemy, and a conqueror, he, who was neverthe- 
 less the hereditary, irresponsible rider of the people, 
 and as such venerated by the slavish mass. This 
 relative position of the parties made energetic de^ 
 monstrations impossible on either side. Peter, him- 
 self a Russian, and earnestly bent upon making 
 Russia great and powerful, and consequently anxious 
 to keep alive the ancient antagonism to the West, 
 which latter he as much as any of his predecessors 
 
44 
 
 or successors desired to see prostrate at the feet of 
 Russia — Peter was not capable of entering into such 
 a struggle with his people as would entirely subdue 
 its nature, and the same contradiction, which per- 
 vades the whole Russian state, was thus created in 
 his mind also. If Russia were to be really civilized 
 after the fashion of the West, it was essential that 
 this civilization should penetrate down to the very 
 roots of the nationality; and if really intent upon 
 this object, Peter could not limit himself to occa- 
 sionally scoffing at the Church, and to depriving it 
 of all power ; it would have been necessary for him 
 to attack the Church in the hearts of the people, and 
 to force the people into becoming either Catholics or 
 Protestants. However, had he proceeded in this 
 way, he would almost have ceased to be a Russian, 
 he would have become an agent of the West, and 
 Russia would have become an intellectual conquest 
 of the West, and would sooner or later have been 
 brought into regular political dependence also on the 
 West. On the other hand, if even the Russian peo- 
 ple had the strength required for determined and 
 active resistance to the hateful foreign innovations, 
 it could not have availed itself of this strength against 
 its Czar, in whose will it recognized the will of the 
 Deity ; it durst not revolt ; it was obliged to limit 
 itself to passive resistance, putting its trust in the 
 innate stubbornness of its Sclavonic nature. This 
 trust was fully justified. Russian u civilization" has 
 now been in existence about one century and a half, 
 
45 
 
 but it has never yet penetrated into the depths of the 
 nation. Until the present day the two classes 
 created by Peter stand almost hostilely side by side, 
 and this is the more easily accounted for, as the 
 position of that class which Peter hated because it 
 persisted in its old ways, has suffered the greatest 
 material injuries in consequence of his innovations — 
 nay its whole condition has deteriorated to a degree 
 hardly ever before witnessed in history. It is only 
 since Peter's reiefn that serfdom has become general 
 and has acquired legal existence ; and now it would 
 appear that even the autocrat, acting under the influ- 
 ence of the philanthropic ideas of Europe, cannot for 
 economical reasons abolish it, or even mitigate it. 
 Russians are indeed white men, nevertheless they seem 
 to have certain qualities in common with the negroes. 
 When not compelled to work they will not do so, or 
 ar least not more than is absolutely necessary to 
 sustain life. 
 
 It is evident, not only that a schism in the nation, 
 such as that existing* in Russia, must weaken the 
 state or at least prevent it from growing* strong, but 
 that the dissevered parts must constantly tend to- 
 wards reunion, although centuries may pass before 
 it be accomplished. The explanation of the fact 
 that a strong* Old-Russian reaction against the inno- 
 vations of the deceased Czar did not take place im- 
 mediately after Peter's death, may be sought 
 principally in the instinctive consciousness of political 
 incapacity in the Old-Russian party ; subsequently, 
 
46- 
 
 reactions have chiefly been prevented by the circum- 
 stance of a German dynasty having" ascended the 
 throne. During- nearly a whole century govern- 
 ment was carried on by means of the upper civilized 
 stratum, and without any regard to the mass of the 
 people, who, as has been stated, sank into a deplora- 
 ble state of thraldom. The Russians in St. Peters- 
 burg^ live upon the crumbs of European civilization, 
 and all the ideas of the West, at the head of which 
 stood France, a country that had already undergone 
 a mental revolution, were allowed to flow unchecked 
 into Russia. Having' no indigenous literature or 
 science to feed upon, the higher circles in Russia 
 feasted upon the philosoph}^ of the Encyclopedists, 
 upon the works of Voltaire and Rousseau, having 
 the while no conception of the condition, or the social 
 and political development of which these ideas were 
 the fruits. Indeed no one entertained the slightest 
 intention of applying these ideas to the actual con- 
 dition of Russia, and the same Catherine who wrote 
 letters full of sentimental philosophy to Diderot and 
 Voltaire, converted by a stroke of her pen thousands 
 of free Russian peasants into serfs, without being- 
 conscious of having been guilty of any inconsistency. 
 Western ideas were, in Russia, simply articles of 
 luxury adopted merely with a view to increasing 
 the enjoyments of life, in the same way as Cham- 
 pagne or any other article of occidental produce. 
 Thus strikingly did the hothouse character of a civi- 
 lization which has never taken root in Russia., mani- 
 fest itself at that time. 
 
 
• 47 
 
 The French revolution, and more particularly the 
 events of the year 181*2, caused a change in the 
 mutual relations of government and people in Rus- 
 sia. Already Peter the Great had had his atten- 
 tion directed by one of the most conservative of his 
 old- Russian subjects to the dangerous deductions, 
 as regards the monarchical, and still more the auto- 
 cratic power, which might be drawn from the ideas 
 of the West, and from the proceedings in several 
 "civilized" countries; but Peter answered him with 
 a laugh. Monarchs at that period neither dreamed 
 of, nor believed in revolutions. Nevertheless revo- 
 lution suddenly appeared as the ripe fruit of the 
 very ideas which had been so sedulously nurtured 
 at St. Petersburg*. People then grew a little sus- 
 picious, but were still far from believing in the pos- 
 sibility of a repetition of the French revolution in 
 St. Petersburg, or even in the possibility of an at- 
 tempt of the kind. Even when the lava flood of 
 the revolution broke its waves against the snows 
 and ice of Russia ; when all classes of the Russian 
 people, after the separation of a century, were united 
 by one and the same patriotic thought, and the 
 gulph that lay between them seemed for a moment 
 to have disappeared, — even then the government did 
 not earnestly contemplate renouncing* its Western 
 tendencies, and resuming its stand on Russian na- 
 tionality. It was the consequences of the year 
 1812 which gradually led to this determination; 
 and it was by the most opposite paths that the 
 
48 
 
 Russian nation reached the transitional period in 
 which it is now undeniably engaged, and in which 
 it is passing* from inward division to re-union. Whe- 
 ther it will find itself stronger or weaker after this 
 climacteric has been passed, is another question. 
 
 The campaign in France, and the immediate and 
 living" contact into which it brought the Russian 
 army with the various conditions and institutions 
 of the West, in all of which respect for personality, 
 and a recognition of the independence of the indi- 
 vidual are expressed, made of course a deep impres- 
 sion by no means favourable to Russian institutions. 
 It was indeed the strongly pronounced tendency to 
 imitation in the Sclavonic character, which was first 
 of all awakened by the contact ; but the liberal as- 
 sociations which were formed in Russia after the 
 return from France, and which soon assumed a re- 
 volutionary character — as is but natural in a country 
 where the political and national life is concentrated 
 in a single point— were obliged, in order to be able 
 to make some practical application of their new 
 ideas, to take their stand upon Russian ground, upon 
 the ground of Russian nationality ; to make them- 
 selves acquainted with the peculiar circumstances 
 and relations of Russia ; and to reflect upon the 
 means of introducing ameliorations. The division 
 of the nation into two classes was thus in the first 
 instance remedied by the revolution in the world of 
 ideas. The educated classes, who had until then 
 turned proudly away from the people and their 
 
49 
 
 wants, now began to take these wants into earnest 
 consideration, with the fixed determination of ame- 
 liorating- the position of the people, either by means 
 of gradual reforms or by violent revolutions ; but 
 the masses, who had not the slightest notion that 
 their welfare was being* taken into account, remained 
 perfectly indifferent when that revolutionary con- 
 spiracy broke out, which the Russians in their na- 
 tional vanity (which is much greater even than that 
 of the French) represent as having had a socialistic 
 character, because the emancipation of the peasants 
 was of course named in the program. The impetus 
 to the bridging over of the chasm, which had existed 
 since the time of Peter, had thus been given by the 
 ideas of Western Europe, and these ideas consti- 
 tuted the guiding principle. But from the opposite 
 side attempts were also made to gain the same goal 
 by placing the Kusso-Sclavonic character, with all 
 its peculiarities, in antagonism with the West. The 
 first named principles are those of the European 
 revolutionary party, the latter those of the Sclavo- 
 philes. Peter the Great is the type of the former 
 party, and their object is to continue his work, and 
 to elevate the classes hitherto shut out from civiliza- 
 tion and from the enjoyments of life; the latter 
 party is on principle opposed to all European inno- 
 vations, endeavours to bring out in sharp contrast 
 the distinctive features of the Byzantine- Sclavonic 
 character, and speaks in laudatory terms of the 
 absence of selfishness (Selbstlosigheit), which they 
 
 i) 
 
50 
 
 say distinguishes this nationality, as also the Greek 
 Church — altogether this party represents the essen- 
 tial features of the Old-Russian nationality. These 
 two parties are not merely the product of a certain 
 period, their roots lie deep in the soil of Russian 
 history, and they will necessarily be constantly re- 
 produced with modifications. Although in many 
 respects antagonistic they nevertheless meet on 
 several points. They are both essentially Russian, 
 they both desire^to heal the disruption from which the 
 nation is suffering, and to bring Europe. under Rus- 
 sian rule ; and above all they meet in their common 
 hatred of Germany. Were a revolution to break 
 out in Russia, which is certainly not probable at 
 the present moment although it must unavoidably 
 take place at a future period, the European party 
 would no doubt, like the constitutional party in 
 France, assume the foremost place ; but the Scla- 
 vonic party would subsequently make itself master 
 of the revolution, would eject the foreign elements, 
 and then return to despotism, which would either 
 degenerate into the old Asiatic stagnation, or again 
 introduce foreign elements into Russia, and begin 
 the cycle over again. 
 
 It is evident that the Russian government, all 
 absolute though it be, is placed in no enviable posi- 
 tion between these two parties, and has no easy task 
 to perform. The very facts that two such parties 
 do notoriously exist, that for some time at least 
 they could not even be prevented from openly ex- 
 
51 
 
 pressing" their opinions and endeavouring* to g , ain 
 adherents, and that even at present it is not possible 
 to keep both equally in subjection, must be very 
 perplexing- to a government like the Russian — 
 which feels that it is, and must be, everything* in 
 the state, the whole existence of which is contin- 
 g'ent on its own. An autocracy which is obliged to 
 choose between two antagonistic parties, which is 
 oblig-ed to allow itself to be supported by the one or 
 the other, and to make concessions to them, in so 
 doing* makes an open confession of weakness * and 
 it cannot be denied that Nicholas's government was 
 beholden to the Sclavophile party, althoug-h it exerted 
 itself to the utmost to assert its superiority over both. 
 The more the revolutionary phenomena in Russia 
 threatened the government, the more forcibly was 
 the latter, though essentially German in its charac- 
 ter, driven into the arms of the Sclavonic party ; and 
 the more evident it became that the revolutionary 
 ideas were connected with that Western civilization 
 and culture which Peter and his successors had 
 transplanted to Russia, the more necessary it 
 became for the government to turn back and take 
 its stand on the ground of Sclavonism and Russian 
 nationality. Since 1825 Russia has thus drawn 
 more and more back, has locked herself more up 
 within herself, has placed herself in a more hostile 
 position towards the West and its progressive 
 ideas, and while all liberal opinions — nay almost all 
 traces of anv culture differing' from that which is 
 
 d2 
 
52 
 
 inculcated by the aid of the drill-serjeant's cane — 
 have been more persecuted than ever, and the 
 holders of these opinions and the possessors of such 
 culture have disappeared in masses in Siberia and in 
 the Caucasus, the ideas of Sclavonic rule and Scla- 
 vonic expansion have spread considerably. Upon 
 the whole it must be confessed, that not only these 
 ideas, but the real power of Russia has attained a 
 greater expansion during* the reign of Nicholas, who 
 is the first of the modern rulers of Russia who has 
 sought a moral support in the Russian nationality, 
 than during the reign of any sovereign since the 
 time of Peter. Nicholas is indeed quite aware that 
 the foreigners, and more particularly the Germans, 
 in the Russian service, still constitute the real 
 strength of the nationality as regards inward as 
 well as outward action, and that although he cannot 
 oppose the national Sclavonic movement he must 
 strain every nerve to keep it in check and to prevent 
 an outbreak of its fanaticism, which, in as far as it 
 would be a national revolution, would meet the 
 wishes of the other and more dangerous party. The 
 only means of preventing this is great wisdom and 
 moderation within, and constant movement and 
 expansion in an outward direction. 
 
 These anomalies in the position of Nicholas ex- 
 plain the great importance which is with right 
 attached to him personally by the Avhole of Europe. 
 He rules, guides and restrains the power of Russia, 
 because he knows it and judges it correctly. He 
 
53 
 
 satisfies the national feeling's without allowing' him- 
 self to be hurried into dangerous undertaking's. He 
 represents the Russian nation in its totality and in 
 its tendency to gradual internal reunion. He exerts 
 himself to heal the rupture caused by Peter's un- 
 scrupulous and violent mode of proceedings but this 
 never makes him forget for a moment that the 
 foreign or German elements constitute the true poli- 
 tical strength of the Russian people. But Nicholas 
 is mortal, and the problems which Russia believes 
 herself called to solve — and the more so because of 
 the success which has hitherto attended her under- 
 takings — are pressing* forward in ever greater num- 
 ber; and the question as to what constitutes the 
 real and enduring strength of the Russian nation, 
 is the more justified, the more the whole demeanour 
 of the nation, and even of its revolutionary and 
 volatile members, proves that it means to assert its 
 independence and its self-reliance. (Selbstgeniige). 
 
 The answer to this question must be sought in 
 the history of the people and in its analogies with 
 the history of other nations belonging to the same 
 genus. 
 
 According to an incontestable law of history, cer- 
 tain nations that we would fain denominate instinc- 
 tive nations (Naturvolker), i. e. sensual, unfree, 
 fettered nations, ruled by the powers of material 
 nature, can only receive a progressive impetus and 
 higher life from a race endowed with a superior 
 organization. However, according to a law equally 
 
54 
 
 incontestable, such inferior nations react against the 
 intruders, and while endeavouring to assimilate some 
 of the foreign elements, at the same time make 
 efforts to throw off and suppress such of their pro- 
 perties as cannot be assimilated. The existence of 
 these two laws is confirmed by the history of many 
 states which either have played, or are still playing, 
 an important part in history. Thus, those who in 
 reviewing history do not merely fix their eyes on 
 external facts, can entertain no doubt that the whole 
 history of France is, so to say, but a great and long 
 protracted reaction of the Celto- Romanic elements 
 ao-ainst the invading' and victorious Germanic ele- 
 ments —although in consequence of the fusion that 
 took place, the different elements seemed blended into 
 one nationality.* The history of England, also, con- 
 firms the existence of this law, with this difference, 
 that in that country the popular elements that were 
 blended in so peculiar a manner belonged in both 
 cases to those more highly endowed races which 
 seem destined by nature to rule. In England the 
 mass of the population was Saxon, and endowed 
 with all the chaotic, individualistic tendencies that 
 constitute the strength, but also the weakness, of 
 Germanism in its original and unmixed state. To 
 unite these centrifugal forces in one form, and to 
 o-nther them round one centre, was the task of the 
 Normans, who, springing originally from the same 
 
 * Compare my work : Frankreich, seine Element e, und ihre 
 Eat wield a n (j. Stuttgart, Karl Gbpel, 18:i3. 
 
55 
 
 root, had undergone, without deteriorating', a short 
 but beneficial course of training* in the Romanic 
 school, and who established a feudal realm in Eng- 
 land. In this case a voluntary fusion was more 
 easy, but nevertheless the existence of the above law 
 is further proved by it. The German element con- 
 stantly reacted, and in the course of time filled the 
 Norman forms with German spirit and German 
 liberty ; but it spared the forms, feeling* truly that 
 these also have their value, and that the Germans 
 when left to themselves have been too apt to neglect 
 them to their own detriment. This compromise be- 
 tween the two elements— a compromise which does 
 not exclude the reaction that creates life and motion 
 in the state, but which prevents the destruction of 
 one element by the other— constitutes the strength of 
 England. 
 
 In Russia it was a numerous but sensual race, 
 held captive in the bonds of material nature, who 
 were awakened, as it w T ere, to a consciousness of life 
 by an impetus imparted by a small band of Norman 
 Waraegs. The numerical inferiority of the Waraegs, 
 together with their rapid and great success, proves 
 the moral infirmness of the Sclavonic race, and the 
 low degree in the scale of nations which it originally 
 occupied. In the course of time however, the re- 
 action of the great mass of Sclaves, who had remained 
 on their native soil and retained their ancient man- 
 ners and customs, proved necessarily the stronger 
 and the more successful, because the ruling class, 
 
56 
 
 though possessing* great capacities for culture and 
 great powers of organization, had not attained a 
 high state of culture which they could oppose to the 
 Sclavonic institutions and influences. The Wareeo-s 
 were absorbed by the mass of the Sclavonic people, 
 and disappeared in consequence. And yet this hand- 
 ful of men left traces of their individualism in Russia, 
 which are perceptible up to the sixteenth century, 
 and by the absorption of which the Russian nation 
 subsisted up to that date ; for the life-process of 
 such mixed races as come under the law alluded to 
 above is as follows : the reaction, that is to say, the 
 process of assimilation and excretion, creates the 
 movement without which there can be no higher 
 political or national life \ when the reaction is com- 
 pleted, the movement ceases, and the state expires. 
 Thus the political life of France is constituted by 
 the reaction against Germanism and the Germanic 
 elements, and this reaction having come to a close 
 in the present times, the commencement of decom- 
 position announces itself by unmistakeable signs ; 
 and although a burning thirst remains, created by 
 the elements of life which have either been assimi- 
 lated or excreted — a thirst for action and for the 
 solution of problems, which are grasped at the more 
 deliriously, the more the vital elements become 
 extinct — the power of satisfying this thirst is gone. 
 That which in France has been realized in a pro- 
 tracted and exciting course of history, exciting 
 because of the great interests of civilization involved, 
 
57 
 
 has in Russia been manifested in a manner essen- 
 tially the same, but through a barren and uninte- 
 resting- course of history, which may be said to be 
 concluded by the re-establishment of the unity of the 
 state under Ivan ; just as in France the struggle 
 against the Germanic elements terminated for a 
 time under Louis XI. as under Louis XIV. and 
 Napoleon I., in an ever more strongly pronounced 
 and purely mechanical political unity, which the 
 French and their apes consider ought to be the 
 highest object of all national endeavours —until 
 under Napoleon I'll.) this unity has assumed such a 
 potentiality, that the whole people has been trans- 
 formed, if not into slaves, at least into cyphers with 
 one figure at their head — until nation, state, civiliza- 
 tion, society, and whatever else these fine things 
 may be called, are placed in complete dependence on 
 one man, and are, even according to the admission 
 of the conservative classes, exposed to the rule of 
 accident : a state of things which will gradually be 
 recognized as the transition to regular dissolution. 
 This very same spectacle of an inept mass of slaves, 
 cringing- at the feet of a despot, who seems to have 
 absorbed all the independent life, all the individualism 
 of the nation, was presented by Russia after the last 
 remnants of Warsegian individuality had been 
 destroyed with the boyar nobility. The only dif- 
 ference is, that the Russian nation was still in a 
 barbarous state, and in so far still capable of re- 
 ceiving civilization ; whereas the French have car- 
 
58 
 
 ried the civilization which they are capable of 
 receiving*, to such a pitch of refinement, that they 
 threaten to retrace their steps and — for lack of some 
 foreign barbarism wherewith to revivify themselves 
 — to get up a little native barbarism. France is 
 like an old man exhausted by pleasure, who, though 
 living*, is in a state of partial decomposition, and who 
 tickles his palate with the most pungent condiments, 
 and wants to pass off the appearance of life thus 
 created, for a new and higher stage of development. 
 Russia was like an utterly neglected lad, in whom 
 youth had as it were been petrified — in a word, like 
 a kind of political Caspar Hauser. For Russia it 
 was therefore possible to beg-in life over again ; not 
 so for France. The education of Russia had, as it 
 were, failed, and might be recommenced. As re- 
 gards France all the educational arts of Romans 
 and Germans have long since been exhausted. Its. 
 condition is such as requires a physician, not a 
 teacher; and physicians will indeed ultimately be 
 attracted by the stench of its corruption ; but it is 
 doubtful whether their pills will be agreeable to its 
 palate. 
 
 The feeling of unity in the Russian people was 
 the only ground that remained on which a higher 
 national life could be founded. This feeling had 
 always existed in the Sclavonic race, and had there- 
 fore not been created, but awakened, by the VVartegs, 
 and directed by them to a certain point. After the 
 reaction against Warsegian individualism had been 
 
59 
 
 completed, this feeling- of unity found its expression 
 in the despotism of the Ozars over a chaotic mass, 
 devoid of all inequalities. As the inherent life of 
 the nation had been crushed, but the state, the unity 
 of which had been re-established, nevertheless put 
 forward certain political claims, and more particu- 
 larly claims to dominion over other nations, the 
 Czars — being* unable to draw the necessary means 
 for the satisfaction of these claims from the internal 
 resources of the people, in which all that was or- 
 ganic and full of life had ceased to exist — were 
 obliged to draw these organic and political elements 
 from abroad. With this step, which took place long- 
 before the time of Peter the Great, began a new 
 epoch in the history of the Eussian nation. It is, 
 however, evident that in this case there was no 
 question of the fusion of two races, such as consti- 
 tuted the strength of the French people for instance. 
 The despots purchased with money the services of 
 foreigners, whom they invited to Moscow, and these 
 foreigners— -who opened up, worked, and rendered 
 valuable the natural resources of the Eussian soil, 
 and also organized and instructed the army and 
 served as body-guards — constituted the real strength 
 of the state and of the nationality, without however 
 blending with the latter, in proportion to which they 
 always formed a very small minority. But, not- 
 withstanding no fusion took place, the law of reaction 
 against all foreign elements nevertheless showed 
 itself active, and its effects could under such cir- 
 
60 
 
 eumstances not be otherwise than suicidal, and of 
 very short duration, for an imperfect body, requiring 
 completion, is in this case made to react against the 
 supplementary elements, and consequently against 
 its own life, and it is incapable of restoring its own 
 life by means of the antagonism, because the 
 elements against which it reacts do not possess free, 
 independent, spontaneous life, but have merely been 
 mechanically introduced by the common master of 
 both, and are used in his service. In France the 
 Gallic, popular element was strengthened by the 
 fact that the Germanic elements against which it 
 pressed forward, in their turn reacted against it, in 
 consequence of their free nature and their power of 
 resistance, so that in the course of the long struggle 
 the power of the Germanic elements gradually passed 
 over into the Roman. Of such a long, exciting 
 struggle, full of varying events, there can be no 
 question in Russia ; the course of the struggle must 
 here be as rapid as its conclusion is certain : the 
 nation endeavours to throw off the foreign elements, 
 and in as far as it depends upon itself, it easily suc- 
 ceeds ; but it thereby weakens itself and the state, 
 causes confusion and destruction, but never deserts 
 the Czar, who is the symbol of its unity, or at least 
 always comes back to him, as for instance in the re- 
 volutions in the beginning of the 17th century ; and 
 the Czar on his side, after he has established himself 
 firmly and has conquered the resistance opposed to 
 him, can do nothing more than recommence his 
 
61 
 
 plan of introducing' foreigners, and of letting 1 new 
 life flow into Russia from without. Peter the Great 
 alone, believed that he should be able to evade the 
 law of reaction against all foreign innovations by 
 commanding his Russians to adopt the latter at 
 once. It is well known, however, that he was 
 obliged to rest satisfied with a merely external 
 adoption, and even this only succeeded with a small 
 portion of the people. The blending and fusion of 
 the separate elements he was obliged to leave to 
 futurity. The result is before us : in as far as the 
 foreign culture really has been absorbed into the 
 flesh and blood of the Russians, it has undermined 
 the ancient religious-patriarchal foundation of the 
 autocratic power of the Czar. The Czar, who was 
 regarded by the barbarous Old-Russians as a neces- 
 sary integrant of their nationality, as the source of 
 life whence each one drew his supply of vitality, ap- 
 pears as superfluous and hateful in his despotism, 
 as soon as the individuals have received life from 
 some other source, or he is at the most regarded as 
 the servant of all — a view which Peter himself seems 
 to have taken of his own position, when he wrote to 
 the senate to elect the most capable person for chief 
 of the state, without any consideration for his family, 
 in case he did not return from a dangerous expedi- 
 tion which he was about to undertake. This is not 
 a Czardom, but a dictatorship, and is in so far fun- 
 damentally different from German legitimacy. The 
 substance of the Old-Russian nationality will cer- 
 
G2 
 
 tainly be destroyed by this absorption of a foreign 
 civilization, but the nation is not strengthened by 
 it, the divided members are not reunited, the reac- 
 tion is not prevented. The latter will, on the con- 
 trary, only become more concentrated by the feeling 
 of insufficiency and the desire for completeness which 
 pervades the Russian nation, and it will hurry along 
 in its one-sided course the Czar, whose natural mis- 
 sion it is to stand above the two parties, and will 
 attain with rapid steps the goal which it has already 
 reached more than once in history. This repetition 
 of the same course seems unavoidable ; the organic 
 and living foreign elements, which the Czar intro- 
 duces into Russia, without however assigning to 
 them a position that admits of free, independent re- 
 sistance, which would indeed be in contradiction to 
 his autocratism, only serve to be rapidly consumed 
 by the regularly ensuing Sclavonic reaction ; the 
 greater the amount and the more powerful the life 
 that flows in, the more there will be, of course, to 
 expend again, but this expenditure will always take 
 place with comparative rapidity, because under a 
 despotism no elements of resistance can be developed, 
 and in Russia there never can, and never will be a 
 question of a strong nationality. The only thing 
 which the Russian people possess, is unity ; but let 
 it be observed, that unity without liberty, without 
 movement is simply death, i. e. political death. 
 
 The true condition of a nation, that draws its life 
 not from itself but from abroad, and that finds the 
 
03 
 
 despotism that weighs upon it increased in propor- 
 tion to the amount of life which it thus imbibes, is 
 comprehended by some Russians, although by far 
 the greater number, in conformhVy with their brutal 
 Sclavonic nature, seek compensation for the want of 
 liberty at home in the pride of dominion abroad 5 
 and never give a thought to the fact that the domi- 
 nion exercised by a nation which is devoid of inter- 
 nal life and strength, can only be very precarious 
 and accidental. There are Russians who shudder 
 when they contemplate the future history of their 
 people, because they fully comprehend, that the im- 
 mense, inexpressible sufferings, that the civilization 
 forced upon it causes this people— sufferings that are 
 much greater than if conquest and fusion on a grand 
 scale had taken place, as in France, and had fun- 
 damentally changed the Russian nationality and 
 created a new nationality endowed with inward life 
 — will not be compensated in the future, that this 
 future will be nothing but a relapse into barbarism, 
 from which the mass of the nation has never emerged, 
 and that Russian history is like the web of Pene- 
 lope, one period destroy ing* what the preceding one 
 has created under much suffering and many tears. 
 Regarding matters from this point of view, Tschaa- 
 daeff, a most distinguished Russian, about twenty 
 years ago, pronounced a curse upon his country and 
 his nation, their past and their future, in words 
 which found their way the more easily to the heart 
 because they seemed so free from passion and pre- 
 
04 
 
 judice^ It being* impossible in any way to inter- 
 pret his work as reflecting- upon the Czar, the 
 author could not be made amenable to the laws of 
 Arcadius and Honorius relating' to big-h treason, 
 which [form part of the penal code of Russia ; the 
 autocrat therefore contented himself with declaring* 
 officially that the author was a madman. This is the 
 mildest fate which in Russia awaits those who give 
 utterance to truth. However, such examples of 
 Russian self-knowledge as that afforded by Tschaa- 
 daeffare indeed very rare. As a general rule the 
 Russian is in the highest degree vain and boastful, 
 and besides being* devoid of the love of truth, he is 
 also devoid of correct insig*ht into his true nature, 
 into the nature, the bounds and limits of his nation- 
 ality, and above all into the accidental causes of its 
 artificial greatness. But can we wonder at this, 
 when we see Germans, and even German philoso- 
 phers, prophesying* that this nationality, which has 
 only attained to what it is by the aid of the Ger- 
 mans, will one day g*ain dominion over Europe ? 
 
 According* to our analysis, which is based upon 
 the history of Russia, and upon the knowledge of 
 the laws which govern the development of all 
 nationalities, there can be no doubt that the Russian 
 nationality— having from the very beginning re- 
 quired supplementary elements (Erg'dnzxmg) and 
 owing its political life entirely to foreign elements, 
 which it was either quite incapable of assimilating 
 or which it could only assimilate superficially and 
 
Go 
 
 imperfectly, and the absorption of which even under 
 the most favourable circumstances, only transiently 
 enriched its nature — cannot be considered as a strong" 
 nationality, full of such vital energies as would 
 render it probable that it would inherit the future. 
 But even those who do not agree with our views, 
 although these cannot be said to be based upon an 
 arbitrary construction of historical facts, but are on 
 the contrary founded on a comprehension of the real 
 circumstances and factors in the history of nations, 
 and although they are more particularly confirmed 
 in the present day by notorious facts, which signalise 
 the last stage of development of that one of the 
 Romanic nations which is the most strongly impreg- 
 nated with Germanic elements — even those that do 
 not participate in our views must admit, that in order 
 to vindicate a claim to be considered strong and fuU 
 of vitality, a nation must have proved its vigour in 
 contest with others of equal strength, and that in fact 
 true strength is principally developed by such con- 
 test. The German nation proved and increased its 
 inherent strength in a struggle of centuries against 
 ancient Rome, and since then it has triumphantly 
 defended and maintained its nationality against 
 nations enjoying a superior degree of culture, and 
 whose vital energies had even been strengthened by 
 an admixture of Germanic elements : such facfsp'ive 
 a just claim to be considered a vigorous nationality. 
 The French developed the full energies of their na- 
 tionality in the struggle against England. Can 
 
66 
 
 Russia point to any such events in justification of 
 the assertion that the Russian nationality is vigour- 
 ous and full of vital energy ? 
 
 In face of history we must give a negative an- 
 swer to this question. From the yoke of the Tartars 
 the Russians were delivered by the internal dissolu- 
 tion of the Mongol empire, not by their own power 
 and ability.* Russia has never tried her strength in 
 a great war against an organized power except when 
 she has been attacked, and Charles XII. and Napo- 
 leon were defeated not by Russian skill but by the 
 elements, and this because of the barbarous state in 
 which the country was sunk. This barbarousness 
 constituted the real strength of Russia. The Rus- 
 sian nation, as we have seen, represents a fixed 
 unity. As such it has promoted the inward dis- 
 solution of various barbarous and semi-barbarous 
 nations, and has even swallowed up several of these 
 nations, who possessed no capacity for independent 
 life. As such also it endeavours to promote anarchy 
 on all sides, in order to be called in as arbitrator, 
 and thus to acquire the dictatorship. The Sclavonic 
 nationality of Poland, in which German institutions 
 appear only in a clumsy and corrupted form, and in 
 
 * That the Russians broke the yoke of the Tartars by their 
 own power, is one of the unhistorical assertions of Mr. Bruno 
 Bauer. The famous battle which delivered Russia from the ne- 
 cessity of paying tribute to the Tartars consisted therein, that the 
 two armies decamped with the utmost speed as soon as they <jame 
 in sight of each other. 
 
67 
 
 which the} r could never take deep root, was of great 
 assistance to Russia in her plans. Other matters 
 which also operated to her advantage, will be touched 
 upon in the sequel. In all the great European con- 
 flicts Russia has always endeavoured to take a part, 
 in order afterwards to arrogate to herself more 
 than half the g'lor}^ by means of the most exagge- 
 rated self-laudations; but she has never yet stood 
 opposed as chief combatant to any of the organized 
 Western powers. 
 
 Not until the Russians have gone through at 
 least some few such struggles as all the important 
 civilized nations of Western Europe sustained during* 
 centuries, and by which they were not exhausted, 
 but on the contrary strengthened, can they lay claim 
 to be considered a vigorous nationality. 
 
 RUSSIAN POLICY. 
 
 It is evident, and we believe furthermore that we 
 have proved it, that the strength of the Russian 
 nationality is not inherently its own, but is derived 
 from those nations whose organizing* elements are 
 used by it for its own purposes, or are engrafted on 
 the nation by the despotic will of the rulers. The 
 Western elements introduced into Russia have 
 served to strengthen the antagonism of the East ; 
 they have undertaken the task of fostering the 
 growth of the enemy, who has never made a secret 
 of his enmity, and of furnishing him with the means 
 
 E 2 
 
/ 
 
 G8 
 
 of bringing* the West under his dominion. It has 
 not indeed been their intention merely to serve the 
 purposes of another, nor have they been conscious 
 of so doing- ; but they found in the East materials, 
 and a stage on which to exercise their activity ; the 
 establishment and development of a governmental 
 system in Russia by them, seemed to them like a 
 conquest made by the West ; and they may have 
 sincerely believed that Eussia would by these means 
 be brought into dependence on the West, which 
 would thus acquire a new field for the expansion of 
 its civilization. From this point of view it is pos- 
 sible to understand the enthusiasm for modern 
 Russia entertained by many Germans, particularly 
 of the last century. The Russians themselves, 
 however, must take a very different view of the 
 matter, and in this difference of views we may trace 
 the germs at least of violent conflicts ; for the time 
 must infallibly arrive when these opposite views will 
 find themselves face to face as mighty adversaries, 
 and will have to prove their truth in combat. 
 
 In like manner as the strength of the Russian 
 nationality is derived from the use of foreign, and 
 more particularly of German elements, so also the 
 strength of Russian policy does not depend upon 
 the importance of the native interests which it re- 
 presents, but upon a skilful use of foreign countries 
 which entrust their interests to it, and allow them 
 to be managed by it. Here, again, it is Germany 
 that constitutes the better part of Russia's strength, 
 
69 
 
 for it is to the diplomatic sway which it exercises 
 over Germany that Russian policy owes the greater 
 part of its success, and the powerful position which 
 it has acquired ; and which threatens the liberty and 
 progress of all European states. Yet the states 
 which are now used Ity Russia for the promotion of 
 her ends, started with the intention of making' 
 Russia subservient to their ends, and of extending 
 the determining influence of the West further north- 
 wards and eastwards \ and even as it is, none of 
 them would venture candidly to confess that they 
 are chained to the triumphal car of Russia. In 
 the policy of Russia, also, we thus find a confused 
 mixture of antagonistic elements, the future sepa- 
 ration of which will be accompanied by violent 
 struggles. 
 
 All the national interests of German}^ are so in- 
 timately concerned in this state of things, the future 
 prospects of the country in this direction are in 
 some respects so seriously menaced, and in others 
 so full of promise ; and its present condition suffers 
 so much under the oppression of the Russo-German 
 policy, that public attention must soon be concen- 
 trated on this point. The apathy and inertness, 
 which naturally follow an unsuccessful national 
 movement, will no longer serve as an excuse, should 
 the most important events connected with European 
 politics — events which will have a decisive influence 
 on the future, be prepared, without public opinion in 
 Germany having learnt to understand the exact 
 
J 
 
 70 
 
 position of the nation with regard to them. If all 
 signs be not deceptive, the national struggles of the 
 West may now be considered at an end, or at least 
 they cannot be recommenced except under a form 
 essentially different from the previous ones, as even 
 the traditions of a Napoleonic empire, it is supposed, 
 cannot be realized without the aid of Eastern com- 
 plications. It is the East that will be the field of 
 the national struggles of the future ; here is the 
 Ilhodus where Germany will have to prove and to 
 accomplish her European and civilizing mission \ 
 here also is the point on which it will first be proved 
 how unfounded are those allusions as to the im- 
 possibility of war, with which impotency and de- 
 crepitude endeavour to calm their fears for their 
 threatened possessions. 
 
 The policy of Russia, and the position of Germany 
 in relation to it, and altogether the significance of 
 the Eastern Question, cannot be understood by the 
 observation of a few more or less accidental pheno- 
 mena and personalities, but must be studied in the 
 whole development of the great period of human 
 history in which we are engaged. 
 
 It is the Germanic race that has given its cha- 
 racter to this period, which began with the migration 
 of nations. Germany was the home of the new 
 life, which flowed hence into the more Western 
 countries. These new elements of life were indeed 
 striving towards a pole lying far beyond the mental 
 ken of the Germanic world, but the feeling that the 
 
71 
 
 Germans were the real bearers of the new life, and 
 that it was they who had g'iven its peculiar character 
 to the new period, was so powerful, that after the 
 fall of the great Frank empire, and the first sepa- 
 ration of the various nationalities, the empire, as the 
 symbol of the temporal unity of the then existing* 
 nations, devolved without a contest to the Germans. 
 This centra] point of union for the Germans, and 
 more particularly for the unmixed German race, 
 was destroyed in the course of time, but not in con- 
 sequence of any absence of vitality, but because of 
 the exuberance of life in the people. In the states 
 reared on the ruins of ancient Roman civilization, 
 it was much easier to establish a regular unity than 
 in Germany, where every individual, so to say, 
 constituted a world in himself and, though recog- 
 nizing in the abstract the justness of subordination, 
 nevertheless refused practically to submit to it ; and 
 as unity in political bodies is a potent factor, and 
 exercises an irresistible power of attraction, this 
 establishment of centralized (einheitlicher) states, 
 temporal as well as ecclesiastical, at the western 
 extremities of Europe, displaced the centre of gravitv 
 of the new period from the centre of Europe, whence 
 the whole movement had issued, and removed it to 
 the peripher}^. In consequence of its disjointed 
 condition, Germany Proper became more and more 
 dependent on those States that had been reared by 
 the aid of German energy, but on Roman founda- 
 tions ; it had to sustain an unceasing struggle to 
 
72 
 
 guard its original character against the injuries and 
 adulterations it was expected by the West to submit 
 to ; and although this struggle postponed for the 
 moment the victory of the Roman West, that is to 
 say of Rome, Spain, France, &c. over unmixed 
 Germanism, it likewise prevented the spread of the 
 common occidental civilization eastwards. The 
 more those Western world-powers laboured, in con- 
 junction with the individualistic tendencies within 
 the German empire, to weaken and break down the 
 imperial power, the more incomplete, limited, and 
 uncertain became the extension of occidental civili- 
 zation eastwards, for want of one great leading 
 power 5 and this was the more to be regretted as 
 Germany was not only marked out by her geo- 
 graphical position to be the transmitter of this 
 civilization, but she was above all others in posses- 
 sion of those elements of civilization, viz. the love 
 of industry, of production, and of economics, from 
 which the Germanic middle classes (Burger stand) 
 have chiefly sprung. 
 
 The institution of nobility is generally, but we 
 think erroneously, considered the specific quality of 
 Germanism ; but in the German element such as it 
 has developed itself in Europe and America, labour, 
 culture, colonization and production, appear in much 
 greater force. In England the Germanic nobility 
 succumbed to the Normans, who were undoubtedly 
 a more decidedly aristocratic nation ; but the 
 Saxon middle classes rose to power under Nor- 
 
73 
 
 man rule, and laid the foundations of the great- 
 ness of New England. In North America the 
 nobles never attained to importance. In Germany, 
 where their power degenerated into licence, they 
 prepared their own downfall by these veiy means, 
 and may now be said to be represented solely by 
 the sovereign princes, who have absorbed them ; 
 whereas the German middle classes were already 
 at a very early period so powerful that they nearly 
 succeeded in becoming the representatives of the 
 common German interests, after the empire had 
 proved itself incapable of fulfilling its true mission. 
 It is incontestable that it is industry, spring- 
 ing from an inherent love of activity — this highest 
 form of the dominion of mind over matter — that is 
 the most prominent characteristic of the Germanic 
 period of the human history ; the conquering* aristo- 
 cracy was only the original and crude form of 
 Germanic expansion. 
 
 And this industrial element was exactly what was 
 required in the East, whose Sclavonic inhabitants, 
 being in all things subject to the senses and to the 
 power of material nature, were incapable, as regards 
 industry and civilization, of rising by their own 
 strength. Borne bestowed Christianity upon the 
 Poles, it is true, but with tins they only received the 
 aristocratic intuitions {Adelsanschauungen) of the 
 Germans, which being transplanted on Sclavonic 
 soil, degenerated into still greater rudeness and 
 licentiousness, and ultimately led to the downfall of 
 
74 
 
 the nation. Had Germany possessed a fixed cen- 
 tral point of union, which truly represented the 
 characteristic features of the nation, the influence 
 exercised upon the East would have been very 
 different, and it would not have been limited to 
 isolated attempts at establishing* colonies on the 
 Baltic shores ; which colonies being* afterwards 
 abandoned by the imperial power, became a prey to 
 the Sclaves. Into Russia proper Western influences 
 scarcely penetrated at all, in consequence of this 
 weakening" of German central Europe. 
 
 As long" as Germany was powerful under her 
 great emperors there was no lack of points of con- 
 tact with the Russian empire, and who can say how 
 fructifying- this contact might have proved ? The 
 connexion was however dissevered b}^ the progress 
 of events in Germany, although Rome never lost 
 sight of those Sclavonic countries. But as Russia 
 had already received Christianity from Byzantium, 
 Roman Catholicism had no chance of penetrating 
 into the country and superseding the Greek church, 
 except through the aid of important political and 
 civilizing influences ; and by whom could this 
 influence be exercised except by that German empire, 
 which Rome strained every nerve to weaken and 
 dissolve ? The fruits of this state of things — which 
 may have been unavoidable under the circumstances 
 — ripened in the course of centuries. 
 
 The same causes that prevented the West from 
 exercising a decided civilizing* influence on Russia, 
 
75 
 
 weakened its power of resistance against the savage, 
 but concentrated, and fanatic assaults of the Osmanli, 
 and it was in consequence of the victorious advance 
 of this Asiatic people into Europe, that the con- 
 nexion with Russia was re-established. The papacy 
 was by this time no longer a world -subduing* power, 
 and a strong- German empire alone would have been 
 able to repel the barbarians. In its dismay Europe 
 recollected that in the East there was a people 
 who had just been delivered from the yoke of the 
 Tartars, and who bore the name of Christians. Re- 
 lations were entered into with the Czar, and it was 
 supposed that he might be made serviceable against 
 the Osmanlis. JBut this was a g'ross miscalculation. 
 That unity which had been purposely destined 
 among- the Germans, and which was to be labori- 
 ously developed again through a long* course of 
 history, was among the Russians an inherent, never 
 contested principle, deeply rooted in the essence of 
 their nationality. The chief of such a people cannot 
 easily be made subservient to the interests of others. 
 Indeed the Czar of Russia, from the very commence- 
 ment, assumed a very different position in relation 
 to the Sultan from that of the princes of the West. 
 The Asiatic element in the Sclavonic race formed a 
 kindred link between the two people, which at once 
 rendered more favourable relations possible ; and in 
 like manner as the Byzantine Greeks bent more wil- 
 lingly under the yoke of the Turks than under that 
 of the West, and bore it more patiently, so also 
 
76 
 
 Russia and the Sultan remained on a tolerably good 
 footing- with each other • and at all events the Czar 
 was determined not in any way to aid the West in 
 securing* the Turkish booty, which he meant to 
 reserve for himself. It must be confessed that the 
 Czars never endured such humiliations from the 
 Porte as the Princes of Western Europe submitted 
 to ; but it was not the interest of Russia to weaken 
 Turkey before the time, which would have been tan- 
 tamount to strengthening- the Poles, the chief ene- 
 mies of Russia ; and the glorious period of Osmanli 
 rule thus passed by almost without any conflict with 
 Russia, into whose hands the Turkish policy in the 
 West was working*. Antagonism to the West was 
 the fundamental principle of the Turks as of the 
 Russians, and not until the power of the former was 
 decidedly declining*, did Russia beg-in her attacks — 
 with a view to securing* to herself the booty. 
 
 In the meanwhile the most important events had 
 taken place in the West. The unit}^ of Christendom 
 had been destroyed. Germany, whose national 
 genius was every day being more dangerously me- 
 naced by Rome, rose up and performed a national 
 act, which gave the impetus to a greater develop- 
 ment of the Germanic element than had ever been 
 anticipated, and which for the first time unfolded 
 its most inward life, and would have led to beneficial 
 practical results for Germany had it produced a 
 national unity as, in accordance with its original 
 character, it might have been expected to do. But 
 
77 
 
 this effect having 1 failed in consequence of the in- 
 capacity of the emperors of the House of Hapsburg-, 
 a still greater division of the German nation became 
 the necessary result. The territorial princes, taking* 
 advantage of the national idea to make themselves 
 almost independent by means of alliances with 
 foreig-n countries, destroyed the independence of the 
 true centres of civilization, the cities, and steeped 
 Germany in new barbarism by means of a long* and 
 bloody war. In the meanwhile France was deve- 
 loping- her practical unity in the Roman spirit, and 
 England thus became the sole representative of civi- 
 lized and civilizing* Germanism, which, together with 
 the development consequent upon the Reformation, 
 laid the foundations of her industrial and commercial 
 greatness and of her immense expansion. It was at 
 this juncture that Peter the Great began to fix his 
 attention upon Europe and Germany, and his plans 
 were formed accordingly. 
 
 It is but too well known with what skill, but at 
 the same time with what barbaric unscrupulousness, 
 Peter availed himself of the advantages accruing- 
 from the position of Germany. The g*rand policy 
 pursued by even the most insig-nificant princes; 
 the impotency of the nominal chief of the empire, 
 who was fully occupied with the Turks and the 
 French ; finally, the position of Sweden in Northern 
 Germany, so hateful to the people, and resulting- 
 from the Thirty Years' war, and the adventurous 
 character of Charles XII. afforded him numerous 
 
78 
 
 opportunities of interfering* in the affairs of the 
 North. Peter was fully aware that to take pos- 
 session of the Baltic provinces, to overthrow the 
 power of Sweden, to bring- Denmark and North 
 Germany into dependence on himself, and to 
 promote the dissolution and destruction of the 
 Polish republic, were necessaiy preliminaries to 
 the expansion of Russia in the south ; and it was 
 with pleasure that he beheld Austria spending* her 
 strength in a struggle against the Turks, the fruits 
 of which, he believed he would reap if his northern 
 policy proved successful. And it did prove so mar- 
 vellously successful that we can hardly wonder that 
 the Russian barbarian should have thought himself 
 already the master of Europe. A German elector, 
 who was indebted to Poland for his kingly dignity, 
 condescended in conjunction with the Russian bar- 
 barian, to betray his kingdom, and to be the first 
 to propose the plan of a partition of Poland ; and 
 in a few years the Czar was almost as completely 
 master in Poland as in his own country. All 
 alliances which the northern princes entered into 
 with the Czar, turned to the advantage of the latter 
 only, and after, Charles XII. had fallen, partly in 
 consequence of his own rashness and a concatenation 
 of unfavourable circumstances, the flourishing 
 German colonies on the Baltic passed into the 
 hands of Russia, to whom they have since been the 
 greatest source of strength. But not content even 
 with these fortunate results, which so to say, created 
 
79 
 
 new foundations for bis empire, Peter contemplated 
 penetrating* into Germany proper, never to with- 
 draw again. Was not one of these petty Northern 
 tyrants the cuckold of Peter's niece, did he not, in 
 right of his sovereign power, call Eussian troops 
 into his diminutive country, to trample down its 
 rights and laws, and could it be difficult for Peter, 
 under such circumstances, to induce his relative by 
 promises of indemnification, to cede his rights to 
 him, and thus enable him to keep Mecklenburgh, 
 and thence to govern Denmark and Germany ? Or 
 w r ould he have had to fear any resistance on the part of 
 the Emperor, who refused to lend his ear to the 
 lamentations and complaints of the estates of 
 Mecklenburgh, exposed to the most barbarously re- 
 fined ill-treatment and extortions of the Eussians, 
 because an Emperor of the House of Hapsburg had 
 neither the will or the power to defend right and 
 justice in Germany ! Thus, from the first moment 
 of her admission into the family of European states, 
 there was no power to prevent Eussia from bringing 
 the whole of the North under her rule and com- 
 mand, and from gaining in u civilized" Germany, a 
 fixed point from w r hich she might gradually Eus- 
 sianize the whole of Europe ; there was no power to 
 prevent this except — England, who being backed 
 by an efficient navy, cried halt ! to the barbarian, 
 in a very categorical manner, and thus saved Ger- 
 many from Eussian occupation. 
 
 That Peter, maddened by this frustration of his 
 
80 
 
 schemes, conceived the most violent hatred against 
 " faithless Albion/' and planned the strongest com- 
 binations for her punishment, is not to be wondered 
 at, particularly if we keep in mind that he was a 
 barbarian \ but that the u civilized " Germans — who 
 ought to be aware of their own weaknesses, and who 
 ought to know how little power of resistance, as 
 regards external foes, German}', constituted as she 
 has hitherto been, is capable of exerting — that the 
 " civilized" Germans, we sa} T , should persecute with 
 senseless hatred, the very power who has repeatedly 
 sino-le-handed saved Germanism and the interests of 
 civilization on the Continent, that they should make 
 England responsible for things which we owe en- 
 tirely to our own faults - that is indeed matter for 
 wonder. 
 
 These are old stories, but are they not ever new ? 
 Is not the disjointed state of Germany still the 
 greatest source of strength to the policy of Russia ? 
 Are not the cabinets of the sovereign German 
 princes still its most pliant and useful instruments ? 
 Are not, on the contrar} r , all the national interests 
 of Germany opposed to the increasing power of 
 Russia on the Continent ? And have these interests 
 any spokesman in Germany itself? Will they not 
 eventually be obliged, though reluctantly, to seek 
 such spokesman in England? The weakness of 
 Germany and the strength of Russia, are contingent 
 on each other. Let Germany expand her strength, 
 and Russia will no longer inspire fear, even in a 
 
81 
 
 child. But as long- as a powerful Germany 
 remains but a pious wish, although to constitute 
 such a power it would suffice to unite the existing* 
 forces and to bring* them to bear upon common 
 objects, so long* we must consider it a most fortunate 
 thing- that a foreign state in some measure, and for 
 the present, keeps a check upon the encroachments 
 of Russia, although the latter only draws back 
 pro forma , and by the aid of German cabinets, 
 recommences her game more craftily and more 
 cautiously. 
 
 Peter's too impetuous progress was certainly 
 checked, and he was obliged to yield, but he only 
 did this in order to be able to approach the same goal 
 by a circuitous route and by the aid of diplomatic 
 arts. The impatience of the barbarian, who flattered 
 himself that he could reach the most distant and 
 most difficult objects by one bold start, now gave 
 place to the most crafty perseverance. Instead of 
 storming- forward and thus exciting- distrust, the 
 Russian government determined to avail itself in 
 future with greater patience of the favour of circum- 
 stances 5 to allow itself to be called upon when its 
 services were required, and to withdraw with appa- 
 rent magnanimity as soon as these had been per- 
 formed, confidently trusting that this magnanimity 
 would bear fruits in the future 5 to offer and yield 
 advantages, which would apparently benefit, but in 
 reality weaken, the receiver, and attach him to Rus- 
 sia ; to flatter the desire of the princes for sovereign 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 power ) and above all things, to exert all the arts of 
 diplomacy and statesmanship, to prevent a national 
 union in Germany. It is of no consequence whether 
 the mysterious will of Peter the Great, in which this 
 line of policy is said to be minutely laid down, be 
 authentic or not ; but it is certain that since the 
 time of Peter it has been very consistently carried 
 out, and that under the circumstances Russia could 
 not have followed airy other polic}^ The basis of 
 this policy is always the division of Germany by 
 alliance with the dynastic interests against the na- 
 tional interests. When this basis gives way, there 
 will no longer be such a thing as a Russian po- 
 licy. 
 
 In his relations with the Turks, Peter was much 
 less successful, or it would perhaps be more proper 
 to say that he had great reason to be thankful that 
 the advantages he had gained in the North were not 
 all lost here. His Turkish campaign proved a sig- 
 nal failure, and had nearly ended in the whole Rus- 
 sian army, together with the Emperor and Empress, 
 being taken captive. This misfortune was avoided 
 by means of rich presents cleverly distributed 
 amongst the Turkish commanders. However little 
 reason there may be to doubt the venality of the 
 Turkish officials, we are nevertheless inclined to be- 
 lieve that Russian gold was not on this occasion the 
 only motive that induced the Turkish commanders to 
 consent to a comparatively favourable treaty of peace. 
 In this instance again we are inclined to attribute 
 
83 
 
 greater influence to the Asiatic affinities of the two 
 parties and to the feeling" of a common antagonism 
 against the West, than to any outward and acciden- 
 tal motive, although the Grand Vizir Mohamed, 
 who concluded the peace, was sacrificed on the insti- 
 gation of Charles XII. As long* as Austria was 
 positively advancing ag-ainst the Osmanlis, and ad- 
 vantages might accrue to her from their weakness, it 
 was as little in the interest of Russia to bear too 
 hardly on Turkey, as it was in the interest of Turkey 
 to reduce Russia too much. Not until Austria had 
 reached the limit, in relation to Turkey, which, in 
 spite of the increasing- weakness of the Ottoman em- 
 pire, she seemed unable to overstep — not until then 
 did the real Turkish policy of Russia commence, not 
 until then could she hope to reap the fruits of her 
 labours, that is to say, to take possession of the 
 Turkish pre)'. Up to that period the Turks and 
 Russians were rather allies than antagonists. And 
 does not this state of things continue in a certain 
 measure even to this day 1 Does not Russia in re- 
 lation to Turkey appear less like a deadly foe than 
 like a kinsman who claims to have his right of inhe- 
 ritance recorded, and desires in preference to have 
 the matter amicably settled, and only in the last in- 
 stance to have recourse to the aid of artillery. It 
 can never be the object of Russia, that is to say of 
 a wise Russian polic} r , to bring the Turkish empire 
 to a premature eud ; Russia must on the contrary 
 be willing to wait patiently until death arrives in the 
 
 f2 
 
84 
 
 natural course of things, being- merely anxious, if 
 possible, to have her claims as sole heir recognized 
 during* the lifetime of the testator, so that no diffi- 
 culties may arise when the time for taking possession 
 is at hand. 
 
 The true field for the policj" of Russia has been, 
 is, and ever will be — Germany, i. e. the German 
 cabinets, by ruling which Russia thinks that she 
 will be able to brave the other powers. Russia is 
 a continental power, and should she even gain pos- 
 session of the Sound and the Dardanelles, she will 
 scarcely ever become a maritime power. As she 
 does not pretend to be aggressive on the seas, she 
 will probably not have very much to fear from 
 fleets, if not supported by the army of one of the 
 neighbouring continental powers. It is only on the 
 side of Germany that Russia is vulnerable. She has 
 therefore always earnestly endeavoured, and she 
 will always continue to endeavour to convert the 
 princely castles of Germany into strongholds of de- 
 fence for herself, and it cannot be denied that she 
 has laboured most skilfully and successfully in this 
 direction, and that even clever and unbiassed men, 
 nay, even true German patriots have been induced 
 to laud Russian magnanimity and disinterestedness, 
 when they ought only to have admired the finesse 
 of Russian policy. 
 
 No event could have more efficiently secured to 
 Russia the sway over Germany, than the partition 
 of Poland, which was first proposed by one of the 
 
85 
 
 territorial princes of Germany, and was accepted 
 and carried out by Russia in conjunction with 
 Austria and Prussia. If the territorial extent of a 
 state constituted its strength, Prussia and Austria 
 would no doubt have been strengthened by this ac- 
 cession to their territories. But in reality Prussia 
 and Austria, though thereby separated more from 
 Germany, and induced to place their centre of gra- 
 vity more within themselves, did not derive any 
 true accession of strength from it, but were on the 
 contrary weakened by the adoption of the recalci- 
 trant elements. This was doubly advantageous to 
 Russia, for not only were the dangers that threat- 
 ened her from the side of her neighbours diminished 
 and indeed obviated, but by the transplanting' of 
 Sclavonic elements into German countries, new 
 means were furnished for a subsequent policy of 
 dissolution and destruction ; for Russia may enter- 
 tain the hope of assimilating Catholic Poland in the 
 course of time, that country being originally Scla- 
 vonic, but Prussia and Austria cannot possibly 
 nourish such a hope. The Sclavonic-German ques- 
 tion could only have attained a favourable solution 
 for Germany, in case Germany, not divided territo- 
 rially as now, but forming a national unity, had 
 borne with the whole weight of her civilization upon 
 the East, without contemplating regular incorpora- 
 tion except in case of the greatest need, and by 
 demand of the territory to be incorporated. In 
 general, the incorporation of foreign territory is had 
 
86 
 
 recourse to only where an inferior and rude s) T stem 
 of policy prevails, and such incorporations have 
 never yet strengthened a state or a nation for any 
 length of time. In one case only they are, not so 
 much excusable, as necessary, and that is when a 
 nation, evidently endowed with a strong* vitality, and 
 destined for independence, endeavours to secure 
 strong* frontiers by the acquisition of mountains^ 
 rivers, and seas, so as to ensure its political existence 
 and independence from without. Prussia and Austria 
 were by no means under such necessity at the time 
 of the partition of Poland, and this partition was 
 therefore even from the merely territorial point of 
 view a serious political blunder, from which Eussia 
 alone has derived benefit. 
 
 It is a very simple, but also a somewhat rude 
 system of policy, to found dominion on partition 
 and division, yet, such as the world is, it is one 
 that brings not so much dishonour on the state that 
 pursues it, as it proves a deep inward disease in the 
 people who allows itself to be partitioned. During 
 the past century in particular, Russia often availed 
 herself of this policy in relation to Germany, and 
 the inward condition of the county afforded but too 
 many opportunities for exercising- it. Nothing- was 
 more agreeable to Russia than to be called in by 
 one member of the empire to assist it ag-ainst an- 
 other. She fought for Austria against Prussia, and 
 for Prussia against Austria. However the results 
 of the Seven Years' war were not very favourable 
 
87 
 
 to Russia, in as far as the German people began 
 from that period to soar higher as a nation, and to 
 awaken to political life ; for however faulty his 
 policy with regard to Poland, Frederick the Great 
 nevertheless restored some degree of elevation to the 
 national feelings, by the firm and decided attitude 
 he assumed in respect to the encroachments of Rus- 
 sia. Upon the whole, in the last decenniums before 
 the outbreak of the French revolution, Germany 
 was perhaps in a fair way towards national regene- 
 ration, and the disastrous wars of Austria against 
 the Turks might very likely have given an impul- 
 sion towards such an arrangement of the internal 
 relations of Germany as would have rendered pos- 
 sible the adoption of a strong national policy in re- 
 lation to the East, had not the French revolution 
 brought new misfortunes upon Germany, and re- 
 stored and increased the declining influence of Rus- 
 sia in that country. 
 
 States which have no interests of civilization to 
 guard, but which are merely aiming at territorial 
 expansion and dominion, must of necessity be sub- 
 ject to the strongest and most abrupt changes of 
 policy. Russia saw that the German princes were 
 trembling 1 at the French revolution, and forthwith 
 she assumed the character of their protector, and of 
 an opponent of the revolution, intending afterwards 
 to join France to obtain advantages from her also. 
 The precariousness of che Russian alliance was evi- 
 dent enough, but what could the German princes 
 
88 
 
 do ? The central point, from which a national re- 
 sistance ought to have been organized against the 
 foreign oppression, was once for all wanting in 
 Germany, and the will to create such a central 
 point being likewise wanting, even noble German 
 patriots could see no other means of breaking the 
 French yoke, than the assistance of the Russian 
 Czar. That which enabled the Czar to afford them 
 this assistance was his absolute uncontrolled power, 
 that is to say that absence of rights in his subjects, 
 which allowed him as their ruler the most perfect 
 liberty of action. When Napoleon, led on by des- 
 tiny, at length repaired to Russia to complete there, 
 as he thought, the impossible subjection of the con- 
 tinent to the rule of France, and he succumbed in 
 the barbarous country, conquered by the power of 
 the elements and by the military evolutions of an 
 army commanded by Germans, the consideration 
 which Russia enjoyed in Europe attained its high- 
 est point y for at this moment the Czar, whose coun- 
 try and people had offered the first insuperable 
 barrier to the triumphant onward course of the 
 hitherto invincible warrior, and around whom were 
 grouped the German princes, unchained from the 
 triumphal car of the upstart, now appeared as the 
 real chief of the victorious coalition, as the deliverer 
 and rider of Europe; and the boastful Russians 
 took good care that the national enthusiasm and 
 the achievements of the Germans should seem as 
 naught in comparison with the heroic greatness of 
 
89 
 
 the Russians. The u mild and generous" Alexander, 
 whose mildness and generosit}^, strange to say, were 
 never the least at variance with the objects of Rus- 
 sian policy— became the oracle, the arbiter of Eu- 
 rope, and the Holy Alliance, that is to say, the 
 subserviency of German}' to Russian objects was 
 the result. 
 
 Since the congress of Vienna re-organized the 
 relations of the various European states, Russia is 
 the only continental state that has continued with- 
 out interruption to extend itself, and which has 
 pursued a system of foreign policy deserving* of the 
 name. Its expansion is of a rude nature, and in- 
 imical to the spread of civilization, in other words, 
 it is of a nature conformable with the economical 
 and political condition of the people. Poland was 
 not only swallowed up, but the last remnants of 
 freedom in the country were destroyed, and it is 
 now almost assimilated. In the Bosphorus and on 
 the Sound, one victory after another was gained, 
 and the colossus leant over towards Germany with 
 ever more threatening mien. The Germans opposed 
 no obstacles, nay, it is to the German cabinets that 
 Russia is indebted for her success. This success is 
 the fruit of the skilful and complete utilization of 
 the Holy Alliance ; Russia partly led the German 
 cabinets by the nose, partly converted them by the 
 use of the grossest flattery into pliant instruments. 
 Were it not too serious a matter, it would be amus- 
 ing to read of how the German governments prided 
 
90 
 
 themselves upon playing" the parts of mediators, 
 when all the while it was only lacquey services they 
 were performing-. The paltry issue of the German 
 movement — which made Russia tremble, although 
 she concealed her fear under high but hollow words, 
 without daring- to act— ag-ain saved Russia from a 
 great dang-er. At a comparatively very small cost 
 she acquired the position of dictator of the continent ; 
 she now considers herself sure of Germany, through 
 means of the " governments saved by her," and it 
 seems that she is preparing to reap the fruits. In 
 the North she has already met with a degree of 
 success which one would marvel to think that Ger- 
 man governments had laboured to secure to her, if 
 it were possible to marvel at anything in Germany. 
 In the South also, she now contemplates taking one 
 more step forward. 
 
 There can be no question that the connexion between 
 Germany and Russia, which has been brought about 
 by the dynastic interests, has for along time been, and 
 is still, the greatest source of strength to the policy of 
 Russia. We have but to suppose the existence of a 
 national German policy based upon national unity and 
 national interests, and the halo of glory that surrounds 
 Russia, and with it all her influence, will at once 
 vanish, and she will stand revealed in her nakedness, 
 as a state struggling up from barbarism into civili- 
 zation, but constantly relapsing into barbarism \ and 
 which, instead of exercising power and influence 
 over other nations and threatening their free de- 
 

 91 
 
 velopment, must of necessity herself become de- 
 pendent upon the influence of others. The natural 
 basis of the state, the character of the people and 
 the low degree which they occupy in the scale of 
 civilization, render this state of subordination in- 
 evitable if she be not furnished with strength from 
 without. But if we suppose Germany to remain 
 still longer in its disjointed state and chained to 
 Russia, the latter will continue to be terrible, and 
 grow more and more so, and the dismal prophecies, 
 which announce that our nation will never enjoy new 
 life until it be placed under the rule of Russia, will 
 then most certainly be fulfilled, although they may 
 now be received with scorn and laughter. It is, alas, 
 but too certain that neither this time will it be 
 Germany that cries halt to Russia. 
 
 But the political relations in Germanic Europe 
 have at all times been such, that when any power 
 attains to a preponderance threatening- to the 
 freedom and peculiarities of the other, a new antago- 
 nism ( Gegensatz) immediately arises, around which 
 the endangered interests rally, to restore by combat 
 the lost equilibrium. Indeed the whole history of 
 Europe has for many centuries been founded on this 
 game of equilibration. In opposition to the Russian 
 power also, another power will arise and reduce the 
 colossus to its natural dimensions ; and perchance 
 the hour is not far distant, when Russia will begin 
 to sink down from her artificial elevation. This is 
 the more probable as the antagonisms which have 
 
92 
 
 kept Europe in motion during' the last two hundred 
 years, are now almost exhausted. It is evident that a 
 new grouping- of European states is abouttotake place. 
 The contest which will arise in consequence, will, as 
 little as any previous contests of the kind, be of short 
 duration, however fondly those ma}^ cling' to the 
 belief, who will not allow the possibility of war ; it 
 will be a long' contest and perhaps full of vicissi- 
 tudes. As regards ourselves it will be doubly im- 
 portant, because in its course must be decided the 
 great and momentous question, whether Germany is 
 still capable of a new national life. 
 
 THE TUBKISH QUESTION. 
 
 If antagonisms, conflicts, national struggles, be 
 evils, then certainly the peninsula of Haemus may 
 be considered the Pandora's box of the future for 
 Europe ; for the condition of that peninsula presages 
 long and sanguinary combats. The gist of the 
 oriental question, and the cross that weighs so 
 heavily on the shoulders of the diplomatists, is this, 
 that the rule of the Ottomans is tottering towards its 
 close, that the subjugated populations have not the 
 power of laying the foundations of a new political 
 life, without foreign aid, and that the European 
 powers are b} r no means inclined to allow any one 
 of their number the enjoyment of the whole booty, 
 and that thev can come to no agreement as to the 
 partition. No one knows how to conquer the diffi- 
 
93 
 
 culties which the solution of the problem offers ; 
 every one feels that for this solution the old diplo- 
 matic traditions of the continent will not suffice ; 
 that a political reconstruction of Europe will arise 
 out of its, a reconstruction the plan of which has 
 not yet taken distinct form in men's minds, and 
 hence the general wish to postpone the decision in- 
 definitely, and to preserve the Status quo. Austria 
 is most earnest in this wish, and with good reason. 
 When the Osmanli entered Europe, the period of 
 ideal politics had not yet gone by. The unity of 
 Christendom was still a word on the lips of men, 
 the emperors of the House of Hapsburg were 
 allowed to be the chiefs of this Christendom, and it 
 was no quite empty title, in as far as in opposition 
 to the " arch-enemy " Turkey, the distinct national 
 policy of the various countries was at least occasion- 
 ally set aside, and from almost all Christian countries 
 combatants flocked to the banners of the Hapsburgs 
 to support Austria in her defensive warfare against 
 the Turks. For beyond a defensive attitude the 
 traditions and maxims of the most degraded 
 Komanism, sunk in apathetic inertness and wrapt in 
 the stiffest Spanish formalism —could not carry it. 
 The power of taking- the initiative, of adopting* a 
 positive and aggressive policy, could never be derived 
 from those traditions. And this it was that attached 
 Austria so s trongly to the status quo, to the preser- 
 vation of the Ottoman empire. She felt that if 
 that empire were to fall to pieces she would either 
 
94 
 
 go to ruin herself, or she would be obliged to assume 
 a positive character, and in so doings rise above her 
 original nature and her traditions. As soon as her 
 own territories had been purged of the Turks, 
 Austria — feeling a well-founded distrust of the ex- 
 pansive capacities of a power whose aim it is to 
 weaken and oppress its own national elements of 
 strength — became the truest, and, in reality, the 
 most disinterested friend of the Turks ; and she has 
 remained such until a very recent period, that is, until 
 she was thrown out of her orbit by the revolution of 
 1848, since when she has oscillated between the 
 future and the past, being drawn backwards by her 
 traditions and by all the interests which are repre* 
 sented by those traditions, and which have been 
 quickened by the reaction of the moment, while she 
 is impelled forwards by her destiny and by the pro- 
 gressive world-events. 
 
 There is a stage in the life of a nation (it is the 
 lowest stage, but in the East it comprises the whole 
 duration of the national life) when religion, dogma, 
 is everything ; when religion and state, if not ab- 
 solutely one, are at least indissolubly united. 
 Nations who are capable of that development which 
 leads to higher culture, dissever this union, and 
 gradually endeavour to make religion more and 
 more a matter concerning the individual alone, and 
 to separate it from the state. Then only does it 
 become possible to unite various religions and 
 various nationalities in one state ; the only condition 
 

 95 
 
 is that men shall acknowledge each others 9 equality 
 of rights, in spite of the existing* difference of re- 
 ligion and nationalit}^ and that the Government 
 shall abstain from interfering* in religious matters, 
 and shall leave these entirely to be administered by 
 the congregations. The state has then but one 
 task to perform, and that is, to protect the life and 
 property of the individuals, and to see that justice 
 is done to all. In this stage of development, the 
 state is capable of unlimited expansion, because it 
 recognizes everywhere the existing rights. As long, 
 however, as a state is still in the low stage of 
 development to which we have alluded, expansion 
 always leads to fusion and assimilation, national or 
 religious, and where this appears impossible, the 
 expansion ceases. Though particularly called upon 
 to emancipate her Government from anything like 
 dogma, because the state is in itself but a complex 
 of various nationalities which can never be fused 
 into one, Austria was unable to raise herself from 
 the lower to the higher grade of political develop- 
 ment, and her expansion, therefore, found its limits 
 on the frontiers of the Greek-Byzantine empire. 
 She did not feel herself strong enough to force 
 these countries into adopting the Catholic religion, 
 nor was she capable of attaching them to herself by 
 the spread of a civilization which was independent 
 of the rule of dogma. She therefore fell into a 
 state of stagnation, locked herself up within herself, 
 played the part of the ostrich, and affected to believe 
 
96 
 
 in the perpetuity of the status quo. She was in 
 consequence lauded for her deep political wisdom, 
 for the maintenance of the status quo was, indeed, 
 in the interest of all ; but while England and Russia 
 were in the meantime strengthening- themselves, and 
 thereby placing- themselves in a better position to 
 support their claims in relation to the Turkish in- 
 heritance, when it should no longer be possible to 
 postpone the catastrophe, Austria was, by this 
 status quo polic} 7 , by this constant repression of the 
 popular strength, by this systematic exclusion of 
 progress, daily rendering' herself weaker, and more 
 incapable of acting when the catastrophe should 
 arrive. She was industriously playing into the 
 hands of her future rivals, who were becoming more 
 qualified to take possession of the inheritance, while 
 she was weakening and laming 1 herself. 
 
 This is the necessary consequence of that same 
 fatal Spanish policy, that in the sixteenth century 
 was opposed to the Reformation, which it did not 
 comprehend as a necessary expression of national 
 life, and which in the Austrian hereditary dominions, 
 Avas drowned in blood. The sins of this policy — 
 which fools only can call Conservatism — have not 
 yet borne all their fruits \ but the time is near at 
 hand when the tumours will burst, and when ex- 
 piation will follow. 
 
 Russia has shown less reluctance to disturb the 
 status quo, and particularly in Turkey. This is 
 quite natural. Russia has indeed known how to 
 
97 
 
 attach to her interests all those powers and classes' 
 in Europe who believed themselves threatened by 
 revolution, in the widest sense of the word, yet 
 Russia is herself essentially revolutionary. If by 
 revolution be understood the violent subversion of 
 existing rights and relations, Russia is most certainly 
 the revolutionist of European States. Her very 
 entrance into the family of European States was a 
 revolutionary act ; for the balance of things was 
 disturbed by it. The creator of modern Russia was 
 the most fearful revolutionist that the world has 
 ever beheld, although he sat upon a throne. 
 Nothing* was sacred to him ; he subverted every- 
 thing ancient and venerable, and when there was a 
 question of attaining his ends, he shrunk from no 
 means, were they ever so reprehensible in the eyes 
 of religion, morality, or humanity. There can be 
 no doubt that these are the qualities that make 
 revolutionists. The task which the Russian State 
 is called upon to perform, involves the complete sub- 
 version of the European edifice, and cannot be com- 
 pleted without the destruction of the most essential 
 and deepest foundations of the European system. 
 Supposing- even that Russia will be able to perforin 
 this task, she has at all events, a very long* way to 
 lay behind her before it can be accomplished ; she 
 will therefore long remain revolutionary ; it will be 
 very long before she becomes conservative. How- 
 ever, when it suits her plans, -Russia understands 
 admirably to give her most revolutionary proceed- 
 
 G 
 
98 
 
 frigs the appearance of legality. As regards Turkey, 
 religion, the very element which debars Austria 
 from expansion, has been to her a most useful 
 instrument, and to it she owes the preponderance 
 which Russian policy has enjoyed over Austrian: 
 policy in the East during the last eighty years. 
 
 Russia, as we know, received Christianity from 
 Byzantium, and remained in consequence for a long 
 time under the influence of that empire. The old 
 Warsegian Grand Dukes endeavoured in vain to make 
 Russia independent in ecclesiastical matters. This 
 object was not obtained until the Ottoman conquest 
 placed the Christians of the Greek empire under 
 Mahomedan rule, and threw them into a state of 
 servitude and subjection. After that time Russia 
 had an independent patriarch of her own, that is to 
 say a patriarch only dependent on the Grand Duke, 
 and this chief of the Church, Peter the Great, when 
 the clergy resisted his innovations, set aside without 
 the least difficulty, supplying his place by a synod 
 immediately dependent on the supreme power in the 
 state. Since then the Church in Russia has been a 
 tool in the hands of the government, who uses it for 
 the purpose of securing to itself an influence over 
 the common, unintellectual herd, who are blindly 
 devoted to relio-ious forms. But for external action 
 also this tool is of much service to the Russian 
 government. The Byzantine Greeks were a lifeless 
 nation even before they were brought under the 
 yoke of the Turks. Their rich political and intel- 
 
99 
 
 lectual life had closed in corruption, and this cor- 
 ruption smoothed the way for the introduction of 
 the absolute sway of unbending" dogma. Religion, 
 dogma, was the only thing* that the expiring" antique 
 world had still to shew forth ; the religious com- 
 munity had absorbed the political. But while in the 
 West the Germans, stimulated by this religion, pro- 
 vided the materials for a perfectly new development 
 of nations and states, which in the course of cen- 
 turies put forth rich and abundant fruits, the dogma 
 found in the Byzantine empire nothing that could be 
 fertilized and developed. We may here, by means 
 of a simple comparison, obtain the measure of the 
 value of the Germanic contingent in our Western 
 civilization. In the Greek empire the Christian 
 religion neither put forth flowers nor fruit. It was 
 there merely the expression of decrepitude and decay. 
 And yet the countries of the Haemus peninsula also 
 received an admixture of new blood. It has been 
 satisfactorily proved that the original Greek blood 
 had been considerably mixed and changed by the 
 accession of new populations who flowed in inces- 
 santly for several centuries. Nevertheless, this 
 fusion of races in connexion with the contact with 
 ancient culture, produced no new political life. The 
 Sclaves either became Grecianized, that is to say, 
 were either drawn within the influence of the Grecian 
 corruption, and were contaminated by it, or they 
 remained unmixed in their original rudeness and 
 barbarism, and limited themselves to an external 
 
 G 2 
 
100 
 
 adoption of Christianity. Oiie effect only of this 
 Sclavonic invasion of Greece is pointed out by 
 Fallmerayer, so celebrated for his historical and 
 ethnographical knowledge of those countries. u As 
 long- as East Rome/' he says,* " remained essentially 
 Greek, the Catholic of Byzantium and the Catholic 
 of Rome met each other, if coldly, still as brothers 
 and professors of the same faith. It was not until 
 the Sclaves inundated Romania that the bond was 
 dissevered and the schism became incurable. It 
 was the presence of this people, opposed to us on 
 all points, that introduced an element of irrecon- 
 cileable antagonism into the heart of Anatolian 
 Christendom." Mr. Fallmerayer concludes, from 
 the harmony between the spirit of the Russian people 
 and of the Greek population of the Ottoman empire, 
 from the common spirit of antagonism against the 
 West, that the Russians are destined to be the heirs 
 of the Turks, and that the West will be unable to 
 ward off the catastrophe. And he would no doubt 
 be right, if it were possible that in the present stage 
 of world-development a mere blind unity of faith 
 could determine the solution of a question of such 
 vast importance to the whole of Europe ; and if 
 Western civilization were unable to oppose a supe- 
 rior power to this unity of faith, and were obliged 
 to submit not only to see the finest countries in 
 Europe delivered over to Russia, and thus shut out 
 
 * Fragment aus dem Orient, ii. p. 175. 
 
101 
 
 from civilization, but to see the flourishing* civiliza- 
 tion of the West, by these means, surrounded, 
 endang-ered, and checked in its growth. 
 
 At all events, Russia has certainly founded her 
 schemes of future dominion over these countries on 
 this community of faith with the oppressed Greeks 
 of the Ottoman empire. When — under the suc- 
 cessors of Peter the Great, and after Austria had 
 renounced the prosecution of her victories over the 
 Turks, which were indeed chiefly gained by foreign 
 assistance, — Russia resumed her Turkish policy and 
 conquered the coasts of the Black Sea and of the 
 Sea of Azof, by means of those hecatombs of soldiers 
 to which Russia, like all other barbaric powers, 
 chiefly owes her military success, she always laboured 
 to introduce into her treaties of peace with the Porte, 
 conditions calculated gradually and quietly to secure 
 to her, without any apparent design on her part, 
 a kind of protectorate over the Greek Christians of 
 the Turkish empire. As the Osmanli — who never 
 were a progressive people (Culturvolk), while the 
 Greeks have ceased to be one — always exercised 
 toleration towards the Christian religion, and not 
 only allowed the Greek Church freedom of faith, but 
 even admitted it to a participation in the civil admi- 
 nistration, they unsuspectingly and without reluc- 
 tance pledged themselves to Russia in favour of the 
 Greek religion, which they had never wished to 
 molest. It was thus that as early as the treaty of 
 Kutschuk-Kainardgi, concluded in 1775, the Porte 
 
102 
 
 promised to afford protection to the Christian reli- 
 gion, and authorized the servants of the Crown of 
 Russia to make representations whenever anything* 
 should occur which was at variance with this pro- 
 mise ; and at a later period it pledged itself to place 
 no obstacles in the way of the free profession and 
 exercise of the Christian religion. The Porte, it 
 seems, had no idea of the bearing of these promises 
 and pledges, or of the conclusions which might be 
 drawn from them against its sovereign rights, 
 although the foreign ambassadors, and even the 
 Austrian ambassador, fully understood this, and 
 deplored the blindness of the Ottoman government. 
 In this way Russia advanced slowly but constantly, 
 while at the same time she held herself up to the Greek 
 populations as their protector, and the avenger of 
 their wrongs * and thus it has happened, that when 
 the Russian ambassador, in the present year, de- 
 manded a regular international contract, or a sub- 
 stitute for such, in favour of the Greeks, the demand 
 seemed, in consequence of the preceding treaties, 
 quite natural, and as a matter of course. The only 
 difference was, that when Russia concluded those 
 previous treaties with the Porte which contain the 
 premises of the last Russian claims, the Porte still 
 maintained a recognized political independence. 
 The empire was indeed in its decline, but no one 
 anticipated its fall, and least of all the Ottoman go- 
 vernment; and this accounts for the carelessness with 
 W'hich it entered into engagements which a powerful 
 

 103 
 
 state may take upon itself with impunity, but which 
 must inevitably precipitate the ruin of a weak state. 
 Since then, however, a great change has taken place 
 in the position of the Porte. The natural and his- 
 torical basis of the empire was destroyed under the 
 reign of the last Sultan, and a foreign civilization in 
 sharp contrast with the genius of the Turkish people, 
 and against which it must ever feel a strong repug- 
 nance, has been forced upon the country. From 
 that period the Porte has ceased to be self-depen- 
 dent, and is only upheld by the European powers, 
 as a so-called European necessity, which may, 
 however, burst at any moment like a soap-bubble. 
 And the danger of its doing so is the greater as it 
 is rival powers that uphold the Porte, and who, 
 while pretending to respect its independence, are 
 constantly struggling to attain the ascendanc}' in 
 relation to it ; and as in consequence of this con- 
 flict, the one influence, the one system is constantly 
 superseding the other, the catastrophe which all 
 are anxious to delay, is in reality being accelerated. 
 The issue of the revolutionary movements in the 
 West in 1848, of which in most of the Western 
 countries there are hardly any traces left, could not 
 but have a very important and decisive influence on 
 the Eastern question ; not because of the Magyar 
 and Sclavonic fugitives who sought refuge in 
 Turkey, and thus acquired the conviction of the 
 strength of the Ottoman empire, but because while 
 all the continental states were decidedly weakened 
 
104 
 
 by those movements (that is to say in reality , for ac- 
 cording to appearances they have been strengthened, 
 and indeed some of them believe themselves invinci- 
 ble since then) Russia imbibed, so to say, all the 
 strength that they lost. By this new and important 
 accession to the power of Russia, the conflict between 
 that country and England, which has long- beet* 
 ripening in silence, has been brought to a head, and 
 all attempts to stifle it will prove in vain. The 
 points of these two antagonistic forces, the balance 
 between which will not be very soon established, 
 come in contact in the East, in Constantinople. In 
 the refugee question England came forward imme- 
 diately, and in the most decided manner, as the pro- 
 tector of Turkey against the encroachments of 
 Russia and of Austria, who had been saved by her; 
 and although, subsequently, in consequence of the 
 unexpected events in France, the policy of England 
 seemed to make a retrograde movement, this could 
 not long remain so, and the apparent retrogression 
 has only served as a transition to a more decided- 
 exhibition of that antagonism as regards Russia, 
 the necessity of which, grounded in the nature of 
 things, will make itself more forcibly felt now that 
 France, who was the cause of the momentary truce, 
 will be obliged either definitively to join the English 
 policy or to sink down into a satellite of Russia. 
 Now that Russia, in consequence of the movements 
 of 1848, and the part she played on that occasion, 
 has become the bearer and representative of the so- 
 
105" 
 
 called Conservative policy of the East, a revolu- 
 tionary s}stem of policy has definitively been chalked 
 out for England. With Austria, as the former centre 
 of the Conservative policy, it was possible for Eng- 
 land to come to an agreement ; with Russia she can 
 share advantages, but she can allow herself no com- 
 munity of policy. It was therefore a matter of ne- 
 cessity that Russia should be diplomatically defeated 
 by England in Constantinople, and as it cannot be 
 supposed that Russia will yield without a, blow all 
 the immense advantages which she has grimed within 
 the last four years, we may reasonably expect that 
 the struggle will commence, although we may not be 
 able to calculate how long the first act of the drama 
 will last. 
 
 The question of the protectorate of the Greeks 
 or of the sovereignty of the Porte, etc. is therefore only 
 a secondary one, the true point at issue is the anta- 
 gonism between England and Russia, which can no 
 longer be suppressed, and which must at length 
 break out into open conflict. England is indeed 
 obliged, in connexion herewith, to support the 
 sovereignty of the Porte, and to endeavour to 
 secure to the Greeks a better position, if this be com- 
 patible with the present condition of the Ottoman 
 empire. This is however a position which she can- 
 not maintain for any protracted period. On the 
 other side Russia undertakes the protectorate of the 
 Greeks, though it is now pretty clearly proved that 
 the gTeater number of these are by no means anxious 
 
106 
 
 to make acquaintance with the Russian knout. 
 However it will hardly be possible to carry on the 
 struggle in this masked way for an}^ length of time, 
 as victory or defeat will be equally disastrous to the 
 Ottoman empire ; but the contest will not assume its 
 true character until this empire has succumbed to 
 its destiny, and the reconstruction of Byzantine 
 Greece comes to be the point in question. Then the 
 contest between England and Eussia will become 
 exciting and of the utmost importance to civilized 
 Europe, for it will then be the struggle of liberty 
 against slavery, of civilization against barbarism, of 
 human dignity against human degradation. In this 
 struggle the great " humbug" of the salvation of 
 civilization by Russia will be disposed of, together 
 with the morbid illusion that Russia and Germany 
 must be fused into one before the Germanic spirit 
 can put forth fresh blossoms. 
 
 It would be superfluous to prove that the Turks 
 are not a progressive people (Culturvolk), but on the 
 contrary opposed on principle to civilization such as 
 it is understood in the West, and that in proportion 
 as the Porte admits Western civilization so does it 
 deviate from Islam, and destroy the basis, without 
 changing or destroying the spirit, of the people, 
 which always continues to assert its influence with 
 its ancient fanaticism, and more particularly when 
 the Porte is engaged in conflict either with real or 
 with so-called, Christian powers. Turkey is an 
 Asiatic state, that is to say a state where personal 
 
107 
 
 liberty is unknown, where the rights of the individual, 
 the rights of property and the rights of labour have 
 no guarantees ; a state built upon the principles of 
 rude enjoyment and extortion, and therefore in its 
 very origin destructive of civilization, and if not 
 dangerous at least offensive to Europe by its reli- 
 gious-national arrogance. The reforms promised 
 by the Turkish government have hitherto proved a 
 great clap-trap, and will probably continue to be so, 
 because it is impossible to carry them out, not only 
 on account of the temper of the people, but because 
 of their want of harmony with the fundamental laws 
 and institutions of the country. It is, however, 
 another question whether the mere fall of the Otto- 
 man empire, by means of a revolt of* the Christian 
 population for instance, would improve the condition 
 of the Greeks, and it is further a question whether 
 such improvement would be possible in case those 
 fertile lands were delivered up to Russia. 
 
 It has been but too clearly proved that the moral 
 corruption of the Greeks is greater even than that of 
 the Osmanli ; that the latter are in general not only 
 good-natured, but honest, true to their word, and 
 conscientious, while the Greeks make no scruple of 
 lying and deceiving ; and it is not so much their 
 Moslem masters that drain and oppress the lower 
 classes among the Greek population, as it is their 
 own bishops, patriarchs and presbyters. It cannot 
 even be said in excuse of the Greeks that these low 
 qualities have only been developed since they have 
 
108 
 
 been under the foreign yoke, for they existed long* 
 before that time, and indeed the Greek population 
 may be said, as regards its moral character and con- 
 stitution, to have remained stationary for nearly a 
 thousand years. It is impossible to suppose that 
 such a people can develope a new political life within 
 itself without foreign guidance, and the attempt 
 which has already been made in the southern ex- 
 tremity of the peninsula of Hsemus proves to excess 
 this already sufficiently established truth. However, 
 by delivering them up to Russia still less good 
 would probably result. Russia is powerful enough 
 to maintain a party in Greece, but she is not suffi- 
 ciently powerful to rule Greece, and to rule it in a 
 satisfactory manner. The pride of seniority over 
 the nation, which originally received Christianity 
 and civilization from them, would raise a much more 
 violent opposition among the Greeks ag*ainst Russia, 
 than against any other ruling power, although it is 
 an opposition of which we hear comparatively little 
 as long as there is a question of combating their 
 nearest enemies the Turks. The privileges of eccle- 
 siastical self-government and of the participation of 
 the Church in the civil administration could not 
 possibly be granted by Russia, although the Russian 
 government now gives itself the appearance of wish- 
 ing to secure this for the Greeks in opposition to the 
 Turks ; the Greek Church would therefore inevi- 
 tably soon be engaged in a violent conflict with the 
 Russian Government, and the latter having no other 
 
109 
 
 than rude governmental means at command, would 
 be obliged to have recourse to a forced Russianizing' 
 of the Greeks. In order as much as possible to con- 
 ceal and obviate these internal difficulties, it will be 
 necessary to assume an imposing position as regards 
 foreign relations, and the consequent Russo-Greek 
 wars can only be directed against Western civiliza- 
 tion. Should the Russian government nevertheless 
 desire to introduce civilization into the country after 
 its fashion, it will be obliged in this case, as in the 
 case of Russia, to borrow the elements from abroad. 
 In short it is impossible to calculate the consequences 
 of allowing Greece to be delivered up to Russia — if 
 indeed we can bring ourselves to believe it possible 
 that so immense an extension of the Russian empire 
 would not at once cause it to break to pieces — without 
 encountering all kinds of absurdities and improbabili- 
 ties and among these the idea of the total annihilation of 
 Western civilization and the reduction of the Western 
 countries to a level with the Turkish provinces, that 
 is to say, to the level of a barbarism against which 
 England, at feast, can and will protect us, should 
 even the continental states be incapable of doing so. 
 The abandonment of European Turkey, or even 
 of the Dardanelles only, to Russia, would be tanta- 
 mount to the submission of the West to the East, 
 to the subjection of Europe to the rule of Asia, in 
 other words, to such a subversion of all the relations 
 that have existed during* the last thousand years, 
 as can onty take place when the Germanic world 
 
110 
 
 has become perfectly exhausted, and its every branch 
 lifeless. If Austria contemplates settling' the Eastern 
 question by means of a partition in conjunction with 
 Russia, so as to allow Moldavia, Wallachia, and 
 Bulgaria, with Constantinople and the Dardanelles, 
 to fall to the share of Russia, this proves the exist- 
 ence of a territorial policy of the veiy narrowest 
 dimensions. The interests of the West would be ir- 
 remediably weakened by such a partition, and Aus- 
 tria would by no means be strengthened, but on the 
 contrary also weakened. If Germany cannot exer- 
 cise an influence on the Greek countries except by 
 tearing some shreds from them to tack them on 
 to Austria, then Germany has nothing to expect of 
 the future in the East. Nothing can be more petty 
 and unstatesmanlike than such a policy, but at the 
 same time, nothing can be more characteristic of 
 the German princes, who announce it as an immense 
 triumph when they have succeeded in getting hold 
 of, and lC incorporating " a little patch of territory, 
 with a few thousand " souls/' Nothing proves more 
 strongly how far back Germany is »as to political 
 development than the barbarism and rudeness of 
 this territorial polic}^ which must first be thoroughly 
 extirpated along with many other things which are 
 now supposed to be again well rooted in Germany, 
 before we can assume that position in the world 
 which our national qualities and our historical mission 
 entitle us to hold. It is because Austria, in spite of 
 her universal-monarchy traditions and hankerings, 
 
Ill 
 
 in reality never can get beyond this paltry territo- 
 rial policy, and because she seeks her strength, not 
 in the encouragement of independent interests, but 
 in subjecting', incorporating, and reducing* all ele- 
 ments to one and the same level beneath Hapsburg 
 absolutism— that constituted as she now is, and fol- 
 lowing her old traditions, she will, notwithstanding 
 her favourable position, contribute comparatively 
 •little to the settlement of the Eastern question. 
 
 It is upon England that this task will devolve in the 
 first instance, because having, in civil matters at least, 
 thoroughly carried out the Reformation; and having 
 got rid of her Hapsburgs, she has raised herself to 
 the highest position among the Germanic nations, 
 and has become the representative of Germanism 
 in Europe. Her interests, as well as her political 
 principles, and the character of her people, assign to 
 her the task of solving the problem. We may regret 
 that it devolves upon her and not upon Germany, 
 whose position is so favourable a one for action, 
 but it must be admitted that it is by her own fault 
 that Germany is incapacitated, and that she owes 
 thanks to England for crying halt to Russia. If the 
 populations of the Greek peninsula can be awakened 
 to new life, it will not be by the inundation of an 
 essentially barbarous people, though this people may 
 be bound to them by community of faith • it can on 
 the contrary only take place through the influence 
 of a free nation, whose political state is based upon 
 self-government, and which is anxious to promote 
 
112 
 
 self-government everywhere ; which protects labour 
 and property, and knows how to open and render 
 valuable the natural resources of oil countries. 
 Every unbiassed observer must do the English the 
 justice to admit that of all the great and ruling 
 nations, which have played a part in Europe during 
 a. long' course of history, it is they who understand 
 the best how to govern foreign populations, not only 
 dissimilar, but even quite opposed to them in cha- 
 racter. The simplicity of their political conceptions 
 (Staatsbegriffe), and of their principles of govern- 
 ment, which they carry with them wherever they 
 go, and which in fact suit all countries and all 
 nationalities, because they aim at nothing* more 
 than the protection of freedom, life and property, 
 and disseminate everywhere the spirit of self-govern- 
 ment ; their respect for foreign nationalities, which 
 induces them to leave these unmolested in their most 
 essential features, while the French and the Russians 
 always endeavour to assimilate and to transmute ; 
 the strength and manliness of their character ; and 
 finally their superiority in all kinds of productive cul- 
 ture : all these qualities give to the rule of the Eng- 
 lish the character, not of oppressive dominion, but 
 of an educational training in freedom, independence 
 and civilization. They have succeeded in awakening 
 nations and countries of the most opposite characters 
 from their slumbers of a thousand years, and from 
 political death to new life, and in opening up anew 
 long-closed sources of wealth and riches, and in 
 
IIS 
 
 such a manner that even the natives pay them tint 
 tribute to acknowledge that they have deserved well 
 of the people and of the country. On the other side 
 a people like the Byzantine Greeks, that has so com- 
 pletely outlived itself, has no chance of rising- from 
 its deg'enerac}^ except through the influence of a race 
 in every respect its superior, and which will gra- 
 dually accustom it to foster and to take an interest 
 in new objects connected with civilization, and will 
 set it an example of limited self-government, i. e. 
 self-government deprived of the meansof self-destruc- 
 tion. It is in this way that England, in order to 
 serve her own interests as well as those of Europe in 
 general, must exercise her influence in the East ; 
 nay, things will as it were of themselves take this 
 course, when once the antagonism is distinctly 
 exhibited and the conflict declared. 
 
 In like manner as the struggle between England 
 and France, far from being limited to those countries 
 and to the seas which wash their shores, on the 
 contrary put the whole of Europe in motion, so also 
 the antagonism bet ween England and Russia, which 
 is gradually being developed, will not only find a 
 field of battle in the East, where the interests of the 
 two nations clash most immediate ly, but the whole 
 of Europe will be drawn into the conflict. It is 
 one of the most remarkable facts in modern history, 
 that, under an imperial Napoleonic dynasty, one 
 feneration after the battles of Trafalgar and Water- 
 loo, England and France should have drawn nearer 
 
 H 
 
114 
 
 to each other, nay, that even an alliance between 
 them should have become possible. It would be 
 folly to believe in the perpetual duration of such a 
 state of things, to suppose that the ancient antipa- 
 thies of the two nations have been entirely overcome, 
 and that henceforward they will labour together in 
 disinterested love to promote the spread of civiliza- 
 tion. But one thing- may be unhesitatingly main- 
 tained, and that is that a good understanding between 
 England and France will be a necessity as long as 
 the Holy Alliance is kept up, that is to say as long 
 as Germany throws her weight into the scales on 
 the side of Russia. The Napoleonic period in France 
 — during which that country took up the gauntlet 
 of the whole of Europe, and from the traditions, 
 hopes and fears of which the wise politicians of the 
 continent find it so difficult to emancipate them- 
 selves — was a sickly and spasmodic period \ it is not 
 likely that a similar period will ever return, for not 
 even a new and successful French revolution, in 
 which many still put their faith, would inspire that 
 state with sufficient strength again to subject the 
 whole of Europe — and least of all will this take 
 place under Napoleon III. France will be obliged 
 to submit to a modest policy, she must learn to live 
 upon good terms with one or the other of her ancient 
 enemies, and so long as Kussia sways the German 
 governments, she will cling to England. Although 
 this state of things may merely be transitional, it 
 serves nevertheless to introduce a new period of 
 
115 
 
 European history. The struggle between England 
 and France is at end, the struggle between England 
 and Russia is about to commence, and France can 
 only take a part in this latter struggle, whereas in 
 the former she was one of the principals. That 
 France has descended from her exalted position, is 
 the great fact of the present times. 
 
 As regards Russia, the time seems to have gone 
 by when she could avail herself of the dissensions 
 between the two principal powers of the West, to 
 extend her own power. She must now fight her 
 own battles and prove her right to that dictatorship 
 on the continent to which she lays claim. It is to 
 her that may now be applied the words hie JRhodus, 
 hie salta ! It remains to be proved whether the 
 Russian nationality and the Russian state in con- 
 junction with the sympathies of part of the Eastern 
 populations, are strong enough to support the strug - 
 gle against the West. It is not probable that Russia 
 will rush precipitately into the conflict, but it is just 
 as improbable that she should be able to withdraw 
 from it altogether without her dignity suffering last- 
 ing injury. Supposing* even that the decision be 
 postponed, supposing even that the ministry which is 
 at present at the head of affairs in England should 
 build a golden brido-e for Russia to retreat across, 
 nevertheless the lists have been opened, the com- 
 batants have been designated ; they may hesitate to 
 begin the struggle, but they can no longer allow 
 themselves to lose sight of each other. 
 
 H 3 
 
116 
 
 Knowing' Russia, her people and histor}' as we do, 
 we cannot fail to see that the only chance she has of 
 being able to sustain the struggle is afforded b} r her 
 influence in Germany. As long as this influence 
 continues, her position is a strong one, if not for 
 attack at least for defence. Here again then it is 
 the weight of Germany that will determine to which 
 side the balance shall lean, and in spite of all the 
 phrases about the impossibility of war, Germany will, 
 if she persists in her present policy, become the 
 theatre of sanguinary international conflicts. It 
 was in Germany that the battles were fought that 
 put an end to the struggle between England and 
 France ; shall we also allow the struggle between 
 the east and the west to be carried on on German 
 soil, when it needs but a resolution and an act on the 
 part of the German people, to solve the question 
 without IJoodshed ? When German states entered 
 into connexion with England or with France, the 
 alliance was in both cases concluded in favour of 
 the interests of civilization, and the wars, though 
 disastrous for the moment, led in many instances 
 to beneficial consequences. But what reason 
 can there be for Germany — who, if she have 
 not practically adjusted all her inward conflicts, 
 has at least theoretically struggled through them 
 and whose interests point peremptorily towards 
 national union and a national policy — what reason 
 can there be for Germany to take the part of Russian 
 interests, or, what comes to the same in the end, to 
 
117 
 
 promote them by her moral support, and thus to 
 endanger still more her own future prospects ? 
 
 Those who behold the apathy and inertness that 
 followed the recent unsuccessful national movement 
 in Germany, and the depression produced by the 
 terrible and blindly violent reaction, and take into 
 consideration the exigencies of the present juncture, 
 which call for the freshness of feeling* of a people 
 full of national enthusiasm, and whose future has 
 still to be conquered — those who behold the sense- 
 lessness and incapacity of the individuals whom an 
 adverse fate has made the representatives of German 
 interests, and their hatred of every great national 
 thought — cannot but look with dread forebodings 
 towards the future, and cannot refrain from acknow- 
 ledging that it requires a power of action such as 
 our nation has never yet evinced, together with a 
 great amount of good fortune, to avert the dangers 
 with which our future prospects are threatened. 
 
 THE POSITION OP GERMANY. 
 
 If there were not every probability that the 
 European conflict which is about to take place will 
 be of long duration, and that it will react beneficially 
 on German affairs, there would be reason to feel 
 great alarm at the total absence of preparation, 
 moral as well as material, which exists in Germany, 
 as also at the inadequacy of the existing powers in 
 face of so great an European catastrophe. Since 
 the destruction of the hopes entertained in Germany 
 
118 
 
 in 1848, public opinion in the country is either under 
 the dominion of senseless confidence in the future, 
 of blind fatalism, or of gloomy despair; and it is 
 perhaps but a. waste of words to repeat either ver- 
 bally or in writing, that a nation must never even in 
 misfortune lose confidence in itself and in the future. 
 It is indeed a curious spectacle to behold the nation 
 that formed the starting* point of the present world- 
 epoch, the people to whom even in the present day 
 the ruling* nations cede the palm of intelligence — to 
 behold this people, we say, laid prostrate, helpless 
 and disjointed, politically dead, while the ruling" 
 powers represent exactly the reverse of the national 
 interests, being* solely bent upon the destruction of 
 the national spirit; and yet to see some individuals 
 founding* their hopes of national regeneration on those 
 very anti national powers, in spite of the narrow 
 territorial policy of Prussia, and of the Spanish- 
 Hapsburg'ish antecedents of Austria, while others 
 base their hopes on foreign intervention, and others 
 again despair of Europe and of their own nation. 
 In the present melancholy state of affairs in Germany 
 it is indeed necessary sometimes to recall to mind how 
 comparatively young* the nation is, historically, in 
 order not to lose all faith in its future ; but never- 
 theless it is difficult to escape from the thought 
 that our nation has been endowed by destiny with 
 every good quality except one, viz. national energy, 
 without which the others never can attain a free and 
 full development. 
 
119 
 
 The history of Germany is more melancholy than 
 that of any other great nation. Does it nevertheless 
 present points on which national hopes may be 
 founded ? 
 
 Though never regularly conquered for any length 
 of time, the German nation received civilization from 
 without. Christianity introduced from without first 
 awakened the consciousness of nationality in the 
 people, and laid the foundation of its historical and 
 progressive life, {Cultur-Leben) \ but immediately 
 afterwards opposition, antagonism to the foreign 
 countries more advanced in civilization, and from 
 which the Germans felt themselves essentially 
 different, drew the unmixed German countries 
 together into one compact and self-dependent body. 
 This twofold operation j viz. acceptance of the 
 elements offered by foreign nations, and reaction 
 against these elements in defence of the original 
 national genius of the people, is exhibited throughout 
 German history, and has up to the present time 
 prevented the nation from attaining complete inde- 
 pendence and self-reliance (Selbstgeniige.) The 
 foreig-n influences to which Germany has been sub- 
 jected have always been dangerous to her national 
 independence, and although they have never suc- 
 ceeded so far as to conquer and subject the country 
 physically, they have sufficed to divide and disrupt 
 the nation; and even the national life-manifestations, 
 namely, the reaction of Germanism against the 
 foreign elements, has ultimately led to division and 
 
120 
 
 separation. For instance, the reaction against the 
 empire, the first form in which the national unity 
 was expressed, though disastrous, was nevertheless 
 a national movement having its source in the depths 
 of the national character, for the nation was unable 
 to accept this Roman empire as the expression and 
 representative of its nationality ; on the contrary the 
 people with right looked upon it as something- 
 foreign, while the empire employed for the govern- 
 ment and union of the nation means that were 
 borrowed from a foreign source, and which were at 
 variance with the temper and genius of the people. 
 In short, that individualism which is peculiar to the 
 genius of the nation, entered into alliance with the 
 influences from without which were trying* to effect 
 a disruption of the nation, and " Germanic freedom," 
 i.e individual license, supported by foreign aid, 
 ruled supreme; but as no regular conquest b} T foreign 
 countries ensued, and the various divisions of the 
 country, in spite of their independent and separate 
 life, were unable to disengage themselves entirely 
 from each other, and to realize fully and regularly 
 the much talked of sovereignty, the history of 
 Germany presents in consequence in addition to its 
 individualistic tendencies nothing but a series of en- 
 deavours after union, that is, endeavours after 
 national unity in a form suitable to the temper and 
 genius of the people. These endeavours have never 
 yet been successful ; their repeated failures in the 
 course of centuries have contributed largely to the 
 
V21 
 
 demoralization of the people ) but. perhaps they 
 have nevertheless prevented a total dissolution, and 
 since the separatist territorial movement has 
 evidently been brought to a close, there is some 
 reason to hope that that which has so often failed 
 may eventually succeed. 
 
 The individualism which during" the Middle Ages 
 laboured at the destruction of the imperial power, 
 was the feudal-aristocratic, out of which at a later 
 period was developed the feudal -territorial indivi- 
 dualism, The task of placing- a wholesome restraint 
 upon this feudal license devolved upon the munici- 
 palities, who, fully conscious of their mission, took 
 the business in hand, and laboured to effect a settle- 
 ment of the common national affairs, but proved 
 incapable of accomplishing* the task by their own 
 unassisted energies. It is the isolation of the divers 
 forces that has always led to failure in Germany at 
 the decisive moments. During the Middle Ages, 
 and more particularly at the time of the Reformation, 
 the imperial power in conjunction with the cities, 
 mig-ht have solved the great problem ; nay, in the 
 16th century the inferior nobility, aided by the pea- 
 santry and the cities, might have done so in oppo- 
 sition to emperor and princes. But this union of 
 different strata and elements it has never been pos- 
 sible to effect. It was the civil interests which 
 together with the national unity suffered the most in 
 consequence of this state of things ; the territorial 
 princes, supported by the agricultural elements in 
 
122 
 
 opposition to the industrial, made great efforts to 
 obtain sovereign power, and in consequence syste- 
 matically destroyed the prosperous municipalities, 
 which could only thrive in the shadow of the Ger- 
 man empire *. and the latter, which even towards the 
 close of the Middle Ages still maintained some of 
 its ancient dignity and importance, though inwardly 
 rotten, and in fact very feeble, now fell into perfect 
 ruin and disrepute. Since the Reformation, the 
 German people has constantly retrograded as re- 
 gards its national life \ all the org*ans of such life 
 were destroyed at that time ; the whole subsequent 
 period up to the French revolution is occupied with 
 the development of the separate territorial states 
 strictly after the French fashion ; and even the an- 
 tagonistic elements within the nation, the conflicts 
 of which, had a political unity existed, would have 
 secured movement and a healthy national life, under 
 the circumstances only served the purposes of the 
 territorial policy, and became petrified without hav- 
 ing* borne fruits or effected any g*ood for the nation 
 as a whole. 
 
 The principal cause of the course of events to 
 which Ave are referring' was the overwhelming* in- 
 fluence of France, to whom the separate members 
 of Germany succumbed the more easily, because 
 Germany as a whole, had no power to oppose to 
 her except Austria and the House of Hapsburg*- 
 Austria, who, thoroughly imbued with the Spanish- 
 Byzantine spirit, so opposed to the German, and 
 
123 
 
 fettered in the bonds of idiotic Oriental fatalism, 
 had for centuries been subsisting on the forms and 
 traditions of the holy Roman empire, and who sup- 
 posed herself elevated above the necessity of every 
 kind of exertion, except that directed against the 
 strength and spirit of the German people. France, 
 forming- so sharply defined a nationality and political 
 unity, and Austria, such as it then was, holding 
 every thing- German in contempt, and using- it 
 merely as a tool, having- come in contact with each 
 other as the two most advanced points of antago- 
 nistic principles, the victor}^ of the former, and the 
 ensuing- French period in Germany followed as in- 
 evitable necessities, and it was but natural that 
 Germany, though not materially conquered, should 
 become a vassal of France ; and that those elements 
 in Germany which still re- acted against France, 
 should find their expression, not in Austria, but in 
 that territorial state which was endeavouring to 
 combine French political principles with German 
 Protestant ideas. 
 
 The French period in Germany closed with the 
 French Revolution and the Wars of Napoleon. 
 These events completed the triumph of German ter- 
 ritorialism, by formally and expressly concediug 
 sovereign rights to the various territorial princes,, 
 and by completely destroying the German empire, 
 which had long been but an empty shadow. But 
 this completion of the German disruption in fact 
 brought the country nearer to unity than it had 
 
124 
 
 been in its ha If- completed state of division and sepa- 
 ration. From that period the movement towards 
 unity became the only movement possible in Germany. 
 It was the French revolution and its consequences 
 that again fused the German petrifaction ; the na- 
 tional life then reacted, and reacted so forcibly, that 
 in a short time not only the material power of France 
 was broken, the country humiliated, and the con- 
 queror overthrown ; but in intellectual matters also 
 the Germans began gradually to emancipate them- 
 selves from France — this process of emancipation 
 being* greatly promoted by subsequent events. How- 
 ever, the most important result of that national 
 reaction which was caused by the revolution and the 
 wars of the French empire, was the commencement 
 of industrial life in Germany, the development of 
 national industry. The system of territorial 
 princedom ( Territorialfiirstenthum) is based upon 
 the preponderance of the agricultural interests ; in 
 order "to found the dominion of this s^ystem it was 
 necessary first to ruin the German cities. The sys- 
 tem of territorial princedom has grown out of the 
 right of possession ; it acknowledges no rights but 
 its own ; it has established people in the lands over 
 which it holds the right of possession, or at least of 
 supreme possession, not that they may grow rich 
 and wealthy, but that they may increase its wealth 
 and power, and with the reservation of the right to 
 ruin the interests of these people whenever they shall 
 be opposed to its own. Its principle is in fact not 
 
125 
 
 to recognise any rights or interests, except such as 
 are granted by itself and are identical with its own. 
 But the desire for the development of national indus- 
 try, and the wish to see this industry represented, 
 is based upon a very different principle. This prin- 
 ciple far outsteps the limits of territorial princedom, 
 and denies the fundamental principle of the latter. 
 Those who desire the establishment of a national 
 system of commercial policy, a national representa- 
 tion and protection of the industrial interests, and a 
 union of the different German states into one econo- 
 mic organism, must at least theoretically have got 
 beyond the standing* point of territorial princedom, 
 although it may not yet be quite clear to all that the 
 one of these systems excludes the other, and some 
 may still believe that the general national interests 
 which have gradually grown up, may be defended and 
 represented by one or other of the territorial princi- 
 palities. This error is a very dangerous one— Ger- 
 many is experiencing this at the present moment — 
 but the consciousness of the existence of these inte- 
 rests is nevertheless there, and the contest between 
 them and the ruling powers must eventually turn 
 out to the disadvantage of the latter, though not 
 perhaps until great sacrifices have been made. 
 
 While internally the development was going on, 
 the consequences of which must necessarily leave the 
 system of territorial principalities, as the represen- 
 tative of German disruption, far behind, and lead to 
 a national reconstruction of the German people., the 
 
120 
 
 progress of events was greatly promoted by the state 
 of thing's abroad. As long- as Germany possesses 
 no central point of her own, her various parts must 
 tend towards a foreign centre. This is proved by 
 the relation in which the German princes placed 
 themselves towards the old French kings. These 
 relations were however destroyed by the revolution, 
 and they have probably been rendered impossible for 
 the future by the after- throes of that revolution. 
 However, though finding it impossible as heretofore to 
 look to the French monarch as to their real emperor, 
 as to the sun round which they revolved, the German 
 princes were nevertheless not induced to resume their 
 stand upon the ground of nationality. On the con- 
 trary, the more strongly the incompatibility between 
 the national spirit and the existing territorial powers 
 in Germany was brought home to the consciousness 
 of the latter, the more closely they clung to Russia, 
 and the German movement of 1848 completed the 
 state of dependence on Russia into which even the 
 greater territorial princes of Germany were dragged. 
 The centre which could no longer be found in France 
 because the revolution had dissevered the connecting 
 bond, was found with the greater facility in the 
 North-east because the reigning dynasty in Russia 
 is German. But in rallying round this centre the 
 German princes have more distinctly and more un- 
 mistakeably than ever, separated their interests from 
 those of the nation. The introduction of French 
 manners and French forms of government might, 
 

 12? 
 
 when the latter were compared to the ridiculous 
 awkwardness and the imbecile medieval forms of 
 Austria, be considered an improvement. But from 
 Russia Germany can neither as a whole nor in its 
 various parts, expect to derive material or intellec- 
 tual advantages, for the Russian nation stands op- 
 posed to Germany as utterly alien in principle and 
 nature. Russian influence in Germany is inimical 
 to the progress of civilization, and is looked upon with 
 so much deeper a feeling* of abhorrence because it is 
 from Germany that Russia draws her means of in- 
 fluence, because it is the elements of civilization 
 which the Western countries introduced into Russia, 
 with a view to calling- forth the natural powers of the 
 country and making* it dependent on the West, that 
 are now being" used by Russia for her own barbarous 
 purposes, and for the destruction of Western civili- 
 zation. 
 
 The importance of the forthcoming" struggle as 
 regards Germany, resides therein that it will place 
 the discrepancy between the national interests and 
 the dynastic interests in the clearest light, and that 
 it will bring to a decision the question as to whether 
 the former or the latter shall prevail. The national 
 interests demand peremptorily that Germany shall 
 adopt the cause of Western civilization against 
 Eastern barbarism ; that Russia shall be forced back 
 into the position which the character and inferior 
 culture of her people assign to her in relation to 
 the West ; that the existing state of things shall be 
 
128 
 
 reversed, so that instead of German)- being- depen- 
 dent upon Russia, Russia as recipient shall be de- 
 pendent upon the West, as donor ; that the question 
 shall be decided as to whether mere numbers shall 
 hold sway over civilization, or vice versa. The 
 general position of England, and the preponderance 
 of her civilization render it almost impossible that 
 Germany, being* bound by every tie of nature to 
 English civilization, should take the side of Russia ; 
 but, on the other hand, the interests of the dynasties 
 make it appear almost equally impossible that the 
 princes should separate their cause from that of the 
 Czar. As regards these matters, the forthcoming 
 conflict must occasion an important decision, which 
 will lead to an entirely new order of things. 
 
 Opposition to France, a country far advanced in 
 civilization, destroyed the old form of national unity 
 in Germany ; opposition to Russia, a power inimical 
 to civilization, and resting upon a totally different 
 basis, will lead to the development of a new form of 
 German unity in accordance with the exigencies of 
 the times. While contending with France, or re- 
 acting against her ascendancy, Germany received 
 from her incitements to the development of civiliza- 
 tion which were not always of a healthy nature, 
 but which, nevertheless, coming from a country 
 whose influence had drawn Germany within the pale 
 of civilized states, acted powerfully, and almost irre- 
 sistibly. To Russia, we stand in a very different 
 position : to her, Germany owes nothing, for the 
 
129 
 
 Germans have only derived disadvantages from the 
 influence exercised by Russia in consequence of the 
 reversing* of the natural relations of the two coun- 
 tries. As regards Russia, the antagonism is abso- 
 lute, and has its source in first principles, and the 
 struggle must fire the spirit of the whole and un- 
 divided nation. Such a state of things was never 
 witnessed in former times. It may conduce to place 
 Germany in the noblest position, a position from 
 which it may bring the whole strength of its origi- 
 nal Germanic genius to bear upon the West and 
 upon the East, in the former direction raising up 
 and quickening the Germanic elements hitherto 
 weighed down by the genius of Rjomanism, in the 
 latter direction fertilizing an uncultivated soil, and 
 bringing it under subjection to its influences. 
 
 The dynasties seem to be more alive to this than 
 the people, for even the more intelligent representa- 
 tives of the latter do not see the entire bearing of the 
 conflict, and seem unable to comprehend that the 
 contending principles to reconcile which a vain 
 attempt was made in Germany in 1848, have with- 
 drawn to the two extremities of Europe, and there 
 stand opposed to each other as two antagonists be- 
 tween whom a contest is unavoidable, and will admit 
 of no neutrality. But it is in vain to hope that 
 Russia will accept the mediation of the German 
 Courts, and allow herself to be persuaded by them to 
 draw back and give in. The brother-in-law of the 
 king of Prussia, the friend of the emperor of Austria, 
 
 I 
 
130 
 
 might do this, but the emperor of all the Russias 
 cannot do so. The mighty politicians of Vienna 
 and Berlin, who believed in the disinterestedness of 
 the Czar's support, must have recovered from their 
 delusion and have come to the conviction, that the 
 accession of power which Russia has obtained 
 through their un-German policy, will be turned 
 directly against the interests of their own countries, 
 and of the Western states in general, all of which 
 rest upon a common foundation, and will bring out 
 into strong relief the antagonism between the dynas- 
 tic and the popular interests. They must have learnt 
 to see not only that they have been working into the 
 hands of Sclavism, but that they are incapable of 
 combating it at present ; and we can only look upon 
 it as an instance of the false reasoning which is so 
 often employed in defence of a bad cause, when we 
 hear those who, in 1848, only followed up the tradi- 
 tional policy which has ever endeavoured systemati- 
 cally and by all means to suppress that national 
 spirit which alone gives strength, throwing the 
 responsibility of the accession of power acquired 
 by Russia on England, and the policy of Lord 
 Palrnerston. 
 
 The great mass of intelligent persons in Germany 
 still Hatter themselves with the hope that Austria 
 will have the po^er and the will to represent the 
 interests of Germany in this struggle. This illusion, 
 which is the manifestation of the pitiable condition 
 to which Germany has been reduced by the ship- 
 
131 
 
 wreck of 1849, may perhaps still bring" a series of 
 misfortunes upon the country; but it is the last 
 illusion which Germany will have to conquer. To 
 prove that it is an illusion would be superfluous. 
 The optimists would not allow themselves to be 
 persuaded by arguments, and we believe that events 
 are at hand which will take the onus probandi upon 
 themselves. 
 
 Those who are not under the influence of this de- 
 lusion — and the number of such will rapidly increase 
 — will follow the progress of events with intense 
 interest ; for if the antagonism against Russia is not 
 seized upon by the nation as an opportunity for 
 collecting' itself and for passing* from division to new 
 national unity, then the hope of such a reconciliation 
 will to all eternity prove [a chimera ; and they will 
 be in the right who have prophesied the dissolution 
 of Germany and the strengthening- of the neighbour- 
 ing- powers through means of its divided members. 
 Then will the continent sink for centuries into death- 
 like sleep, and the prophecy, " towards the West 
 flies the world history/' will be fulfilled without 
 delay. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
•X