Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/148

 the contact of this old stream of civilisation with the new stream of Russian civilisation. Then, little by little, through the force of example, or the force of local conditions, there arose other national movements. Russia became the centre of the very interesting and very manifold Jewish movement. Then there came the Lettish and Esthonian movements, and in the Baltic region farther eastward arose a Mohammedan or Turkish movement. Then finally even some of the tribes of Eastern Siberia were touched, and there appeared the faint beginnings of a national movement among the Mongol Buddhists.

All these movements are very varied. Some are very strong. Some have a very clear perception of their objects. Some have already produced very definite results, and can show a record of bright achievement. Others are weak and feeble. Some of the movements draw their vigour from sources of their own. Others are dependent almost entirely upon Russian civilisation, drawing their material from Russian civilisation translated into their own tongue, and using it as a stimulus of the national force of their own people. Some are independent of Russian civilisation. Some are more or less dependent. Some are dependent partly on Russian and partly on Western civilisation. Some are dependent exclusively on Russian civilisation for the material with which they are building their new national home.

There is an extraordinary variety in these movements, and where there is movement there is conflict, there is conflict with the dominant people, with the Russians, or rather less with the people than with the