Page:Russian Realities and Problems - ed. James Duff (1917).djvu/151

 destiny, her sons felt suddenly, and with a great joy, that they had a common aim. Much has happened since then, many sad things, many disappointing things. In some cases the enthusiasm is not so strong as it was then, but the fundamental fact remains, the fact that we have to take account of to-day, that all these various nationalities, in spite of their divergencies, constitute a unity.

In what does this unity consist? First of all, in all this apparent chaos and welter of things and races there are certain harmonising facts. There is a certain proportion. There are definite regions which are mutually complementary, economic regions, geographical regions; the basins of the great rivers, the mountains, and various parts of the plain, all constitute separate regions which in a curious way balance each other or interlace and supplement each other. But the chief factor in the unity of the Russian Empire is the Russian people, first of all, because of its numerical preponderance. Of the 170 millions of inhabitants of Russia, nearly one hundred millions are Russians of one kind or another, and this fact constitutes one of the great differences between Austria and Russia. In Austria there is no one nationality that very largely outnumbers the others, whereas in Russia you have this tremendous numerical preponderance of the Russian element. The influence of the Russian element is felt everywhere, because of the activity of the Russians, because the administrative organisation is in their hands, because their language is spoken in all the ends of the Empire. It is the language of administration. It is the main language of trade, of intercourse between